The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) says it is still very concerned about the security situation in the North-West and Nigeria as a whole.
Chairman of NGF and Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi stated this on Thursday when he led some of his colleagues to pay a courtesy visit to Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari over the Kankara schoolboys incident.
However, he said that the end to insecurity was closer than Nigerians think.
Fayemi said, “It’s a delegation of the Nigeria Governors Forum. You can see me and my brother, governors from Sokoto, our vice-chairman, Kebbi and Jigawa. We’ve been sent by all of our colleagues, 35 of us to pay a solidarity visit to our elder brother, His Excellency, the Governor of Katsina State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Masari.
“We are of course understandably concerned by developments in the state but we thank Allah that all the kids that were abducted from Kankara had been reunited without any mishap.
“However, we as governors are still very concerned about the security situation in the northwest and in the entire country. This is almost a daily occurrence and the governor is spending the resources both material and human on this priority issue that pervades the whole of our country.
“We want to thank His Excellency, the President for being abreast of the situation and for working closely with the governor of Katsina state in ensuring that the kids were retrieved from the forest in Zamfara with the assistance of the players who were critical to that retrieval- Miyetti Allah, the military, our brother the governor of Zamfara state.
“For us the Nigeria Governors Forum, we believe that we not only have to to be tough on banditry, on kidnapping, on criminality generally, but we also have to be tough on the cause of the problem, and socio inequality, poverty are key issues, and we need to be able to ensure that our states pry away our young people from the merchants of death who are using them as cannon fodder of this criminal brigandage.
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“And we can only do that by providing them with alternative means of livelihood and support system that’ll not entice them to these elements that are endangering the whole of our country.
“And this is something that we are committed to as governors in working with Mr President in working with all our colleagues so that we don’t keep talking about the same thing over and over again.
“We’re all tired, we’re all frustrated that these issues are happening, but we know that with concerted efforts on our part as governors and commitment of the federal government and professional conduct of our security services and our social investment programme intensified; we shall see to the end of this criminality, this brigandage in our states.
“So we are here in solidarity with the governor and the good people of Katsina to reassure them, to give them hope that help is on the way and that the end is not as far as we all think. “We will work together, Insha Allah, and reform our country to peace, to progress, to develop and to prosperity.”