Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has advised former governor Nasir El-Rufai and other opposition politicians to stop politicising the issue of insecurity, stressing that insecurity cannot be resolved solely through the use of firearms.
He gave the advice at the public presentation of a book, ‘”Where I Stand’’, written by the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi which was translated by Sheikh Ibrahim Jalo Jalingo into Arabic at the weekend.
Recall that El-Rufai had recently alleged that the government is paying bandits to dissuade them from killing and attacking Nigerians.
Governor Sani who represented President Bola Tinubu at the occasion organised by the Jamaátu Izalatul Bidáh Wa ‘iqamatus Sunnah(JIBWIS) said the insecurity in the North West was unlike the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, which is ideologically-driven, adding that poverty, unemployment and neglect of rural communities were at the heart of banditry.
The governor said, “Insecurity can’t be resolved solely through the use of firearms. Whoever makes such a claim is only playing politics. We must fear God, and stop deceiving the people because that approach will not work.”
Sani noted that Nigeria’s security manpower had reduced despite the country’s massive population growth in the past 45 years, saying, “In 1970, after the civil war, Nigeria had about 300,000 soldiers, but today they are less than 250,000 while our population has increased by over 100 million. How then can anyone say that guns alone will solve the problem? It is impossible.”
The governor lamented the absence of security presence in large parts of the North West, saying, ‘’If you travel to Zamfara, Birnin Gwari, or the forests of Katsina, you can go for about 50 kilometers without meeting a single policeman, not to talk of a soldier. We have vast areas in this country without any security personnel.”
He said the Kaduna Peace Model which emphasises non-kinetic approach to tackling insecurity, was initiated by the affected communities, involving traditional, religious leaders and other stakeholders.
Citing the case of Birnin Gwari, Governor Sani disclosed that the emir spearheaded the return of peace in the area, adding, “We spent six months trying to understand the root causes of insecurity.’’
