By; FUNMI ADERINTO, Kaduna
Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani on Monday, said that poverty and unemployment are responsible for the security challenges of banditry and kidnapping bedeviling the North-West region of the country and the best way to tackle the challenges is through good governance.
The governor stated this when he received the Kaduna Elders Forum, led by General Zamani Lekwot (rtd) and Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha at the Chambers of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House to congratulate the Governor on his Supreme Court victory.
“Good governance is a way to end banditry, good governance is a key,” he said.
According to him, “when we inaugurated this committee I made it clear to everyone that, it is not something that we will start and abandon our initiative, it is something that we will work closely with them for advice.
“Elders committee is a permanent committee that will continue to guide, advice and support our government, we don’t have monopoly of wisdom, we always go back to our elders for advice, wisdom, experience and knowledge we really want to succeed.
“I am happy that other states are emulating what we started in Kaduna State, we are the first to inaugurate our elders committee in Nigeria under this dispensation, we have seen the result, we have seen the benefits, most of the achievements we made so far because we listen to their advice and input, while we consider most input in implementing our own programmes”.
He said this government is a open and carries everyone along, “we are running inclusive government, pro-people and pro-development in Kaduna, hence if we consider the input of every citizens, that is the only way we can succeed.”
While speaking on the security of the state, Governor Sani said as Kaduna intensifies military actions against banditry and kidnapping with the support of the Defence headquarters to build additional two Forward Operation Bases in the state, his government is also adopting good governance as the best non-kinetic solution to the security challenges.
Governor Sani noted the alarming rate of out-of-school children must also be addressed to ensure a secure state and region, disclosing that, the state is getting $28 million in support from Kuwait to address the problem of out-of-school children.
According to the governor, “The Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army and the Chief of Air Staff, have assured us of their support to our security efforts. They have decided to set up two Forward Operation Bases (FOB) in Kaduna, one in Southern Kaduna, Zangon Kataf to be precise and the other one in Birnin Gwari to serve Birnin Gwari down to Giwa. The FOBs will be set up in the next three weeks.
“This is one of the most important interventions by the Defence Headquarters because we have always said that, we need more boots on the ground and we need the support of the military generally and we are grateful that we are having that support.
“We have also announced last week that we would be setting up a security trust fund. By the grace of God, tomorrow, I will be signing the bill for the establishment of the Security Trust Fund 2024. We are amending the one that is obsolete and coming up with a new one. This will give room for the private sector to come in and work with us.
“We are also looking at the non-kinetic approach to addressing the security challenges. But the issue of the non-kinetic approach is not just about talking with the bandits, negotiating and asking them to submit their weapons, that is only one aspect of it.
“The most important aspect of the non-kinetic approach is good governance. No matter how much we talk and try to bring about peace, if we don’t look at the area of good governance, we will never end the problem of insecurity in Northern Nigeria in particular.
“People always talk about how the problem of insurgency ended in the North-East, but the insurgency is not the same as the problem of banditry and kidnapping that we have in the North-West. The North-East issue was about people who came from nowhere and talked about the ideology of Boko.
“What we have in the North-West is an economic problem where people kidnap and ask for money. What brought about that? Hopelessness, lack of education, lack of economic prosperity.
“The problem of the North West is lack of education and financial exclusion. Over 85 per cent of the people in the North West are either not educated or financially excluded. So, there is poverty if we don’t address the poverty by supporting our farmers and increasing productivity, we will not address the problem of insecurity.
“So, we need to look at the issue of good governance, good governance is key. Many states in the North-West including Kaduna have a large number of out-of-school children, which is unacceptable. Even access to healthcare, which is not a privilege but a right is poor.
“Education is the greatest enabler, so, we must educate the children of the poor to compete favourably with the children of the rich. If we don’t do that, the problem of insecurity cannot be addressed. Happy that a lot of people are already looking at that.
“In Kaduna State, we have over 600,000 out-of-school children. But, because they realized how proactive we have been, Kuwait Fund is supporting us with $ 28 million to lift out-of-school children back to school,” the Governor said.
“We believe business community have suffer a lot, we will involve, security agencies, religious leaders, government officials, private sector, elders so that we can have a very strong board committee that will be able to champion all the problem of insecurity that we having in the state”.
Earlier, the Kaduna Elders’ Forum led by General Zamani Lekwot (rtd) and Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha while congratulating the governor over his electoral victory, said his governance approach of developing the rural area is already yielding positive results.
He said , so far, people are happy in terms of skill acquisition, good governance, which will unite them together.
Related
