We have agreed that we have to have a common approach to the issue. And we have to move away from the steps made by some previous governors that decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has accused the immediate past governors of states in North-west Nigeria of contributing to worsening insecurity in the region.
Mr Sani, inaugurated as governor of the state on 29 May, spoke when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
The North-west region has been battling attacks from a gang of terrorists locally referred to as bandits, who have been sacking rural communities, kidnapping residents and killing several others.
Apart from Kaduna, the six other states that comprise the North-west region include, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.
Mr Sani, who represented Kaduna Central District between 2019 and 2023 in the Senate, said the insecurity in the country’s North-west worsened because of the “wrong approach” adopted by the immediate past state governors from the region in fighting the situation.
“I think we made it clear, even when I was in the Senate, that the approach by some (outgone) state governors (from the region against insecurity) was extremely wrong,” he said.
Mr Sani, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, recalled that states within the North-west and Niger State, which shares a boundary with the region, had met to work out a framework to tackle regional insecurity in collaboration with security agencies.
He said the former governors initially allied to work together after floating a joint committee and accepting to collectively fund the fight against insecurity in the region but later failed to work together.
“The alliance (by the then state governors) broke down when some state governors decided to start engaging the bandits and terrorists, sitting with them, dining and winning with them, compensating them, negotiating with them. Of course, we disagreed with that approach because that approach was what actually brought the entire progress backwards,” he said.
Reviving the alliance against insecurity
Mr Sani, however, said he met with newly elected governors from the North-west in Abuja, about two weeks ago, to revive the alliance and, subsequently, came up with a policy framework to address the worsening insecurity in the region.
“We have agreed that we have to have a common approach to the issue. And we have to move away from the steps made by some previous governors that decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them.
“But right now, it is clear that the current governors, we all agreed that we are going to work together and not only (the governors from the North-west) but we are going to reach out even to Niger State governor because we share boundaries,” he stated.
The governor hinted that he and other governors from the region were making plans to seek the assistance of President Bola Tinubu in fighting insecurity in the region.
“We have to work together with a common agenda, common plan and common operation. That’s the only way we will be able to fight the bandits as well as end the problem of insecurity in our own zone and our states,” he added.