President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
blasted some state governors for claiming that bad leadership at the federal
level was responsible for the Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged states of
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Speaking yesterday at the North East zone of People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) rally held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium,
President Jonathan maintained that...
insurgency and crimes such as kidnapping and
armed robbery were gaining ground because governors of the affected states were
failing in their responsibilities.
He said the security challenges in the North-east was the
handiwork of illiterate youths who lost hope due to bad leadership of their
state governors who failed to send them to school.
The President said: “State governors that are saying it is bad
leadership should be ashamed. I was a deputy governor and governor where I
spent eight years at the state. The first commercial kidnapping took place in
Bayelsa. Seventy per cent of the state are swamps; a governor will come and
spread issue that it is because of bad leadership. Bad leadership from who? We
had security challenges in Bayelsa when I was deputy governor and governor and
we handled them. It is not the duty of Federal Government to send children to
primary and secondary schools but it is the constitutional right of the Federal
Government to make sure children attend tertiary institutions, which we have done.
“If we have security challenges, whether you call them Boko
Haram or kidnappers or whatever, these are people who couldn’t go to primary
school, who couldn’t go to secondary schools. Miscreants now recruit and
use them. If you see them, they wear rags, they don’t wear normal
clothes. All they put on their body is not worth N10 but they carry
assault rifle with bullets that are more than N250, 000. Somebody gave them
food and asked them to kill. We ask how we build this army of unemployed or
employable youths. The Federal Government does not control primary
education. The Federal Government does not control secondary education. And a
governor has been on seat for almost eight years.
Apparently referring to the Borno State governor, Alhaji Shettima,
the president continued: “Governors must make sure our children go to schools.
Somebody stays eight years in leadership and he opens his mouth and says bad
leadership. Is it the Federal Government that will make your children go
to primary schools? State governors that do not send their children to schools
and they carry arms should be ashamed to say bad leadership. We are into this
madness because people refuse to do their work and people carry arms and engage
in insurgency.
He expressed his sympathy to all those who lost their
relations to the insurgency and assured that the insecurity challenges in the
North-east would soon be over. In his address, the National Chairman of the
PDP, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu described the party as the largest and most
transparent party in the country. He assured of the party’s readiness to
continue the reconciliatory effort in all states to ensure fairness, commitment
and success of the party in 2015.
The Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Godswill Akapabio called on
insurgents in the North especially in the North East zone to support
President Jonathan’ s administration by laying down their arms to enable peace
to reign in the country.
He also called on all elders and leaders in the North to
talk to their youths to bring security challenges to an end in the region,
saying “we are a peace loving country, this is not our behavior in this country
because we are God fearing people so we must live in peace with one another
irrespective of our culture and religious differences because we cannot enjoy
Nigeria without peaceful coexistence.
In his address, Bauchi State Governor, Alhaji Isa Yuguda
described the PDP as a peaceful and united family. He commended President
Jonathan for his transformation agenda in the North-east zone, saying
“Mr. President you have done your best to ensure we have our own fair share of
the transformation agenda.
Yuguda, therefore, solicited the support of the Federal
Government for the completion of Kafin Zaki Dam, which according to him, would
provide over two million jobs to the teeming youths in the region when
completed, saying “peace will be guaranteed immediately this dam is completed
because everybody in the region will have job.”
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