Governors of the 19 northern states yesterday met with President Muhammadu Buhari on the worsening insecurity in the region. The governors were led to meeting by the outgoing chairman of the Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF) and governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima.
After the closed-door meeting, Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, stated that the parley was to update Buhari on the precarious security situation in the region and the need to urgently tackle the menace. Masari warned that if banditry was not curbed, it could graduate into insurgency.
Masari disclosed that the president had given his full commitment that something seriously would be done in order to ensure that the menace was curbed.
In a statement issued after the parley by the presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, President Buhari stated that the security of the country is on his mind 24 hours of the day.
“I get daily and weekly situation reports. I have listened to your brief. I will look into your recommendations. I am acutely aware of the situation, but I have learnt more today.”
The president bemoaned the ravaging effect of unchecked corruption in the past on the country’s armed forces, saying that “the terrible effects of mismanagement were prevalent, and these are the consequences.”
“If you follow the efforts we are making within the system, you will see that we have curbed much of the corruption that is there. The recoveries that we have made – money, landed property – we are not going as fast as we want under the system, but we will keep trying to improve it.”
Buhari promised to increase the frequency of his meetings with security chiefs to keep updating himself. He also expressed interest in getting reports from governors who have difficult relationships with security heads in their states.
In their presentations, the governors drew the President’s attention to specific challenges they each faced in their respective States. They commended the federal government’s efforts in curbing Boko Haram terrorism and farmers/herders clashes, which they said had been dealt with. While noting that normalcy had virtually returned to the North East, the governors, however, warned that armed banditry was posing a dangerous threat and needed to be tackled with equal swiftness.
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