Kano
State governor, Dr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso has stressed that the current federal
budget is tilted in favour of a particular section of the country, warning that
the situation will not augur well for peace and steady development of the
nation. Governor Kwankwaso, spoke while receiving the executive council members
of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), at the Government House in Kano, to
sympathise with the state government over the series of security problems in
the state capital recently.
He argued that lot of the challenges currently facing the
country were as a result of the uneven allocation and distribution of the
resources of the nation among all sections of the country by government,
lamenting that even appointments and political patronage were not as balanced
as they should be. He noted that, “a situation whereby NDDC is working for a
particular region, a ministry entirely dedicated to serve a particular region
and so many resources invested in the SURE-P project and directed towards a
particular part of the country is not in the best interest of all Nigerians.”
The governor recalled that he has consistently raised his voice
on the Onshore/Offshore debate, and lately, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB),
so that justice is done, adding that his intent was to ensure that those parts
of the country that have enough are not given priority over the deprived ones.
He insisted that federal legislators from Northern Nigeria must strive to
ensure that justice and fairness prevail in respect of the PIB, which is
currently before the House of Representatives. The Federal Government, he
added, must also work assiduously to ensure impartiality among all sections of
the country. Kwankwaso blamed poverty and collapse of family/societal values
among others for the security challenges in parts of Northern Nigeria, while
charging governments and other stakeholders in the region to work concertedly
to address the crisis for the sake of the peace and progress of the region.
The governor tasked the ACF to pay more attention to critical
predicaments affecting the Northern states, especially begging and drug abuse,
mainly among the youth, pointing out that the organisation has a vital role to
play in mobilising peoples and governments in the region to do what is right
for their own good. He promised that his administration would continue to do
its best in meeting the earnings and aspirations of the citizenry, adding that
it will also continue to identify with ACF to achieve its goals. In his
remarks, the Chairman of ACF, Alhaji Aliko Muhmmad Dan Iyan Misau, lamented the
current security situation in the country, arguing that Boko Haram and Ansaru
have remained faceless largely because “governments have not put any mechanism
on ground to assure the sects that they would not be arrested and dealt with by
security agencies.”
This, Alhaji Aliko noted, precipitated the clamor for amnesty,
stressing however, that the position of the ACF and many other Nigerians in favour
of dialogue with the sects does not vitiate the standard campaigns against
terrorism. ACF’s position, he reiterated, is informed by the fact of history
that no hard power or military might has ever succeeded in bringing terrorism
under control anywhere on earth.
Source: Sun
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