FG slams northern governors on terror war

•Says they’re not doing enough The Federal Government has said that the 19 northern state governors are not doing enough to end terrorism. Information Minister Labaran Maku said this today while addressing State House journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan. Maku said the 50-minute FEC meeting was devoted […]

•Says they’re not doing enough
The Federal Government has said that the 19 northern state governors are not doing enough to end terrorism.

Information Minister Labaran Maku said this today while addressing State House journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Maku said the 50-minute FEC meeting was devoted to condemning the recent blasts in Kano and Jos which he described as absolutely senseless and destructive.

He said apart from stressing the need for all Nigerians to unite in confronting terrorism, the council also commiserated with the families of the victims of Kano and Jos blasts.

“They (northern governors) are not doing enough to win the war against terror”‎, the minister said.

He said ‎all the grandstanding and politicing associated with the fight against terror was increasing the tempo of terrorist activities in the country.

Maku challenged all the northern state governors to sit up to understand the current security challenges and go back to the basics to organise their people properly.

According to him, unless northern governors are practically determined to sit back, organise their people and take proactive measures in terms of information gathering, terror would continue to fester.

The minister further alleged that the lapses on the part of the northern state governments was responsible for the abduction of the schoolgirls of Chibok, Borno State.

He said Jonathan, in declaring the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, did not remove the governors so that they could help the security agencies in mobilising people at the grass-roots and creating the support needed to defeat the terrorists.

The minister, however, regretted that the governors were yet to do so in spite of the persistent terrorist attacks in the affected states.

He said rather than engage in grandstanding and altercations, all northern governors must see terror as a war in their domains which is war not only for the troops, but “the real political war of community organisation, cooperation and sensitization; of getting communities to report terror”.

“Every state in the north needs to go back to the basics; which means that today, to deal with terror, every of the 19 northern states must organise their people from the smallest unit of the smallest village to hamlets, wards, towns, districts. There must be a proper organisation of communities for proper information about movements of people and activities that could lead to destruction of lives and property. The federal government is a fire fighter and does not own any of the constituency in the 19 northern states. We only send soldiers and policemen when there is fire on the roof to put out that fire. That’s what we do.

“But the real ground where terrorism is operating is at the local, unit and state levels. Until we’ve every state government in the north determined, not rhetorically, but practically to sit back and organise their people and to take proactive measures in terms of information gathering, preparing people to report and organise themselves, we’ll not be able to defeat terror just because the federal government has sent soldiers to a particular place. So, we need a lot of cooperation. And we’re talking about a very vast region. Northern Nigeria is the largest in geography and population, in several countries in Africa put together.

“So, to defeat terror means that every community in Northern Nigeria today must be prepared by the state governments to attune their minds with their networks in their schools, town unions, tribal unions and religious organisations. We need to be able to reorganise ourselves and prepare for the huge challenge we face. We’ve not seen this preparation, and we need it. And that’s why it’s so sad that in spite of terror operating for this long period of time, there are still lapses that have resulted to what happened in Chibok which should never have occurred at all. There was no reason for it to occur. But we’re now confronted with the ugly situation that has developed.

Details later….