National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
Don’t play politics with National Security- Gov. Sani Bello
Olabode Adaramola
Governo Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State has cautioned Nigerians to stop playing politics with national security, stressing that the country has lost many lives to needless clashes.
He gave the advice on Thursday while declaring open a one-day zonal sensitaization workshop on the implications of transhumance on sub-regional and national security and development in Minna, the state capital organised by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The governor lamented that in the fast changing complex globalised world, national security “is far too important to be toy with”.
The governor noted with grave concern the increasing number of innocent lives that were lost daily in different parts of the country from violent clashes between farmers and pastoralists as well as from the mayhem unleashed by terrorists, some of whom he said may not be Nigerians.
“We must face the reality and stop playing politics with national security as hundreds of lives of our citizens are lost daily in different parts of the country from violent clashes between farmers and pastoralists,” Gov. Sani Bello stated.
Gov. Sani Bello also frowned at the increasing wave of lawlessness and deliberate violation of rule of law, constituted authority and non-reverence for sanctity of human life.
“We seems to have forgotten who we are. We have no respect for life and for one another. We no longer respect the rule of law. People now take laws into their hands and take lives of others for a thing as simple as heap of yam.
“Something fundamental is wrong with us. In the good old days, people don’t associate or relate with anyone that commits murder, but now people carelessly and deliberately kill and go away with it without any fear of being prosecuted.
“People no longer report cases of murder to Police. They seems to have lost confidence in the Police. We are all Nigerians. We are all human begins. No one has the right to take the life of another but what we see today is people killing at the slightest provocation.
“It has never been like this. Nigerians are know to be nice, to be kind and generous but people now take laws and lives with levity,”
He then called on individual, other stakeholders and security agencies to play well-coordinated roles in tackling the challenges with a view to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hadjiya Khadija Bukar Ibrahim, had earlier attributed the increase in volume of transhumance between the north and southern parts of the country to massive desert encroachment occasioned by climate change which has claimed about 350,000 sq. km of land.
She noted that the development has further heightened the incessant clashes among farmers and pastoralists with the situation being exploited by criminal networks to commit heinous crimes using sophisticated weapons.
The Minister pointed out that the implications of transhumance have been of concern to Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS and are committed to taking appropriate measures to curtail the security challenges arising from it in the sub-region.
