From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari has said it won’t solve the nation’s insecurity problems.
He spoke to State House Correspondents yesterday after meeting with Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He appealed to Nigerians to stop politicising security issues, saying policing the nation at this critical time was everybody’s business.
He said the military was already overstretched and that the declaration of a state of emergency would stretch them the more.
“It cannot because how can state of emergency solve the problem? You have a situation where the military are in all states of the federation, then you ask yourself, how many do we have? Are we not over-stretching them? So the responsibility of securing this country is ours, all of us. We have a role to play and we must play it for the sake of the country and for the sake of our children and grandchildren, not for the sake of persons in office.
“I think we have to understand that whatever we do to restore security today, we are not doing it for one particular person or group of persons, but we are doing it for all of us, for the country and in fact, for Africa. A stable Nigeria means a stable Sub-Saharan Africa.
“So I think we better be serious about this issue of security. If you say set up state of emergency, what do you do? We are having the same people, the same security agencies, the same capacities, and the same resources. So what are we talking about? We have a problem and everybody has a role to play, we better play it. Politics should be over, the security situation of this country is beyond partisan politics, it’s a national concern for all of us, every responsible person in this country.”
On the fears that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) would be zero for May, the governor tasked authorities involved to ensure a way of averting that happening.