Politicians responsible for insecurity —Amaechi

CHAIRMAN of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and governor of Rivers State, Honourable Rotimi Amaechi, has fingered politicians as the major cause of insecurity, declaring that sharing of the national cake was usually the reason they created crises in the polity.
Amaechi, who was a guest speaker at the first graduation ceremony of Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies (AAIPSDS), which was held at the Muhammadu Gado Nasko Auditorium on the campus of the Niger State College of Education on Saturday in Minna, Niger State, noted that peace in Nigeria was ideological and class-oriented.
While accusing politicians of being behind most problems in the country, he posited that the elite in the country often “conceptualised peace to suit their purposes,” claiming that even the idea of zoning formula was done to gain power and amass wealth.
According to him, zoning formula, in some of the nation’s political parties’ constitutions, was by the rich to sort themselves out in sharing of oil revenue.
He stressed that armed robbery, kidnapping and Boko Haram insurgency were all products of the poverty occasioned by rapacious rulers.
Accordingly, he said issues such as religion differences among the citizenry would only come to the fore when the political class had differences with one another in their sharing formula of the national cake, declaring that “when you see difference in religion, there is a particular political undertone.
The governor noted that the situation in the country currently had been made worse by the mono-product status of its economy, a development he said had pitched the various regions and states against one another.
He stressed that it was even worse that the Federal Government wielded enormous power and “made the centre a dispenser of patronage and rent.”
Amaechi said for the people to know their right, they ought to be educated. Education, he added, needed more special funds that would be transparently managed to educate Nigerians of Northern stock for equitable reasons. He added that the problem with Nigeria was a deliberate efforts of the political class to ensure that the common man was perpetually made poor, coupled with poor redistribution of the nation’s wealth.
Similarly, the governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, advocated an intervention fund that would tackle education and other socio-economic challenges facing the North.
The governor, who is the chairman of the Northern State Governors’ Forum supported Amaechi suggestion, but noted that to tackle the myriads of problem in the region, poverty and other socio-economic challenges ought to be tackled.
He said in doing this, the government should intervene in the area of economic development through special intervention fund in agriculture and poverty alleviation.
Governor Okorocha of Imo state, on his part, challenged governors in the country and other political appointees to continue to work for their people, a reason he said was why they were voted into office in the first instance, adding that there was no difference between the poor in the North and the poor in the South.
“We should work for the people; leaders should take care of the lessprivileged in the society as a way of reducing poverty,” he said.
Okorocha was, however, optimistic that nothing could break Nigeria as a country, saying talk of disintegration of the country was a creation of the politicians for their selfish aggrandisement.
Also speaking at the graduation, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who initiated the institute affiliated to the University of Jos, advised Nigerians to continue to live in peace and harmony with one another, stressing that shedding blood of innocent people was not in the interest of unity and political stability.
The institute graduated 33 students with Reverend Sunday Onuche coming out with distinction.
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