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Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe
State has described as surprising, the report credited to the Chairman of the
Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) and Niger State Governor, Muazu
Babangida Aliyu, to the effect that Yobe lawmakers and the State’s
commissioners had allegedly relocated to Jigawa, owing to the deteriorating
security situation in the State.
Speaking through his Special Adviser
on Press Affairs and Information, Abdullahi Bego, yesterday, the governor noted
that his government had always confronted headlong, the security challenge
facing the State, adding that government’s effort in conjunction with security
operatives was responsible for the return of normalcy to the extent that
economic activities and social life had since picked up again in the State.
Muazu Babangida Aliyu had spoken
last Monday at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, at the Sardauna Memorial
lecture, where he said among things that “governmental institutions in Yobe
State have moved out of the state,” as a result of the deteriorating security
situation. Responding to the claim of the Niger State governor however, his
Yobe State counterpart said: “As one of the states mostly affected by a
mindless insurgency and the bloodthirsty activities of criminal gangs, Yobe had
seen first-hand what effects a breach of the peace and breakdown of law and
order could have.
“But we have always risen to the
challenge, working with the Joint Task Force (JTF) and other security agencies
and the good people of the State – who have never relented in seeking for
divine intervention. The government is able to restore the peace and ensure a
return to normality. Most residents who fled at the height of the crisis have
returned to their homes and social and economic activities resumed fully.
“Significantly, our administration remains faithful to its mandate, and
continues undaunted to deliver on its target to transform the state.
It therefore came as a huge surprise
that Governor Babangida Aliyu, relying on a speculative, unattributed report
from one newspaper, would speak of ‘governmental institutions’ taking flight
out of the state.” Insisting that as a leader, once Aliyu saw the newspaper
report, which he used as the basis for his claim, he ought to have called Yobe
State, to seek clarification. The Yobe governor quoted Aliyu: ‘I wasn’t very
happy when I read in the papers that in Yobe State, the legislators and the
commissioners were moving to Jigawa. Is it true Gwamnan Jigawa?
It is true! That means we are
already giving up, because if the governmental institutions moved, it means
those who are after us have defeated us and have taken over. What is the best
way out? How do we arrest the situation because if governmental institutions in
Yobe moved, then it means gradually we will begin to move…?’ “First, if the
Niger State Governor feels strongly about the report, we would expect that the
first thing he would do was to contact his colleague in Yobe to find out if it
was true that his commissioners and lawmakers in the state were moving to
Jigawa.
“Second, even if Governor Aliyu was
unable, for whatever reason, to contact Governor Gaidam, one would expect him
to show circumspection using a newspaper report to make such weighty comments.
Interestingly, the newspaper in question had quoted the Speaker of the Yobe
State House of Assembly, Adamu Dala Dogo in its attempt to balance the story,
rejecting the notion that legislators had fled the state and explaining that
all government officials were on ground in Yobe doing their work. Would it not
be more statesmanlike that the governor also reflects on what the Yobe Assembly
Speaker had said?
Sun
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