November 12, 2014

By Wole Mosadomi

Minna—The Chairman of the 19 Northern Governors Forum and governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu has lamented that Nigeria would not have been in the current situation she has found herself following the violent activities of Boko Haram insurgents if the then military administration had taken the bull by horns by nipping it in the bud when the crisis started about 14 years ago in 1990.

Aliyu, who spoke on a programme, Platform organised by the Correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Niger State also said it was not the responsibility of the northern governors to declare war on anybody or insurgents, as such powers belonged the Federal Government.

He stressed that the Book Haram war lasted till now due to the levity with which the sensitive issue was treated when it started.

“Boko Haram did not start yesterday. It had been with us since 1990. Sometimes in some parts of the North, some privileged children started tearing their academic certificates and said they were migrating. We failed to take any decisive action as we turned our faces against the act because we felt it did not concern us.

‘’Anybody who has gone to the university and you see him tearing his certificate; you will know that something is wrong somewhere and this is exactly what happened and here we are today and it is our hope that we will overcome this crisis,” the governor said.

He called on all Nigerians to be more vigilant and be more security conscious and also join hands with all arms of government in order to overcome the insurgences facing the country.

Aliyu had been asked to explain why the 19 governors in the defunct Northern Region had not teamed up the fight the insurgents.

He however, said that the northern governors cannot as a team or individually wage war against the insurgents because it was not within their constitutional powers to do so.

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