Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu on Monday dismissed the insinuation that the Boko Haram insurgency resulted from power shift from the North as baseless.

Aliyu, who is also the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, said anyone holding such a belief was not doing the country any good.

The governor spoke with journalists in Abuja on Monday after paying a courtesy call on the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party.

He had said, “In discussing the relationship between national security and development, let me say that one cannot do without the other. The issue of violence did not increase in Nigeria until when there was a declaration by the President that he was going to contest.

“The PDP got it wrong from the beginning. The party started by saying Mr. A can rule, and Mr. B cannot rule, according to the PDP conventions, rules and regulations and not according to the constitution. That created the climate for what is happening or manifesting itself in the country. Is it possible that somebody was thinking that only Mr. A could win, and if he did not win, he could cause a problem in the society?

“I don’t think so (about the cause for the insurgence of Boko Haram) because power has been lost was reason and those of us who believe in God will know that at any given time anything can happen.

“In a federation, every child in Nigeria should be given opportunity and chance to aspire to the office of leadership.

“Therefore, I don’t buy this idea of dividing group and say they do this because of this and that.

“Because when you say a whole group, nobody has sat down with me to say ‘because we have lost power, we should do this and that.’

“If somebody there in his ignorance is doing this because of that, that is unfortunate and I don’t think we should succumb to this idea of a general statement. I don’t think it is right.”

He said there was evidence that the nation did not prepare for terrorism in the past, adding that governors from the region might open communication channel with the group soon.

Aliyu told Tukur that it was wrong for the party to be begging governors and other elected officials of the party for money.

He said doing that would erode the powers of the party to discipline any erring member of the party.

Aliyu said, “The party should stop begging us (governors) for me. If you come to beg for money from me and I have to gather people and collect money to give you, when I do wrong, how do you discipline me?”


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