The chairman of the National Peace Committee and former Head of State and Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, on Thursday, appealed to state governors to watch their utterances, urging them to analyze the issues at hand and work harmoniously to avoid setting the country on fire.
The former head of state spoke on AriseTV The Morning Show monitored by our correspondent.
While responding to questions on insecurity across the country, he said: ‘It is unfortunate that Governors have found themselves in such a difficult situation. It is their responsibility to govern the state regardless of who is living in their state.
‘Governors must make sure there is law and order in their state. They must watch their utterances and what they say because people will take it as an order. Governors should not say things that would be misread. It is their responsibility to save lives.’
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Abdulsalami called on Governors to stop the media war among them, urging them to work in unity to keep the country afloat.
He said: ‘Governors must work in unity if they’ve differences, they have a forum they can resolve it. When governors are at each others’ throats, then we (masses) are at the mercy of whatever anybody can do.
‘It is necessary for them to sit down and analyze the situation. They should stop the media war and work in harmony.’
On the prevalent farmer-herders crises, he called on the government to study what other countries have done so it can implement and tackle the problem.
Advising the government on what to do, he said: ‘Let me give an example of Niger state, it has started cattle ranching in some areas and trying to get herders to put their cattle in that place and to provide necessary facilities like water, road, veterinary services.
‘It is unfortunate that recently, herders have started arming themselves causing problems we are going through.
‘Suddenly ethnic disharmony is all over the place. You could see where herders are chased out of the southern state and cattle are killed.
‘This could heighten tension in the country, you could see that people are migrating back to their state where they feel safer. God forbid this would take us back into the 1960s, where we had problems and which resulted in the civil war.’
He urged Nigerians to learn from past mistakes stressing that there is a need to live in peace and harmony.
Abdulsalami called on NGOs and organizations to play their part in ensuring peace across the nation by sensitising citizens.
On creation of state police, he said: ‘State police is an issue that we must sit down and talk reasonably, so when we find that it is necessary to have it, then so be it. So that state Governors can have control over it as Chief security officers of their state.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
