Former Nigerian Military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar has caution some state Governors from making a reckless statement that is capable of instigating ethnic violence in the country.
The former head of state made this call while speaking on Arise TV Program "Morning Show" today.
The Nigerian former leader stressed that we have not learned anything from the past mistakes that plunged the country into inter-tribal wars that left many dead with lots of losses until today.
According to him, the Nigerian state governors being the chief security of their respective states should take full responsibility for securing the lives and properties of all and sundry that resident in the particular state.
In his statement, “The governors have found themselves in a difficult situation. It is their responsibility to guard their states regardless of whom and who is in their states. Ethnic disharmony is rearing itself all over the place. You could see where the herders are being chased from some of the parts of the Southern states and their cattle are being killed. Certainly, this heightened tension in the country.
“Some people are also migrating from one part of the country back to their states where they feel safer. God forbid this is taking us back to 1960 where we had a problem that resulted in the civil war. That is why I and the peace committee are calling for caution so that we do not go back to that road.”
However, when the former Nigerian leader was asked of his opinion on how the governors should go about securing the states having served the country, he said, “They must make sure there are law and order in their states and they should watch their utterances because what they say, people will take it as an order.
He said as a leader, they should always avoid making unguarded utterances that shall be misinterpreted by their subject into fighting those who are not of their ethnic extraction.
Subsequently, he suggested that the governors should call for a dialogue between aggrieved groups in their domain to heal the wound that was earlier inflicted and forge with the peace.
He sighted example with what recently transpired between the Governors of Bauchi and Ondo states over the use of AK47 riffle by herdsmen, saying, While Mohammed said the herders bear arms to protect their cattle from being rustled by bandits, Akeredolu disagreed, saying the statement of the Bauchi governor could usher Nigerians “into the next level on the path to anarchy.”