From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
The Borno State governor Alhaji Kashim Shettima has said the Minister of information Labaran Maku, trivialized the Boko Haram crisis by blaming it on Borno government.
He said the minister who is the one to educate Nigeria on what constitutes Boko Haram happens to be a blind driver who will jeopardize the lives of his passengers.
Governor Shettima stated this in a key note address he delivered at the conference on security and Human rights in Northern Nigeria, organized by the Arewa Research and Development project (ARDP), held in Kaduna yesterday.
The governor added that Maku’s statement is disturbing because he was once the supervising minister of Defense.
”No one might ever know the extent he might have inflicted his understanding of the Boko Haram , on security Chiefs he had to work with. Maku spoke just days after President Goodluck Jonathan said after the Paris Summit, held recently, said the Boko Haram attacks began in 2002.
“He only collaborated what we know. For some time, this group went underground and resurfaced in various points to lunch attacks in states like Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Bauchi states. In between the period, they were going underground and resurfacing, one can see clearly negligence somewhere along the line” he said.
Shettima also disclosed that it is unfortunate that people who are in position of power are of the opinion that Boko Haram is an agenda to stop the Southern President from doing his job.
“Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of the Boko Haram sect, was killed under a northern President, Umaru Musa Yar’adua. The attack snowballed into 2011 till date. So what are we talking about?
Governor Shettima, who was represented by his Deputy Alhaji Zannah.
Umar Mustapha said, “We have an economy that is touted as growing rapidly, but is an economy that is not trickling down prosperity to the mass of our people as I have always said beneath the mayhem of Boko Haram, underneath the nihilism of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause, which is social exclusivity and extreme poverty.
“Once we engage the youth, create jobs, this madness will evaporate”, Shettima said.
