You Have No Business Being A Governor If You Are Overwhelmed By Security Issues In Your State – Former Niger Gov., Babangida Aliyu.

Babangida Aliyu.

Former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu has said in very clear terms that being a Governor is neither childs play nor for children, therefore, any Governor in Nigeria who finds the security situation in his state frustrating and tiring should resign and go back to his village.

 

The former Governor stated this while delivering a paper titled “Place of Colleges of Education in the Development of Nigeria” at the 50th golden anniversary of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto on Sunday.

 

According to him,“I was surprised when I saw a headline that Governors are tired of insecurity. No Governor should be frustrated and tired of security, otherwise he should resign and go back to his village”.

 

“A Chairman of the local government has a job and many Governors have no respect for traditional rulers and they are the ones that have the intelligence. ” The Governors must use every institution that is with them to do their job, because their primary job is to secure the life and properties of their people.

 

“So, when I saw that headlines on all the national dailies, I was shocked because the issue of security is a collective responsibility and going by that, when I was Governor, I owned all the federal government establishments in Niger State, including the security operatives and that was why I didn’t have much problem in the state.

 

He says: “What I did then and I was happy and I did not have much problem was owning federal establishment. My argument was that if you are a military sent to Niger state, you were sent to help me not to kill me, so I own them and I was doing PR and social welfare for them. I didn’t discriminate to say that they are not indigenes of the state. And if there was any security issue, I sent all of them and they were willing to go.