Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has requested his colleagues in the North-west region to approach the federal government with a proposal for the handing over of the Kamuku, Kuyambana and Falgore forests for them to manage.
The governor, who spoke as host of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) meeting in Kaduna on Thursday said in view of the high level of crime across the forests, it may be prudent for the states to manage them rather than leaving it in the hands of the federal government.
“For such efforts to be credible and sustainable, the state must vigorously reclaim its prerogatives as the guarantor of security. Robust actions in the security sector must be undertaken quickly to implant a visible, reassuring and effective presence of the protective hand of the state across our region.
“There are too many places where outlaws and non-state actors of all sorts have stepped into the ungoverned spaces like these forests.
“…We should consider whether it is not prudent, for instance, for the states that through which the Kamuku, Kuyambana and Falgore forest ranges stretch to request that the Federal Government should hand them over for better and closer management. These forests constitute sources of perils to ordinary people, the states and the country.”
El-Rufai said after Nigeria’s recent bitter experience, it will be a mistake if it allows the emergence of new Sambisa in the forests which he said provides safe refuge for outlaws and has become the headquarters for robberies, kidnappings and cattle rustling.
“What is proposed is that we continue to jointly fund special security operations to sanitise these spaces, which must now be accompanied with a development agenda to convert them from arenas of insecurity to places that are properly integrated into the economy,” he explained.
The governor said security remains a challenge across the states and the frequency and savagery of communal clashes in some of the states as well as the prevalence of rural banditry, cattle-rustling and kidnapping need to be tackled.
“The festering sores left by previous conflicts in which proper closure, accountability for crimes and reconciliation were not effected appear to be accelerating a descent into impunity and a situation in which many elites are too short-sighted to recognise the dangers of embroiling our communities in repeated cycles of violence,” he said.
He said the message needs to go out to our communities that peace requires a determination to have peace, sustain peace and protect it and that there is no humane alternative to choosing to resolve all differences by exclusively peaceful and legal means.
“Our region is the most diverse area in our vast country. It cannot afford the ghastly luxury of transforming differences in religion, language and culture into sources of conflict, death and destruction. Your Excellencies, Your Royal Highnesses, we need to challenge our elite to stop the commodification of differences and unite our peoples for development and prosperity.
He said in place of strife and division, the northern governments can occupy their people with the effort, joys and rewards of creating and seizing economic opportunities as there is no future in pretending they can sustain their people either through dependence on monthly federal allocations or fostering the illusion that handouts from state governments, local governments or some elites can substitute for the rigours of building shared prosperity for the majority of our people.
He however added that the Kaduna State Government will mark the centenary of Kaduna Capital Territory in a way that acknowledges and respects the city’s status in relation to the entire North in December.
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