The Emir of Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, Malam Zubair Jibril Mai Gwari II, has said the biggest threat to the North is insecurity.
According to him, insecurity, especially in the form of Boko Haram insurgency, armed banditry and ethnic clashes in the Northeast, North Central and Northwest, constitutes the biggest threat to Nigeria and its neighbours.
He said Nigeria needs to develop a strong mechanism of tolerance because the unfortunate religious crises and ethnic clashes in some parts of the North could be avoided through tolerance.
The monarch spoke yesterday at the Blueprint Impact Series/Awards, themed Tolerance, Unity and Security: Building a Legacy for National Development.
He added that Nigeria can only be said to be developed when the youths can engage in businesses and transform their talents and skills to produce goods for survival.
His words: โNigeria must evolve a strong mechanism of tolerance because our national development is indeed based on that. The unfortunate religious crises and ethnic clashes in some parts of Taraba, Benue and Plateau States could have well been avoided if we have evolved tolerance mechanism among us.
โNigeria can be said to be developed only when our youths can engage in various businesses, transforming their talents and skills to produce goods that we need for survival. Nigeria can boast of development only when it uses the God-given opportunity, not only to be agrarian, but principally a country which produces and processes agricultural goods for both internal and external use. When that is achieved, we can then feel secure from food insecurity.
โInsecurity, especially in the form of Boko Haram insurgency in Northeast, Ethnic clashes in North Central, armed banditry in Northwest, constitutes the biggest threats facing this country and its neighbours. In Kaduna State, several local government areas are attacked by bandits. Our story in Birnin Gwari is that of agony and sympathy; the bandits have made hell out of the peopleโs lives.
โOur agricultural and socio-economic sectors have been crippled. The story is same in Zamfara State where people are killed daily by the same bandits and agriculture is crippled. In Katsina and Niger States, the people are still experiencing threats and killings by the criminals who sometimes open fire sporadically on a complete village.
โJust last Tuesday, in Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto State, more than 40 people, including the village head of Tabanni, were massacred by bandits after rustling their cattle and scorching the entire village. These and several other crimes are indicators that insecurity has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria.โ
