Governor of Katsina, Aminu Masari, has said the rising insecurity across Nigerian states is a result of the country’s booming economy which attracts bandits from other countries.
Mr. Masari, who is also the chairman of the North-West Governors’ Forum, said this in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday evening. Mr. Masari claimed Nigeria’s economy has seen an unprecedented boom under President Muhammadu Buhari, even though official statistics said the country has been through two recessions in two years, recorded the second-highest unemployment rate in the world and designated as the country with the poorest people.
He said kidnapping has become lucrative in Nigeria because it is the richest in the Sahel region of Africa, as other countries lack adequate funds in cases where huge ransoms are demanded.
Katsina and other states in the Northwest geopolitical zone have been racked by acute insecurity, especially banditry, kidnapping and high rates of rape attacks.
In recent years, bandits have stormed Zamfara, Kaduna, Borno and Katsina villages, looting properties, robbing residents and causing untold destruction of livelihoods.
A few weeks ago, bandits struck a high school in Katsina, which is also Mr. Buhari’s home state, abducting about 600 students. The students were returned after a huge ransom was reportedly paid.
Mr. Masari’s claim about foreign intruders’ role in violent crimes within Nigeria’s borders echoed recent positions of his counterparts from Northern Nigeria. Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi made similar remarks recent.
Attackers from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, as well as far away Mali that has no borders with Nigeria, have been blamed for Nigeria’s security crisis, which has worsened significantly under Mr Buhari.
Yet, Mr. Masari, who admitted that there are bandits in Africa’s most populous nation, insisted that security challenges in those states are minimal compared to when Mr. Buhari assumed office in 2015.
He said “Look at 2015 for instance, you could not go to the church, you cannot go to the mosque. If I travelled from Kaduna to Abuja, it would take five hours and three of those hours were for checkpoints.
“Is the situation the same today? It is not. Yes, there are kidnappers, there are bandits around but look at the whole world and look at the position of Nigeria in the Sahelian region. Are we not the richest?
“So, the attraction even for kidnappers to come to Nigeria is there. If you kidnap somebody in Mali, where are you going to get thousands? If I kidnap you in Nigeria, I get millions. So, all of us will have to rise to the occasion.
“When we started in 2015 in the North-West, it was cattle-rustling. Gradually, it now developed into banditry, rape, kidnappings. When all that the bandits can steal from the villagers along the fringes finished, they moved to the rustling of goats, sheep, and even chickens.,” the governor said.