Amid controversy generated by the governors of northern and southern Nigeria over power shift, the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Friday cautioned his colleagues not to divide Nigeria on a subject that was purely in the exclusive list of political parties.
The Kano State governor, in a speech to mark Nigeria@61 said he believes that Nigeria is a united and indivisible country and that the constitution had even taken care of that.
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| Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State |
Ganduje explained that “I don’t see secession as the way out of the current challenges afflicting the nation. Instead, I recommend dialogue as a crucial option for addressing such problems.”
He stressed that “The recent problem between northern governors and southern governors as I earlier mentioned is unfortunate. Because a situation whereby governors of one region speak the uncomplimentary language to their colleagues in the other region is not civilized at all. There is no civilization at all in that.”
Ganduje maintained that “The issues at stake are varied, some issues that can be resolved while some issues are political party issues.”
Speaking further on the contentious issue, the governor noted that “the constitution has not mentioned that power should shift from north to south, but it has been a tradition in the country to have power zoning. And this zoning is a strategy by a political party. Each party has to develop a strategy on how to win the election.”
He added, “If you think power shift will bring your votes to win elections, you have not offended the constitution. If you think you can retain the leadership of this country forever and win elections, the constitution is not offensive. So I thought this issue should be left to political parties to resolve. Not we as governors to have two opposing groups.”
He, therefore, called the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum to “convene a meeting of the governors’ forum so that we apologize to each other for making uncomplimentary remarks on each other on an issue that is solely a political issue. That is my stand on that.”
Commenting on the herdsmen crisis, Ganduje said “another issue that brought the dichotomy is the issue of open grazing. Each state has the power to make laws and there is diversity in each of these states. What is one problem to this state may not be a problem to another state. So states have the powers with their state assemblies to make laws. “
The governor lamented that “I have been saying it, is unfortunate that the issue of open grazing brought a lot of controversies. Trekking from the northern part of this country to the middle belt or central part of this country or to the south, to me it’s not acceptable. Because the children will not be able to have education, to me it is criminal.