Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has faulted his predecessor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, accusing him of politicising insecurity in the state.
Speaking in Kaduna during the presentation of Where I Stand, a book authored by the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi and rendered in Arabic by Sheikh Ibrahim Jalo Jalingo, Sani dismissed El-Rufai’s claim that firearms alone can end banditry in northern Nigeria.
The governor said: “Insecurity can’t be resolved solely through the use of firearms. Whoever makes such a claim is only playing politics. We must fear God and stop deceiving the people because that approach will not work.”
El-Rufai had alleged in a recent interview that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) coordinates ransom payments and other incentives to armed groups, a position Sani described as misleading.
According to him, banditry in the region is rooted in “poverty, unemployment, and neglect of rural communities.” He argued that weapons alone cannot solve the problem.
The governor outlined the “Kaduna peace model,” which he described as a community-driven, non-kinetic strategy that incorporates traditional rulers and religious leaders in resolving conflicts. He cited Birnin Gwari as one of the areas where the approach has yielded results.
He explained that after months of consultations, the state government identified poverty, lack of education, inadequate healthcare facilities and limited commercial activities in rural communities as major triggers of crime.
Sani further stressed that the insecurity in the north-west differs from the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east, which he said is ideologically motivated.
El-Rufai, in his interview, had accused the Tinubu administration of adopting what he called a “kiss-the-bandits” approach, alleging that the federal government had chosen to negotiate with and compensate armed groups rather than confront them militarily.
In a swift rebuttal, the Office of the National Security Adviser, led by Nuhu Ribadu, denied the allegation and maintained that government policy does not include making payments to bandits.