The Federal Government has described the persistent attacks on Kano, Kano State, as a threat to the economy of the whole of the North and the wellbeing of Northerners.
The Minister for Information, Labaran M<aku, who spoke with newsmen after today’s Federal Executive Council meeting, said that the government was doing all it can to curtail the activities of Boko Haram, which had in the last one month focused its attack mainly on Kano.
Maku said that the major thrust of the FEC meeting today was security.
He said: “Each time the issues of security come up, I believe it only highlights the importance the security issues have assumed in the life of our country at the moment, specifically on terrorism, which unfortunately has become part of our lives.
“Government’s approach to it has been very consistent.
“There is no confusion about it.”
He said on the attacks on Kano: “The attack on Kano is so significant because Kano has always been the commercial centre of Western Sudan for the past 500 years, ever before the evolution of Nigeria.
“Kano is the economy of the North and the economy of Niger Republic and it is the economy of Chad. It is the economy of Northern Cameroon. So when you distabilise peace in Kano, you threaten the foundation of economic and social wellbeing of all northerners.
“So what has happened is violence and this is what we want all those involved in it to understand and all stakeholders in the North and Nigeria to understand that if an part of this country is in need of peace today, it is the Northern Nigeria.
“Fom all the statistics, we are still behind in infrastructure, in literacy level, in industrialisation so we need peace and this peace will only be made possible when all stakeholders are involved and I have seen a gradual process.
“You saw last week that the Vice-President had a meeting with all Northern governors and they are agreed on certain things.
“We also saw the conference of the Arewa Consultative Forum with all traditional rules and they also agreed on certain things and what we expect to evolve in the months ahead is for those decisions to be concretised in terms of structures of surveillance, of community cooperation and integration in the search of peace in the North.”
Maku said that the government was approaching the issue of security to lives and property from numerous angles.
He said: “The first approach that government has taken is to develop capacity to contain it, to defeat it, to fight it as it unfolds until we are able to overcome it.
“You have seen this in the last one year, particularly that government has consistently invested in security and the results are paying off.
“If you look at what has gone on in the last few months, you have seen that gradually our intelligence services, particularly, have improved significantly in their capacity and reach and a lot of arrests are being made, almost routinely.
“The whole issue about terror is intelligence really.
“The physical deployment of troops is important but because we are not fighting a standing army, what is required is intelligence and the Federal Government has invested on it.
“In spite of all these, it is the understanding of the Federal Government that those involved in terror attacks are our children.
“Yes foreigners are involved but they do so in partnership or in collaboration with some Nigerians and because they are our citizen, we have continued to call on them to lay down their arms.
“Whatever grievances they have can be better realised by bringing those grievances in an orderly way to the government at all levels.
“Some of those grievances are not even with the Federal Government while some are.
“But whatever grievances that they have, the mere fact that they have grievances and they have taken to violence presupposes that we should listen to them.
“In spite of the fact that as a government we must defend innocent citizens, some of whom have lost their lives in the course of these terror attacks, in spite of this, the President made an open declaration that as a leader, the father of the nation, he was prepared to talk to the combatants who have deployed violence on innocent people and on their country.
“But the President said look for us to engage in dialogue we must know who we are dialoguing with because members of this terror groups operate underground and because they operate underground talking to them is a more difficult process.
“But the President has turned in the olive branch.
“It is not a happy thing for Nigeria to deploy its military forces against some of its citizens.
“Therefore, it is not something we are doing out of choice.”
Maku also spoke on the planned attack on Sokoto by Boko Haram.
He said: “On the planned attack on Sokoto, if some names were mentioned by some media houses, it doesn’t mean that it could be true. It could be false.
“We don’t just take it on the pages of newspapers because you report a story.
“Whether it is NTA, radio or video, it takes more than that to establish the veracity of a claim.
“So our doors are open to every formal channel of communication for the evolution of a process that should lead to a dialogue.
“So, the government is clear: we are ready to dialogue.
“Already, the President had said so….
“If you go and attack Sokoto for example, Sokoto is the spiritual headquarters of all Muslims in the country.
“The Sultan of Sokoto is officially recognised as the leader of Muslims in Nigeria.
“He is the Prime leader and authority of islam.
“So, if, for example, you threaten to attack Sokoto, what is the benefit?
“And that is why we continue to say that we do not see much of religion in what is hapenning, because if Sokoto is virtually an islamic centre and the headquarters of the caliphate that spreads islam to most part of Nigeria and even South-West and you go and attack Sokoto, in what way does it affect the course of Islam if it is Islam they are fighting for?”