The Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani has alleged that recent proposals have been made by some state governors that Bandits should be pardoned so that they can surrender their weapons. He however underscored that past attempts, initiated by previous governors, using such non-kinetic approaches, failed to yield positive results.
He highlighted a concerning reality wherein approximately 85 to 90% of the population residing in the North Western part of Nigeria grapples with living below the poverty line. Drawing attention to the statistical landscape of out-of-school children in Nigeria, he stated that a substantial number is observed in the North West region.
He argued that in addressing the prevailing insecurity crisis, it requires more than merely urging bandits to surrender their weapons.
He said in an interview with Channels TV, ”About 85 to 90% of the people that live on the North Western part of Nigeria are living below the poverty line. And of course, if you look at the statistics of the out-of-school Children in Nigeria, you can see that a lot of them are from the North Western part of Nigeria. That is the reason why I kept calling on for good governance because people kept talking about using the non-kinetic approach to end this crisis of insecurity.
It’s not only by asking these bandits to surrender their weapons. Most of these efforts were made some years ago by past governors and it didn’t yield any result. And again recently, some governors are saying we should pardon these bandits so that they can surrender. And I said look, that is only one aspect of non-kinetic, which for me is not even the most important one. The most important one is looking at the condition of the people generally. The poverty and hopelessness generally.”