President Goodluck Jonathan has blamed northern leaders for the continued Boko Haram violence.
The President, who was represented at the Award Gala Night organised by the Niger Delta Young Professionals on Friday by the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Kabiru Turaki, said northern leaders had not done enough to unravel those behind the sect’s activities.
He said, “When the issue of Niger Delta was raging, and I will say this with all sense of responsibility, leaders of the region, particularly the governors, were the drivers of the process.
“They reached out to the people and to the militants, they spoke and took their discussion, to an appreciable level before the Federal Government stepped in and then harnessed everything.
“What efforts are the northern leaders making? We need to learn because every incident of Boko Haram in Nigeria is situated within the geopolitical confines of a region. What are the leaders doing?
“Security agencies are not magicians – they are not spirits. These people who perpetrate these crimes do not come from the moon; they live within them. Why are they not helping the security agencies with the needed information? The problem of insecurity is not only the problem of government – it is the problem of all of us.”
He said the Federal Government was making efforts towards solving the problems.
“What we solicit from Nigerians are understanding and patience,” he stated.
Citing the restiveness of Niger Delta militants where he and the late Yar’Adua took the initiative to address the malaise, Jonathan said: “We reached out to them and spoke to them. We understood each other and on the basis of that, an understanding was reached and it was this understanding that was faithfully executed that led us to the amnesty in the region.”
He said in the case of Boko Haram, their perpetrators were unknown, except for a few of them who spoke on the Internet or to the press.
At the awards, five persons including late Yar’Adua (posthumous); Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio; his Lagos State counterpart, Babatunde Fashola; Chairman, Arik Air, Mr. Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide and 10-year-old author, Daniella Dan-Jumbo were recognised.
Yes northerns leaders should be blame, one of them is present yobe state governor b’cos he 1st kill one of his brother and enter the sit, and in some year back there was many blood s***d in that state and he was invited to Abuja, he told them that nothing like that in the state, by that time they are happy that the BH was looking for only Jesus followers and i know by now everybody in the yobe state know the true.