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INSECURITY: Declare state of emergency in Zamfara, Matawalle’s aide tells Tinubu

Published by Fakinlede Tope John on May 16th, 2024.

INSECURITY: Declare state of emergency in Zamfara, Matawalle’s aide tells Tinubu

A former Special Adviser to former Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, on bilateral and multilateral relations, Suleiman Shinkafi, has called on President Bola Tinubu to use his office to enforce a state of emergency in the state over insecurity.

Speaking to newsmen at a press conference on Wednesday in Kaduna, Shinkafi maintained that Zamfara State at the moment is under siege and the only liberation for the people is for the military to take over the affairs of the state.

He said, “The people of Zamfara have lost the confidence and the ability of the administration of Governor Dauda Lawal to deal with the security situation in the state.”

He further lamented that while people are being killed daily, some enemies of the state are busy sponsoring protests against the former governor, Matawale whom he said is doing a perfect job as a Defense Minister under the Tinubu’s administration.

Instead of the elements to focus on leading the affairs of the state, in ensuring citizens are protected they’re busy sponsoring protests,” he said.

He alleged that everybody in the state is running helter-skelter begining from the governor, state House of Assembly members, and commissioners because of the ravaging insecurity in the state.

“The governor is always on the run, he doesn’t stay in the state for two days but always runs away because of the insecurity.

“Just last two weeks the governor came back from America with the entourage of Northern governors, he went back again. Tomorrow, if he comes back he will go back to England, next, he will go back to Canada again. He doesn’t stay in the state because he’s afraid.”

According to him, there was an ongoing protest over the killing of 20 people and abduction of sixty people in the state.

He said that instead of the vigilante introduced by the governor called Askarawa to engage in killing the bandits, “they’re busy killing political opponents and innocent people,” Shinkafi alleged.

He appealed to President Tinubu to have mercy on the people of Zamfara State to enforce the state of emergency to relieve the pains and agony of the people.

“President Tinubu knows how Zamfara State welcomed him and voted for him. We gave him the highest vote in the North-west. The North-West presidential coordinator was Matawale, the present Minister of Defense and everybody knows that he sacrificed all that he had to make sure Tinubu won the election.

“Now that Zamfara State is not secured for all of us, let President Tinubu use his presidential powers to enforce the State of Emergency in the State just like what Obasanjo did during Joshua Dariye.

“During Joshua Dariye there was no peace, what Obasanjo did was to throw him out to enforce a State of Emergency and put the Military who sanitised the state and handed it over back to Dariye.

We’re calling on President Tinubu to remember what he promised Zamfara people, that he’s going to assist them when he becomes president.

Now it is payback time, and the only thing you could do to help Zamfara people is to remove this so-called government and enforce the State of Emergency and let the military take over so that they’ll sanitise the whole state,” he added.

He maintained that during the Matawale’s era, insecurity wasn’t as rampant as it is now.

“Today, you cannot go to Zamfara State, if you go to Zamfara State as I am seeing you here before tomorrow they’ll slaughter you. If I can be scared of my state, my village, what more of you a stranger?”

He added that during the Minister’s time, there was a time they spent 9 Months without a record of anyone being killed because of negotiation with bandits.

A health expert, Dr. Chijoke Kaduru, has emphasised that several Primary Health Centres in Nigeria lack the capacity to effectively receive and manage funding.

The medical doctor also harped on the need to improve investments in available health facilities across the country.

The concerns were raised at a stakeholders validation meeting on ‘Assessing Primary Healthcare in Nigeria through a State Scoring System’ in Abuja on Wednesday.

The assessment programme, organised by Save the Children International in collaboration with One Campaign group and other stakeholders, revealed that a greater number of PHCs face challenges in managing funds and require assistance to improve on financial management capacity.

But a concerned Kaduru insisted that the issue of accountability and community involvement in Nigeria’s healthcare cannot be overemphasised.

He said, “The key thing we realised in the course of the assessment was that the primary health facilities don’t have the capacity at the moment to receive and manage funding well enough. We have to find ways of supporting them better and also find ways to hold them accountable for it.

“The focus then for us is to generate intelligence that can support that process as much as possible. That way we can come back a year or two from now to say we did provide some intelligence to support the process and how well have we fared”

On his part, the Country Director of One Campaign, Stanley Achonu, explained that the assessment evaluated various aspects of PHC facilities, including resources, financial and human resources, drug availability, and patients’ experience to gather their data.

Achonu promised that the findings would soon be made public to set a baseline for the government and influence policies.