According to a report from DAILY POST, former Zamfara gubernatorial candidate and ex-APGA national secretary Dr. Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi has urged governors in the Northwest geopolitical zone to take drastic action to address the region's security crisis.
Shinkafi, speaking on behalf of the Patriots for the Advancement of Peace and Social Development, argued that the causes of the widespread banditry plaguing the Northwest are rooted in decades of neglect and misgovernance.
"The problems in the zone require political will and pragmatic actions, not empty rhetoric as we have seen over the past 12 years, which has not changed the narrative," Shinkafi said in a statement.
The Northwest, home to 30% of Nigeria's total population, has the country's largest land mass and has produced three democratically elected presidents as well as three military heads of state.
Yet Shinkafi argues the region remains "grossly underdeveloped" with high rates of poverty, illiteracy, and out-of-school children.
Shinkafi says the "remote causes of insecurity" include corruption, unemployment, weak institutions, porous borders, and the proliferation of illegal arms.
He lambasts the region's governors, accusing them of misappropriating state resources for personal gain instead of investing in education, agriculture, and infrastructure.
"Illiteracy is one of the major causes of armed banditry and related crimes," Shinkafi states.
"Most of the bandits are uneducated both in western and Islamic education. Leaders in the zone failed to invest in education, in building primary and secondary schools, adult education and Almajiri schools."
The former politician also criticizes the governors' failure to develop the region's agricultural potential, saying the lack of investment in modern farming techniques and equipment has exacerbated food insecurity amid the security crisis.
Shinkafi argues the Northwest's security challenges are directly linked to bad governance and the "lack of political will" by state leaders to tackle the root problems.
He calls on the governors to shift their focus from "organising peace and security summits" to implementing concrete development programs.
"It is obvious that corruption is the root cause of bad governance, unemployment and banditry," Shinkafi concludes.
"Governors in the region receive monthly statutory allocations from the Federal Government, allot billions of naira as security votes and will not provide funds to conventional security agencies to crush terrorism in the region."