GOVERNOR Dikko Radda of Katsina State has defended the northern governors’ journey to the United States, saying it aimed to find long-term solutions to the region’s insecurity.
The governors came under fire for their recent trip to the United States.
However, Radda stated that the visit was part of a larger effort to address insecurity in the north, and that they had been invited to the conference.
“Ten governors were in the United States, Washington D.C and we had a symposium with the United States Institute of Peace so that we can bring about ideas that will end insecurity that is worrying our people and is a major problem to the subnationals and they carefully chose the governors of the places affected by banditry and kidnapping,” he said on today’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“All of us sat for three days and we were able to cross-fertilize ideas and interact with all stakeholders that are involved in bringing about lasting peace and security globally,” the governor said.
Despite criticism over the meeting with many questioning why it was held in the US and not in Nigeria, Radda has defended the trip.
“The meeting was not at the instance of the selected governors of northern states but it was at the instance of the United States Institute of Peace. They were the people who invited us; they hosted us for the meeting. We were invited to sit with them so that we could bring about lasting solutions to the problems that are affecting our people,” he said.
According to Radda, the governors gained new insights into the northern region’s security challenges during their journey to the United States.
In recent years, the northern region has faced banditry, kidnapping, and a variety of security threats.
Hundreds of people have been kidnapped and slain in the years since the security situation worsened.
Several factors have been attributed to the rising tide of insecurity in the north, but Radda has ruled out political connotations.
”The issue of the hypothesis behind political motive as responsible for banditry is not true,” the Katsina State governor said, highlighting injustice and poverty as the root cause of insecurity in the north.