Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, says his principal on Tuesday reassured governors of the 36 states of the Federation of his administration’s commitment to ending insecurity in the country.
Adesina said the Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, and his North-East counterparts did not raise the subject of engaging mercenaries to combat Boko Haram terrorists in the region at the meeting with the President on Tuesday.
Zulum had last week made six recommendations to the Federal Government to defeat insurgency following the killing of 43 rice farmers in the state by Boko Haram members.
The recommendations include the engagement of the services of the governments of Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic as well as the services of mercenaries to defeat Boko Haram terrorists.
The Nigeria Governors Forum had met with the president on Tuesday at Aso Villa to discuss the state of security in the country.
But the presidential spokesman who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the Borno State governor and his colleagues from the North-East region did not make any recommendation to the president on the use of mercenaries.
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He said, “It was quite a fruitful meeting. The governors of the 36 states were invited and near 100 per cent of them turned up. It was across parties.
“After the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Kayode Fayemi, spoke, then, he invited a governor each from the geopolitical zones to give an account of what was happening, security-wise in their zones.”
Adesina said each of the governors spoke on the security challenges peculiar to their regions — North-West (banditry), North-East (Boko Haram), South-West (kidnapping), North-Central (farmers-herders clash), amongst others.
“After that, Mr President responded and they reviewed the accounts together. Where promises were needed to be made, they were made and where explanations were needed to be made, they were equally made,” Adesina stated.
When asked whether the Borno State governor and his North-East counterparts requested that the president engage mercenaries to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, Adesina said, “No, not specifically, that did not come up; no one governor from the North-East mentioned it in person; it was not something the meeting dwelt on.”
The spokesperson added, “The promise the president made was that more equipment were being procured and that some had come and the need to train our forces on the need to use them.
“He also encouraged the governors to work in close contact with the traditional authorities and local communities because intelligence is a big part of the thing. He encouraged them to work together so that those who sabotage the military by giving information to the other side can be encouraged to give information to the military.”
The president is expected to appear before the National Assembly on Thursday in view of the security challenges plaguing the country.
Adesina said the National Assembly will determine the format of the forum.
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