Masari disagrees with PDP, opposes declaration of state of emergency by Buhari

Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State on Thursday disagreed with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the advice that President Muhammadu Buhari should declare a state of emergency on Nigeria’s security crisis. Governor Masari after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at the State House, Abuja, strongly opposed the declaration of state of emergency, arguing that the declaration of a state of emergency on security cannot solve the country’s insecurity crisis. He maintained that the military is over stretched.

Masari had declared: “It cannot because how can state of emergency solve the problem? You have a situation where the military are in all the states of the federation, then you ask yourself, how many do we have?

“Are we not overstretching them? So, the reality is the responsibility of securing this country is ours, all of us. We have a role to play, and we must play it for the sake of the country and for the sake of our children and grandchildren, not for the sake of the persons that in office.

“I think we better be serious about this issue of security. If you say set up state of emergency, what do you do? We are having the same people, the same security agencies, the same capacities, and the same resources…

The governor acknowledged that the security situation in Nigeria goes beyond partisan politics. He was of the view that the responsibility of securing the country does not rest solely on a sect of individuals or security agency. He stated that security is a national issue and should ultimately be of great benefit to every Nigerian and sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.