Nigeria’s Insecurity Fuelling Agitations For Secession, FG Admits

The Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that banditry, the Boko Haram insurgency and general insecurity in the country are responsible for some Nigerian groups agitating for secession.
In his opening remarks at a Town Hall on National Security organised by his ministry, held in Kaduna, Mohammed called on Nigerians to be united against insecurity rather than consider the breakup of the country.
The theme of the meeting was tagged, “Setting Benchmarks for Enhanced Security and National Unity in Nigeria.”
The minister said the town hall meeting was part of measures and avenues to rally Nigerians to find lasting solutions to insecurity in the West African nation.
“Ominously, the general state of insecurity, as reflected in incidences of farmers/herders clashes, Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, ethno-religious clashes and intolerance, cultism, drug addiction and kidnapping for ransom are now triggering rising calls for secession as well as politicisation of ethnic and religious differences,” Mohammed stated.
“Bluntly put, the insecurity and its manifestations pose a dangerous threat to the unity of the country and its continued existence as one indivisible nation.
“How did we get here and what can we do to change the narrative? We believe that finding a way out of the situation in which we have found ourselves requires teamwork, reflecting all diversities and leveraging on all our collective creativity to pursue with diligence the project of rescuing Nigeria.
“Perhaps, the correct starting point towards addressing these myriad of problems is the building of an ‘elite consensus’ on the security, unity, indissolubility and peaceful existence of Nigeria.