Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has warned the Southern counterparts to be mindful of the words they use when it come to matters of national unity and cohesion.
He also attributed all the present wrongs in the country to the maladministration of previous governments.
Gov. Yahaya Bello was speaking at Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ which was monitored by The Punch Newspaper when he made those statements.
According to him, “Let me caution each and every one of us, leaders across board including governors and all of the leaders across Nigeria that we should be careful about the words we use. When we are talking of security, unity and national cohesion of Nigeria, as leaders and politicians, we should be careful about the words we use when we are addressing these various topical issues.
“When we talk about restructuring or the various demands or resolutions put across by my colleagues from the South, they are quite germane and they are entitled to their opinions and I so respect it but when it is titled or when it appears as if you are fighting President Muhammadu Buhari, our father and our President, we are all getting it wrong because we get to where we are today as a result of maladministration of successive administrations.”
He also said that everyone share in the blame of the problems the country is facing and not the federal government alone, adding that President Buhari also believes in restructuring.
He said: “There have been collective failures across board, so let’s not just blame it alone on the federal government or Mr President alone.
“When we talk of restructuring, Mr President believes in restructuring, I believe in restructuring, all of us believe in restructuring but when we are talking of restructuring, from what angle to what? Which context?
“I will describe my own context about restructuring that first, from what Mr President has done by ensuring signing Order 10 signing autonomy to local governments, legislature and judiciary. That is restructuring. How made of us are practising all of these in our states? How many of us have given full autonomy to local governments? Mr President has signed it.”
“At various levels, whatever we are demanding, let us make sure we practise it at home. If we are demanding zoning, let’s make sure we start the zoning from home, if we are demanding equity, let’s make sure there is equity at home. If we are demanding fairness, let’s make sure there is fairness at home. If we are demanding good governance, let’s start good governance at home.” he added.
