By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
Governor of Niger state, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has said that the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic sect were not aimed at scuttling President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 second term ambition.
Aliyu stated this yesterday in Minna while receiving the Minister of State for Works and the Supervisory Minister of Planning, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, on a courtesy visit.
He argued that the activities of the sect began years ago when Jonathan was the Vice President, adding that “Boko Haram did not start with the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram is not to stop Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.”
He said the activities of the dreaded Islamic sect started as far back as the 1990s in Yobe state and since then had been escalating because of lack of political will to stop the sect from wrecking havocs on Nigerians.
He said: “If it was the wish of God that Jonathan will contest and win the 2015 presidential election no mortal being can stop him just like they could not stop him in 2011.”
He explained that the activities of the Boko Haram were different from those of the Niger Delta militants, and that it was time that Nigerians left sentiments apart and face the issue of terminating the activities of the sect “so that peace can return to the country.”
He described Boko Haram as a “social malaise” that had hit the North, bringing with it “intense competition between those Nigerians that had western education and those that read Islamic education.”
He added that it was time the nation looked at its social fabric and removed anything that tended to derail the progressive match of the country.
The governor maintained that the Presidency should ensure it looked properly into the letters of agreement between it and those that had offered to assist the country to check the activities of the sect “so that they will not stay more than necessary.”
He castigated those that had been criticising the rebasing of the country’s economy, saying that the rebasing of the country’s Gross Domestic Product was not a gimmick by government, but an accurate statistical data of the development of the national economy.
Earlier, the overseeing Minister of National Planning, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, said after the rebasing of the nation’s economy, the ministry had begun the rebasing of the economies of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said six states: Niger Anambra, Gombe Akwa Ibom and Lagos were being used to pilot the programme, adding that the economy of Niger state had improved from a GDP OF N863 million in 2008 to over N1 billion in 2013.
