Insecurity: Matawalle believes that dialogue and reconciliation are the way forward

Governor Bello Matawalle thinks the most viable answers to banditry and other security concerns are discussion and reconciliation.

Matawalle told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja today that since taking office as governor, he has seen a lot of progress in terms of bandit dialogue and reconciliation.

Following the adoption of conversation with the bandits, he claimed that the state had experienced a year with no bandit attacks.

He claimed that insecurity was the country’s main issue, particularly in the northwestern region, where gunmen may attack at any time.

“As I previously stated, the issue of insecurity is not simply one man’s problem; it is a problem that affects all of us.

“Whether you’re a security officer, a regular citizen, or someone else, what matters is that we all band together and take this issue seriously.

“Since I took over as governor of Zamfara, we have accomplished a lot that we hadn’t done in the previous six years.

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“This was accomplished because I encouraged everyone to participate and topics were discussed,” says the author.

“Political leaders, traditional institutions, and other security heads were invited as stakeholders.

“We put our heads together, which is why we started the conversation and reconciliation process with the bandits, which has brought a lot of results in the state.

“To create a peaceful country, every state must adopt this initiative,” he stated.

Matawalle stressed that the issue of insecurity requires everyone to work together to develop long-term solutions.

Other sections of the country, he suggested, will need to join in on this endeavour.

“I believe it will work for us if we join together as one and have a united stance.

“We’ve been talking between ourselves, and I can guarantee you that we’ll have a long-term solution to this problem very soon.

“I also want to remind Nigerians that God does not make mistakes, and he created the country for us to coexist.

“Let’s figure out what the problem is first, that is, let’s figure out what’s at the core of this problem, and then we’ll know how to address it.”

“Nigeria is a highly varied country; you can’t just come in and say, ‘Let’s break out.’ It’s impossible!

“What we’ll do is figure out how to comprehend ourselves as a group.

“If you come to my village, you will see Igbo people with their shops, and the Yoruba will do the same.

“They have a lot of stuff for sale in my apartment. We’ve already become one.

“All we have to do now is sit down and figure out what the problem is.

“This is preferable to saying we should split,” he remarked.

(NAN)