Even though there is hunger in the land, it is not peculiar to Nigeria and should not be an excuse for criminal behaviour, the Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, has said.
Mr. Yuguda, who is also an in-law of the first family (the Yar'Aduas) expressed surprise that Nigerians were making so much fuss about their situation and trying to tear the country apart.
"Yes, there is hunger in Nigeria, but if you go to the streets of London, you will see people sleeping outside on the streets and it is the same thing in Paris and America," he said, during an interview in Bauchi.
He said poverty must be there and it is associated with so many other things, including the debasement of our culture. He also threw the blame of societal decay back to the followership, arguing that "Nigeria is under siege from me and you. It is not the leadership alone."
"This is the agony of Nigeria," he said. "Everyone is on his own, because the very fabrics of our culture have been eroded. We have to love one another in this country. There is no gain in pulling down somebody. Whatever Allah ordained for somebody, no one will stop that person from getting it."
The governor made a long speech on leadership and respect, invoking religious teachings.. He admonished Nigerians to leave judgment of the nation's leaders to God. "If the leader does good, he gets credit and if he does bad he is thrown in hell," Yuguda said. "Everybody today is thinking of Naira and kobo and nobody is thinking that only God gives you death and gives you material life."
A "wicked" people?
He said those who think they are stealing money to enrich their children are making a mistake, saying there were people whose parents were billionaires but after a few years after their death, their children were walking the streets without any means of livelihood.
Mr. Yuguda attributed the nation's problems to the kind of system we have. "God has so blessed this country. But why are we wicked? Why are we different from other races?"
He wondered why a militant would want to blow a pipe when he knows that at least there is a genuine way of resolving issues. He also juxtaposes the case of the [Niger] Delta militants with that of the sectarian violence in his state.
"It is not because they don't have food to eat, because many of them are engineers capable of detonating bombs and the like," he said.