Government Is Paying Bandits, Rejects Dialogue – Former Kaduna Governor, El-Rufia

Former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai has accused the federal government of paying bandits instead of confronting them with force.

“What I will not do is to pay bandits. They are paying bandits. They are empowering bandits. This is what this government has done. We have the evidence. They are paying bandits. They are empowering bandits. It’s a national policy driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and Kaduna is part of it. Many states are objecting to that. But that is the policy now.”

He declared: “My position has always been that the only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kkll them all. Let’s wipe them. Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing. And then the 5% that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated.”

Warning against negotiations, he said: “You do not negotiate from a position of weakness. You don’t empower your enemy. You don’t give him money to go on and buy more sophisticated weapons. That’s why the security problem has not gone away. It will not go away. As long as this policy continues.”

He also cited reports: “Just last week, SBM published a report that showed that the security situation in Kaduna and Zamfara has actually deteriorated… What the government has been doing both at the national and state levels is buying the media from reporting it.”

Defending himself, he added: “Even if it is my son or my father who is president or governor and he’s not doing the right thing, I lose the right to disagree or crit+cise? Is that negative? Is that what Nigeria is?”

El-Rufai stressed the government has failed Nigerians “on all fronts, including security, economy, and governance.”