Buhari says Nigeria’s unity not negotiable - Kogi gov

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State yesterday said President Muhammadu Buhari told him that “the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable.”

Gov Bello said this after the Chief of Staff of the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, led him to brief President Buhari on the suspension of the strike to block supply of foodstuff and cattle to the

Southern part of Nigeria by the Amalgamated Union of Food and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AFUCDN).

The governor, while fielding questions from State House reporters after the meeting, said President Buhari lauded the effort that led to the resolution of the crisis.

Gov Bello said, “Mr President expressed concern over the insecurity in the land. As the commander in chief, he has assured everyone of us based on his security meeting on Tuesday that Nigeria is going to be secured, safe and prosperous; and I believe in him 100 per cent.

“He urged everyone to continue to go about our lawful businesses in the country; that Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable, that Nigeria must be united, peaceful and that Nigeria must be prosperous.”

Bello, while speaking on the insinuations that his intervention in the crisis was to oil his 2023 presidential ambition, said, “I am not running away from the fact that numerous teeming youths, Nigerians, both women, youths, leaders and followers, various groups are calling me to contest in the presidential election in 2023. That is their right, it is within their purview to ask for that and demand that I run as their representative in government.”

He hinted that those calling on him to run for the presidency wanted him to replicate his achievement in the area of security at national level.

The governor said his intervention was to prevent “a little problem that can be solved” from snowballing into a larger crisis that would put the country on unknown collision course.”