Boko Haram: CAN Calls For Removal Of North East Governors

The northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which comprises 19 states in the region have called on the Federal Government to declare a total state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states which will see the civilian governors, Murtala Nyako, Kassim Shettima and Ibrahim Geidam replaced with military administrators. This the group said would go a long way in restoring lasting peace to the states.

CAN made the call through its Executive Secretary, Professor Daniel Babayi, who on Friday remarked that the governors should be replaced if the current strategy of having them retain their seats despite a state of emergency is not working.

“If the half state of emergency thing is not working because the governors are still in place and they are still the chief security officers of the affected states, the Federal Government should remove all of them and put military officers there so that when we succeed in the whole thing, the governors should be reinstated back to their seats,” said Babayi at the inauguration of the newly-elected executives of the Niger State chapter of the association and the inauguration of a newly-constructed administrative block by the state chapter of CAN.

President Goodluck Jonathan had on May 14, 2013 declared a state of emergency on the three northern states following brazen attack by terrorists which has claimed thousands of lives.

Jonathan had vowed at the time not to employ the kind of measure former President Olusegun Obasanjo invoked twice during his tenure, in 2004 and 2006, when he removed democratically elected governors and installed appointed administrators, both former military officers, to manage the states, a move that seemed to have worked out fine.

Nigeria is rife with opinions on the state of emergency, one of which says that not carrying out a full state of emergency in the affected states may be one of the reasons why the fight against the Boko Haram has not been won as the military;s work in the area was still subject to the democratic leaders.