The Niger State governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, has called on Nigerians to stop playing up the ‘settler’ and ‘indigene’ syndrome, even as he? expressed optimism that the present security challenges facing the nation would soon be over.
Aliyu made this comment yesterday at the inauguration of the Niger State Committee on Peace Building for Sustainable Democratic Culture and the state branch of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice held at Government House, Minna.
According to him, the settler and indigene syndrome should not be encouraged because, if critically viewed, “every body is a settler; the only thing is that some people settled in a place earlier than the others.”
He said that this syndrome has contributed to the security challenges facing some parts of the country, and that the situation informed the setting up the Committee on Peace Building for Democratic Culture headed by Barrister Abraham Yisa.
He said, “There is no doubt that the past two years have been characterised by some of the worst incidents of socio- economic conflicts in our nation’s political history.”
He lamented that several ethnic and religious communities in different states of Nigeria, that have lived together peacefully and interdependently for several decades, have today become engulfed in deadly conflicts.
While expressing the hope that the security challenges would soon be over, the governor said that what was needed for the country to overcome the present challenges was for people to be more security conscious and for all communities in the country to deemphasise the variables that are not right, which if imbibed, will lead to the nation reaping negative rewards.