Usman Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme has described as irresponsible, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s ultimatum to Fulani herders to vacate forest reserves in Ondo state.
Yusuf, a professor of Haematology Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation is also a very vocal observer and an activist against herdsmen banditry across the northwestern flanks of Nigeria but noted that it is irresponsible for the Ondo state governor to evict people.
Professor Yusuf was a guest on an ARISE News program, The Morning Show and noted that crimes and issues within the state should be settled and not by issuing quit notices to a section of the country’s ethnic group.
“It is irresponsible for the Governor of Ondo State to do what he did,” Prof. Yusuf said on ARISE News.
“Governorship comes with responsibility. No governor anywhere in this country or traditional ruler should open his mouth and say that, it comes with responsibility. Words matters and leadership matters.
“It is irresponsible for the governor to evict people anywhere. If there are crimes, if there are issues they need to be settled. He is the chief security officer of that state. He gets billions of Naira every month to take care of the security of that state.
“We had a time in this country after the civil war when there were armed robberies and all that predominantly from people from the south, but nobody will come out and say it is an Igbo armed robber or a Yoruba armed robber, no it is irresponsible for people to do that.
“So politicians need to be very very careful, they are there to govern and to govern responsibly and to govern everybody that is within their domain.”
By Abel Ejikeme