Matawalle restates commitment to tackle banditry in Zamfara

Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, has restated his commitment to end banditry and address security challenges in the state.

Matawalle spoke on Wednesday in Sokoto, while addressing participants at a 3-day National Conference on Zamfara Kingdom, organised by the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Usman Danfodiyo University (UDU), Sokoto.

The 3-day conference with the theme: “Zamfara Kingdom: Social and Political Transformation from 14th Century to Date,” is being attended by various stakeholders from Sokoto and Zamfara States.

Matawalle, who was represented by Bala Maru, Secretary to the State Government, said that: “the conference wouldn’t have come at better time than now.

“This is a time we need more supportive documents that could serve as a guide towards addressing banditry and other forms of security challenges in our state.

“As a government, we are always happy to be involved in academic conferences that will assist our desire in improving the security architecture of our state and enhance our economy and human development.

“As such, I want to generously emphasized that this academic conference is of great importance to the government and people of Zamfara State most especially at this our trail time.

“However, we have the believe that our history is so much relevant in aiding our dedication to tackle the security challenges of our state”.

The governor commended the foresight of the organisers and assured of the state government support to publish the researches for wider circulation to the public.

Also speaking, the former governor of Sokoto State, Yahaya Abdulkareem, urged state governors and well to do individuals, to assist Universities in ensuring academic culture is not only maintained, but research outcomes are widely circulated.

Abdulkareem said that wider circulation of various academic research outcomes would assist in using the past experiences to correct the mistakes of the present for a more peaceful future.

He said acquiring historical knowledge and consciousness were matters of necessity in the country and the youth need to be fully educated on the level of contributions made by the past leaders.

“They have sacrificed their leisure, comfort and even blood for the unity of this country, as such if we cannot collectively promote their legacies, we should not destroy them,” he said.

On his part, the Emir of Zamfara and Chairman, Zamfara State Council of Chiefs, Attahiru Ahmad, appealed to academic communities, to evolve activities that would ginger interest of people in research and study of history.

Ahmad admonished community leaders to encourage ethnic groups in their domains to write their own history without interference.

The monarch called for the reintroduction of history as a subject in primary and secondary schools so that children would learn more about their history.

Meanwhile, Prof. Lawal Bilbis, Vice Chancellor of the University, urged governors of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states to support the university to publish the research work for wider circulation to the public.

Bilbis expressed confidence that the rich social and economic attributes of Zamfara State were partly the reasons the kingdom was selected as a subject of the forth national conference.

In his submission, Prof. Kabiru Chafe of the Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, said the essence of historical inquiry was to analyse the past with a view to understand the present and appreciate the likely future challenges.

Our correspondent reports that the 3-day conference which attracted participants from Nigerian and international scholars would be closed on Friday Feb. 28.