Following a visit to N’Djamena in January, the Patriotic Front of Nigeria (PFN) has cautioned Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State against engaging Chadian soldiers.

Also read: Buratai to troops: We are days away from finally defeating Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorism

The motive of Professor Zulum’s visit, according to PFN, was to invite the country’s army to come help fight insurgency.

Speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference on Saturday in Abuja, President Dr Tunde Olorunfemi revealed that Zulum acted as though he was Nigeria’s president with the gravity of utterances he made in Chad.

The Patriotic Front of Nigeria, however, asked the governor to desist from this plan urging well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to join in the condemnation.

The statement reads in part below:

It should be noted that Professor embarked on a journey to Chad only after President Muhammadu Buhari upbraided the political leadership of the state for propping up terrorists to kill their own people. His visit to Chad, which he used to invite the army of that country to come to Nigeria.

We see an existential urgency for caution in this development considering that Professor Zulum now appears to be acting from the same script as the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists that had vowed to create insurgent nation-states governed by the strictest configuration of Sharia law.  It is one thing for the Nigerian state and military to be the fighting to keep the nation united in spite of the terrorist insurgency but is becomes totally dangerous when a governor deploys the instrument of state to back the terrorists’ quest to break up the country.

The entire region will be destabilized even as the waning insurgency and terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin will take a turn for the worse. They’re also the long term stability of Nigeria that would be jeopardized.

Whilst we are still battling with our territory that was handed to Cameroon by the Gowon administration, Nigerians will not tolerate any attempt to cut off any part of their country for Chad. An example should be set to discourage any over-ambitious politician from threatening the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

Vanguard