Vice-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu, has described the utterances of some Nigerian leaders over a possible break-up of the country as a result of Boko Haram insurgency as "irresponsible".

Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, spoke with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State on Saturday after the inauguration of the state tailoring association.

He said, "For me, such comments of the likely break-up of Nigeria are uncalled for, irresponsible and unaccountable as none of leaders took the oath of presiding over the collapse of Nigeria."

He regretted that many of them had made utterances suggesting that the country might break up.

Aremu urged office-holders to change their language from that of despair and hopelessness to hope and scare-mongering to development.

He said, "Increasingly nowadays, it is the same elected people that are raising the alarm over the possible break-up of the country. Rather, we invested our confidence in them to sustain the existing stability and above all to restructure it for prosperity and progress.

"The break-up of Nigeria is not possible if our leaders don't become part of the problem. I hope the remark credited to Senator David Mark will be an exception not the rule to the way our leaders think. I don't think he meant Nigeria will break up on account of any crisis because he can't be President in a broken Nigeria."

Meanwhile, two groups, the Middle Belt Patriots and the Centre for the Advocacy of Justice and Rights, have condemned "the politicisation" of the security problems in the North.

Middle Belt Patriots, in a communiqué at the end of their retreat in Jos on Sunday, said politicians, especially from the North had been politicising the insurgency in the North to gain some relevance.