Sir: The recent uproar over the federal government proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) Reform Bill has elicited another debate and leaders from the North have also shown serious concern and their objection to the entire bill, as they believe it would have negative impact on the region.
Similarly, this has also ignited discussion on the issue of poverty in that bedevilled the Northern Nigeria, as well as other pertinent issues.
I believe the Northern region just like the leadership at the highest levels in the country is faced with leadership crisis. The northern region is in dire need of credible, selfless leaders and there is urgent need to study the leadership quality of our forebears. The likes of Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Region and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first and only Premier of Nigeria, all of blessed memory.
Perhaps this may help today’s men in the position of authority across the entire northern region gain some insights and develop passion for selfless service to our people.
Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto, had a dream of a prosperous and virile region under his watch, hence the great strides recorded in numerous ways across the entire corners of the northern provinces, in both human and infrastructural development.
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He laid the foundation and turned around our institutions for sustainable growth within a short time.
In their detailed work titled The Ahmadu Bello Way, Ainoko Israel Aye-Ebene and Dauda Garuba published in The Cable, March13, 2018, they wrote about the premier: “the choice to remain as the premier of Northern Nigeria was a conscious one; a keen understanding of the fact that the building block for national development is regional development. His major priority was to push for the realization of a Northern Region that can politically and economically compete with Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria”.
They further added, “the North is too large and important a component of Nigeria to lag behind the rest of the country and if allowed to lag, it would constitute a dead weight and drag the rest of the country back”.
Additionally, Professor Isah Odidi and Dr. Baba J. Adamu in a well-researched compilation entitled “Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto: The Seasons of a Man’s Life, summarized the approach of Sir Ahmadu Bello to governance as: “The development strategy of the government under Ahmadu Bello may be summarized as trying to achieve regional parity through affirmative action politics. His “Northernization Policy” was the basic agenda for development, and reflected a profound belief on the part of Ahmadu Bello that northerners had the capacity for rapid development, if given the opportunity.
However, the present crop of leaders and elites from the north abandoned the philosophy of Sardauna, as under their watch, his legacies are crumbling gradually, and none of them is showing remorse for this.
Yes indeed, there is need for re-birth in the affairs of north and the leadership question.
On the issue of culture, it is not an impediment to development or progress of the northern region; it is the lack of proper investment in education sector. It is true that modernization makes many forms of traditional life disappear. But at the same time, it opens opportunities and constitutes an important step forward for a society as a whole.
There is no room for excuses and the north should stop blaming external factors for their circumstances; the consequences are dire and if we fail to act, we risk being trapped in a perpetual poverty circle.
In order to accelerate economic growth and development in the north, stakeholders formal levels should first invest massively in education; increase education budget to 15% as recommended by the UN, build and equip school in rural communities, train teachers in the use of modern equipment, and ensure improvement of their welfare and above all award scholarship to exceptional students to study abroad; with emphasis on science and technology.
Each state in the North needs to implement the Malaysian developmental state experience. In 1971 the country changed direction from a laissez faire approach to developmental state (DS) approach a term used to describe countries that implement state-led policies or interventions to achieve rapid economic growth and structural change.
The north as a regional bloc can do this under its umbrella organization. The body can enter bilateral agreement with the Malaysian government in the area of education, agriculture, trade and investment. Through this partnership, the north can learn from the Malaysia experience as a basis for regional and national development and thus revive the Sardauna’s dream for Arewa-Northern region and its people.