The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Northern leaders

  • ‘Northern leaders using religion to exploit their people’

    The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has decried the use of religion by politicians, particularly from the north, of exploiting their people.

    He warned that the North is presently having a larger population of destitute compared to the southern.

    The Emir was speaking at the International Youth Graduation and Annual Lecture of the Katsina Vocational Training Centre, Katsina.

    The centre, founded by the late M.D Yusuf, focuses on empowering the youths, particularly the physically-challenged, through vocational skills and grants to enable them become self-reliant.

    Sanusi, who spoke on “Youth, Security and National Development in Nigeria”, lamented that the north had, in the last two decades, lost its focus due to the politicisation of region and culture.

    He said: “Politicians had turned Islam into a vehicle for political campaign, thereby exploiting the religious character and ignorance of the people.

    “Rather than solving problems in education and health, governors were busy promising to deliver religion, which led to the underdevelopment of many states in the north. It was no surprise that states, which lay too much emphasis on religion over development, were those found to lag behind in socio-economic advantages.”

    The emir lamented that due to the problem, the people no longer demanded education for their children, nor demanded for healthcare, but were satisfied with slogans and pilgrimages that have become jamborees

    He, however, said the state alone should not be blamed for the present predicament, as it was a collective responsibility to find solution to challenges facing the region and country in general.

    Sanusi, therefore, called on organisations like the vocational centre to play important advocacy roles by making “informed suggestions to policy makers based on scientific studies because of the soft power you possess.”

    He also called on the government to invest more in agriculture to absorb the youths, as this was what some Asian countries did before they became what they are today.

    The monarch also urged political leaders to sign peace pacts before the 2019 elections which would ensure peaceful elections and discourage the use of youths to perpetuate violence.

  • Emir Sanusi tasks northern leaders on girl-child education‎

    Emir Sanusi tasks northern leaders on girl-child education‎

    The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has called on Northern leaders to promote girl-child education in the region.

    Sanusi made the call during the inauguration of Aminu Dabo College of Health Sciences laboratory complex in Kano on Monday.‎

    ‎‎He urged the leaders to give priority to female education as they did with their male counterparts.

    ‎‎”The people need to prioritise their commitment toward the education of female just like their male counterpart.‎

    “We appeal to everybody, especially well- meaning individuals irrespective of party differences, to provide the environment to aid girl-child education,” he said.‎

    The monarch also admonished the people of Kano to support each other and work as a team for the overall development of the state.

    He commended the proprietor of the school for his foresight and contribution to the development of education in the state.‎

    Earlier, the proprietor of the school, Alhaji Aminu Dabo, had said that the school was established two years ago to promote educational development in the state.

    He said that 80 per cent of the institution’s students’ population was women.

    Dabo added that the school would collaborate with Kwara University and another university in Malaysia for degree courses.

    He commended the Kano Emir for his stance on girl-child education and also thanked him for honoring the invitation to the event.

  • PDP crisis: Sheriff frustrating peace process, says Makarfi

    PDP crisis: Sheriff frustrating peace process, says Makarfi

    The chairman of the caretaker committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi has accused the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff of frustrating the party’s peace process.

    Makarfi, who made the accusation in Abuja on Wednesday while meeting some Northern leaders of the PDP, said Sheriff reneged on a proposal by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He told the gathering that Sheriff refused to abide by an arrangement where both of them would resign their positions. He also blamed the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson for presenting a convention report to Sheriff without consultation.

    Said he, “When Dickson came to meet me on his committee’s report, I told him, you are one of the governors that met with former president Goodluck Jonathan and he spelt out the proposal of peace plan which he communicated to the National Assembly caucus, communicated to us (caretaker committee) and other organs of the party.

    “And I asked him, are you now removing yourself from that? Why didn’t you table what you have before your colleagues? I also asked him whether he had taken pains to read the Port Harcourt Appeal Court judgement and he said no.

    “That judgement is based on two premises which we did not accept. The first premise, which we did not accept in our appeal to the Supreme Court, that the tenure of three members of the NWC will expire in august this year and 18 will expire in July 2018.

    “If you now propose to hold convention in June, what are you going to achieve? How will the June convention is different from last year’s in Portharcourt and he said he didn’t think about that.

    “And if he didn’t think about it, he shouldn’t do anything that will go against court of appeal judgment. What that judgement stipulates is a return to a status quo ante. What the court means is that all the national officers before May 21 must return to office. What Sheriff is doing is against the judgement, all his actions run foul against the judgement.

    “The proposal on the way forward is to revert to the status quo as pronounced by the court of appeal. This is what I told Dickson, that he should go back to his colleagues governors and other organs of the party to clear the issue. As far as we are concerned, the caretaker committee has no position other than what the organs of the party.

    “President Jonathan, after meeting with the governors, at about 1 am, called me and told me about the resolution they have reached, which he said will be forwarded to the NASS causus and other organs of the party as part of political solution. Some of the resolution is that the judgement of appeal court must be respected to prevent anybody from coming tomorrow to rubbish the party with litigation.

    “Again, having reverted to the status quo, everybody will now formally resign. If everybody will resign, then the solicitors of the organs of the party will now sit down and look at all the legal issues involved and then draw up a MoU that will serve as settlement of parties. This will be deposited at the Supreme Court as the settlement of the crisis.

    “Even if this is not provided in the constitution of the party, INEC is going to accept it and no one is going to rubbish PDP on that.

    “In response, I told the former president that the caretaker committee has nothing against his proposal but that it will be presented before the organs and if accepted, the caretaker committee will stand by it.

    “Former President Jonathan said he told Sheriff to go and consult and after his reply, he will get back to him. Uptill now he has not gotten back to him. What it means is that perhaps, he did not get positive response from Sheriff.”

    Some of those present at the meeting were chairman former minister of police affairs, Adamu Maina Waziri; former minister of information, Prof Jerry gana; Aminu Wali; former PDP youth leader, Abdullahi Maibasira; Sen Saidu Kumo; Sen Aruwa; chairman of former ministers, Kabiru Turaki; former governor of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed; former governor of Adamawa Boni Haruna.

    Former governor of Kano State Ibrahim Shekarau; Hon Tukur; Gen. David Jeribewon; former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru   Bafarawa; former governor of Niger State, Dr Babangida Aliyu; former deputy national publicity secretary of PDP, Abdullahi Jalo; former deputy governor of Sokoto, Murtahr Shagari; former women minister, Hajiya Inua Ciroma; former governor of Plateau, Sen Jonah Jang; Sen Abubakar Gada; Sen. Solomon Ewuga among others.

     

  • ‘Only northern leaders can stop Boko Haram’

    The National Coordinator, Voice of Christian Martyrs Nigeria, Rev Isaac Newton-Wusu, has called on Muslim leaders, clerics and the governors in the north to go beyond condemning the deadly and calculated attacks on innocent Nigerians in the region.

    He challenged them to quench the “fire” of insurgency that is fast spreading by talking to the insurgents themselves.”

    He also described the activities of the Islamic sect as a threat to the nation.

    Newton-Wusu expressed dismay at the nonchalant attitude of political leaders on the abducted girls.

    He said the release of the girls in the captivity of Boko Haram should be the focus and not the 2015 elections, which he regretted has become the preoccupation of political leaders.

    He spoke in Lagos at a briefing on the state of the nation and the graduation ceremony of the children of the martyrs who have lost either of their parents to the insurgency in the north on the 23rd of July.

    On the activities of the organisation, which has been working relentlessly to ameliorate the hardship of children orphaned by persecution over the decades, he said: “The first batch of children brought from Kaduna State to Abeokuta was eight in number. Without funding and support, we increased the number to 14 and then to 20, later to 50.

    “We later brought children from Kano, Bauchi, Jos and Maiduguri. Now, there are 424 of such children here. Each of them lost one of the parents or both in the religious uprising in most part of the north.”

    He added: “Today, we have had 118 of them graduated from the college. Over twenty of them are in various universities being supported by the generosity of concerned Nigerians.”

  • Boko Haram and northern leaders’ responsibility

    SIR: Since the outbreak of violent attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents in 2009, the group’s mode of operation, style and pace have changed markedly.  Whereas, in the beginning, the attacks were wider in scope and directed mainly at government installations – which included the United Nations building and Police Headquarters in Abuja – they are now restricted to the fringes of the affected three States of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, with vulnerable civilian populations, especially school children, as targets.

    Military experts interpret the change to soft targets as a sign that the insurgents are retreating and that the war is about to end.  However, the opposition and critics of the government claim that insofar as the casualty figures, in human and material terms, are still rising, the war against Boko Haram is far from over.  Irrespective of political persuasions, Nigerians should be worried about the current security situation.

    It is frightening that within the last one or two weeks alone, as many as 200 defenceless and innocent people, including school children, have been killed by members of the Boko Haram sect.   Of these, women and children are the worst-hit.

    It is true that the Boko Haram operations are now restricted mainly to the three affected states.  There can be no doubt that their activities have paralysed the economies in much of the North.  Indeed, the negative effects of their atrocities cut across the entire country.  For the national economy to thrive, there must be uninterrupted flow of investments within and from international investors.  That flow is not possible in an unstable social and political environment such as the one that now exists in the affected states.  Apart from the US and some European countries that have issued travel alert to their citizens against travelling to Nigeria’s northern states, foreign direct investments in the states have dropped significantly.  The three states are now regarded as a pariah zone by international investors.

    It is true that Nigeria had, before Boko Haram, experienced insurgency, militancy or religious fanaticism.  However, none of these past experiences was as senseless as the Boko Haram insurgency.  When someone tried the other day to compare Boko Haram with the Niger Delta militancy, his error was glaring: while the Niger Delta militants were identifiable youths – Tompolo, Atake Tom, Boyloaf, etc – who made clear their demands, the Boko Haram insurgents are faceless operators with an unspecified mission, except that they want to Islamize the entire nation and obliterate Western education!

    The truth about Boko Haram is that those who knew how it all started would agree that it was politically motivated.  Unfortunately, the terror sect has grown into a Frankenstein’s monster such that even those who created it now distance themselves from its destructive activities.

    Northern leaders owe the nation the duty of helping to salvage the situation by virtue of their status as leaders of the various communities that produced the insurgents.  To claim that the young men (and perhaps women too) have outgrown their communities is unacceptable.  Boko Haram members, no matter their degree of indoctrination, still belong to the normal Nigerian extended families; they are under family heads, ward leaders and chiefs, and the insurgents are still subject to kinship discipline.

    If the Northern leaders are looking for an example to learn from, it is readily provided by elders of the South-south zone who took charge when the unrest in the Niger Delta was at its peak.  Leaders such as E.K Clark, Tony Anenih and then Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, had to go into the hideouts of militants to preach the urgent need for peace in the region.  Based on their efforts, the militants accepted the amnesty deal and surrendered their weapon in 2009.   Northern leaders should take a cue.

    • John Udumebraye

    Port Harcourt.

     

  • Gulak dares Northern leaders over support for Jonathan

    Gulak dares Northern leaders over support for Jonathan

    The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Ali Gulak declared yesterday that Northern leaders who are threatening to vote against President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s election are free to keep their support.

    He said there are other people from that part of the country who are willing to vote for the president.

    “If you say you won’t vote for Goodluck another person would vote for him even from your own house. If Ango Abdullahi says he will not vote for Goodluck Jonathan, Tanko Yakassai will vote for him,” Gulak said on the Kaduna based Liberty Radio against the backdrop of continued agitation by the Ango Abdulahi-led Northern Elders Forum (NEF) for the return of the Presidency to the North in 2015.

    Gulak blamed the turbulent regional politics of the First Republic for most of the socio-political problems confronting Nigeria today.

    He said:”Nigeria got it wrong maybe right from the beginning. Don’t forget that immediately after independence, we had military coup because political development at that time was turbulent. Don’t forget operation wetie in the Southwest and the fact that Zik had to leave the Southwest party to form the NCNC. Don’t forget that our politics at that time was regionalised.

    “The Southwest had the Action Group (AG), the North had the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and the East had the NCNC. And because politics was so regionalised, people went to their regional cocoon and I think that was where we started getting it wrong.

    “Instead of looking at issues from a nationalist point, we were more regional and after that turbulence that followed, the Military came in and there were coups and counter coups until 1979 when we again had a taste of democracy under Shehu Shagari. After four years, the military again came in.”

    Speaking on the reported pressure by President Jonathan on his deputy to give the governorship ticket of the state to Senator Isaiah Balat, Gulak said “this is the handiwork of the opposition who have come back with their mischief.”

    He said:”President Goodluck has nothing to do with Kaduna politics in terms of who becomes governor. It’s entirely in the hands of the Kaduna people.

    “We know their tactics which is to divide the house, bring in differences for the opposition to come in and take over. The strategy of divide and rule, causing confusion within the presidency and the PDP will not work”.

    Gulak asked Nigerians to leave the interpretation of the constitution on the eligibility of President Jonathan for the courts to decide, saying “let us leave that to the court to decide. President Goodluck became President on 6th May, 2010 after the death of late President Yar’Adua and the constitution says on the death of the president, the vice becomes the president. President Goodluck did not write the constitution.”

  • Emergency rule and northern leaders

    SIR: Almost four decades ago, Martin Luther King Jnr spoke the minds of many people when he said, “The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft-mindedness”. One cannot but concur with the declaration of emergency rule in parts of Northern Nigeria which has since been reduced to slaughter slab. It is on record that the President has tried all known peaceful approaches in crisis resolution to end the orgy of violence. Yet perpetrators of violence deliberately refuse to submit to peace process and still carry out their nefarious trade with great determination. The terrorists continue to invade places of worship, private and public institutions with heavy materials of war to kill and destroy. Shortly after the President announced the amnesty approach as a step to end the causeless violence in the north, a man who at best could be described as a monstrous coward appeared in a video only to reject the amnesty offer claiming that his gang of killers are the one to grant amnesty to Nigeria and indeed Nigerians.

    If not for anything else, I urge Nigerians to support the emergency rule so that those who hide under the mask to commit evil will come to understand that simplicity is not weakness. I do not intend to join issues with a few men who call themselves northern elders but I understand that they claim that the President is unfair to them in view of the ongoing emergency rule. These men who arrogate to themselves the title elders could not offer other workable alternative to peace and they forgot so easily that the President has also taken all known non-violence approaches which seem to have failed. They want the President to lie low when our sovereignty is being challenged by group of men whose heart belongs to the devil. Since government has a duty to defend its territorial integrity and people, the military action taken remains noble and suitable at this time.

    Under the very watchful eyes of the elders, these characterless fellows brought down the Nigerian flag and hoisted a foreign flag. This singular act amounts to a declaration of war. Therefore military action becomes inevitable to respond to such declaration of war by terrorists. I expect the northern elders to expose those agents of doom to our security forces. The fight against terror should not be left to the government alone. They should call on the sect to lay down their arms and embrace the amnesty approach.

    • Ehi G.O.

    Benin City.

  • Boko Haram: FG urges northern leaders to be more courageous

    The Federal Government has challenged Northern leaders to be more courageous in the efforts to end the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

    The minister of Information, Labaran Maku also  reminded northern leaders that the peace in the Niger Delta did not come easy but for the courage and direct involvement of leaders from the region who went to the creeks to talk to the boys.

    The minister spoke during the pre-briefing on the planned Niger Delta stakeholders’ forum slated for Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state.

    The stakeholders conference and inaugural meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta is to launch the Niger Delta Action Plan, a set development milestones to be achieved in the next few years.

    The plan contains a comprehensive, integrated infrastructure framework which will involve everybody, which is meant to give ownership of projects in the region to the people through collective involvement.

    Speaking at the occasion, the minister stressed that the people must understand that it is impossible to have development when peace in the absence of peace.

    He noted that with the return of peace in Niger Delta, the region he said in the  next 10-15 years would have achieved a lot in terms of development.

    He urged all the leaders in the country who believed in one Nigeria to join in the search for peace in the country.

    “Whenever violence becomes a way of life development can never be visible”, he said stressing that resources of other region are equally significant, but without peace the country cannot see development.

    He therefore charged Northern leaders to follow the steps of Niger Delta leaders who had to go all the way even as far as into the creeks to talk to the militants to embrace peace.

    The result he said is evidential now as the country is benefiting from improved production of crude oil which translate to improve income for the country.

    He also added that for the fact that the Niger delta are moving forward,we all we move forward because if we move forward,Nigeria will move forward and if any part of this country is moving backward we can’t move forward so that if the Niger Delta  presents an example of what  we can achieve when leaders stand up and  become courageous and identify with the problems” in the country

  • Northern leaders and amnesty for Boko Haram

    I want to believe that anything the north wants from the federal government they get it without much ado. During the voter registration in 1999, when it was programmed that the data should include religion, the north rejected it because they felt it will not favour them and the federal govt agreed with them.

    Every discerning Nigerian should now know that the northern politicians are the brain behind the Boko Haram insurgency. The northern leaders felt that too much money is going to the Niger Delta through 13 percent derivation and amnesty granted to the Niger Delta militants by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. The northern politicians thought of the ways to increase their earnings by floating Boko Haram sect with an agenda to forward their demand to the President during dialogue with the sect. Now that it seems that President Goodluck Jonathan is not favourably disposed to granting of amnesty to the sect as demanded by the northern politicians, you will not be surprised that the activities of Boko Haram will now extend to other states of the country in order to bring the federal government to its knee.

    During the presidential campaign in 2011, it was this same politicians who made a statement that should Goodluck Jonathan win they would make the country ungovernable for him. This is happening now. The President himself knows those who made that statement but when he became the President he failed to muster the will power to bring to book those who threatened the peace of the country during electioneering campaign.

    If the north had won the 2011 presidential election, Nigerians would not know anything like Boko Haram and we would have been saved from these incessant cold blooded murders.

     

    By Israel Oyegbile,

    Sabo Tasha, Kaduna

  • Northern leaders call for Amnesty Commission

    Northern leaders are pushing for a legal backing to the granting of amnesty to aggrieved individuals who have taken up arms against the state in form of the establishment of an Amnesty Commission backed by law.

    The northern leaders have written to President Goodluck Jonathan on the need to set up such a commission which they said will be empowered to work out the process of granting amnesty in the country.
    Former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof Ango Abdullahi told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Kaduna that they have asked the government to establish an Amnesty Commission which will have the backing of law and operate independently in granting amnesty to members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
    He said that when the commission is established, men of integrity and honesty should be appointed into the Commission, adding that doing so will ensure that the desired objectives of granting amnesty to members of the sect members will be achieved.
    He said “we went with this advice in writing. Our thinking was that if the government felt it would be granting amnesty just like that, then there should be an authoritative body whose responsibility will be to set up how this amnesty will be granted, and also those affected will not be afraid to come out.
    “That was the reason we said so. We did not even asked for the setting up of a committee. We suggested for the establishment of an amnesty commission, a commission is different from a committee but I hope it is a step that will lead to the commission.
    “If a commission is established by law, it is independent and with honest individuals appointed to lead it, they will set up the process through which the desired objectives would be achieved,” he said.
    The former Presidential Adviser on Food Security however decline to comment on whether the northern elders pressured President Jonathan into granting amnesty to members of the sect, saying “I can’t say that, but perhaps those who were against it before realized that force cannot solve the problem.
    “Guns will not solve the problem, if all prisons will be full with those suspected, it won’t solve the problem. The only solution is to go back to the people, let them speak out their problems and grievances on the nation’s state of affairs. That’s how we can get a clue to the problem.”

     

    ENDS