Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani, his Kano counterpart Abba Kabir Yusuf and former Minister of Communications, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, yesterday traced the deepening socio-economic challenges of the North-West to a widening skills gap and the collapse of industries that once powered the region’s economy.
They spoke at the maiden North-West Stakeholders Development Summit organised by the Joint Senate and House Committees on the North-West Development Commission (NWDC) at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Conference Centre, Kaduna.
The speakers agreed that insecurity, poverty, youth unemployment and the alarming out-of-school children crisis are symptoms of deeper structural failures rooted in poor education outcomes and the disappearance of industrial capacity across the region.
Delivering the keynote address on behalf of Governor Sani, the Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe said the North-West’s development challenges can no longer be addressed by isolated state efforts, stressing the need for coordinated regional action.
Governor Sani described the establishment of the NWDC by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a strategic step towards confronting regional disparities through a purpose-built institution with a long-term mandate.
According to him, the Commission must go beyond bureaucracy to function as a catalyst that aligns policies, mobilises investment and ensures that development efforts across states reinforce rather than duplicate one another.
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He noted that the North-West, with over 50 million people, holds a youthful population that could either become a demographic dividend or a destabilising burden depending on investments in education, skills and jobs.
“Our people are not short of reports; they are short of results,” he said, urging the summit to produce actionable roadmaps with measurable outcomes.
Governor Yusuf who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Umar Faruk Ibrahim, narrowed the region’s crisis to what he called the “twin and intertwined challenges” of insecurity and systemic decay in the education sector.
He lamented that banditry, kidnappings and cattle rustling have displaced communities, destroyed farmlands and markets, and deepened multidimensional poverty across the sub-region.
He proposed the creation of a sub-regional education transformation body under the NWDC to coordinate restoration, innovation and improved education delivery across the North-West states.
The Kano governor also advocated a sub-regional security collaboration framework to enhance cross-border intelligence sharing and support rehabilitation of displaced persons.
Prof. Pantami, in his intervention, linked the region’s present difficulties to the collapse of industries that flourished in Kaduna, Kano and other northern cities in the 1970s and 1980s.
He observed that Northern Nigeria has shifted from being a producer region to largely a consumer one, warning that the trend threatens the future if not urgently reversed.
Pantami blamed the growing skills gap on poor curriculum alignment and the absence of practical, vocational and technical training that matches modern economic demands.
He recommended the adoption of a “dual education” model, where classroom learning is combined with hands-on vocational training, similar to systems used in Germany and Switzerland.
The former minister also highlighted the out-of-school children crisis, noting that a significant proportion of affected children are in Northern Nigeria, posing long-term risks to stability and competitiveness.
The speakers agreed that addressing insecurity without fixing education and skills development, or improving schools without securing communities, would produce limited results.
