For over one and a half decades, the North has had little to cheer. Its economy has tanked, development hard to see and the region torn apart by war and ethnic strife.
The good part, though, is that when the region’s governors met in Kaduna, they sought action, not lamentation.
The residents would be happy because they want the governors to bring back the glorious days of the region.
With about 14 governors and two deputies in attendance, the meeting of the Northern Governors Forum under the chairmanship of Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima expressed concern about the economy of the region which has lagged behind in recent years. Addressing his colleagues, Governor Shettima said, “Things have become so bad, so much so that we can say without fear of contradiction that in Nigeria today poverty glaringly wears a bold northern face. We have turned our region into a laughingstock, derided by friends and foes alike, and, not without justification, as having dragged the rest of the country down with us. Regrettably today, our region has become a thriving nest for war, terrorism, deep seated social divisions, senseless violence, mind-boggling intolerance, injustice, destitution, joblessness, and all manners of other social vices, the height of which is the madness called Boko Haram.”
He warned that lamentation, which has become the order of the day in the north, will not solve the problems if necessary action is not taking, adding that it is time for all hands to be on deck and move into actions that will address the challenges.
He said, “No amount of lamentation will, of course, solve our many problems. We need to act, and fast too. This generation of Northern leaders, led by us the governors, have both a moral and constitutional responsibility as well as a historic opportunity to reverse the negative fortunes of our people. We must do everything in our power to restore and entrench the lofty values of unity, understanding, tolerance, mutual respect, empathy, justice and mutual coexistence in the minds of our people and region. We must firmly and decisively commit ourselves to fighting poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, terrorism and other forms violent crimes in the North. I dare say that there is no better time to do that than now, when a sequence of events over the last few months is showing that a silver lining is beginning to appear in the dark clouds that have hovered over the North for so long. I urge us to take full advantage of this development and dedicate ourselves to, beginning from this meeting and within the shortest possible time, developing a comprehensive blueprint that will take our region and its long suffering people out of the woods. I solemnly enjoin all of us to put our heads down, get to work and come up with an agenda for the speedy transformation of Northern Nigeria from its current travails into a well modern, well developed, prosperous, progressive, just and united polity for the good of its people and the entire Nigeria”.
Shettima recognised the efforts of the government in trying to reposition the country for good governance which he believes will give the region a new lease of life.
He said “For the first time since the early 1980s, the political leadership of the Northern states seem poised to reverse the negative trends that had so readily sown the destructive seed of mutual suspicion, distrust and animosity among the teeming people that occupy the vast lands of of our states. I can see the signs of sincere effort and genuine optimism to draw strength in our diversity and change the narrative of our troubled history in the interest of our region’s history, and indeed,the rest of Nigeria. As leaders of our people at this crucial epoch of our history, and democratically elected ones at that, we are left with no choice but to rise up to the occasion and live up to people’s perfectly understandable expectations. We must seize this moment, for history is beckoning at us. The first generation of Northern leaders -May God Almighty bless them – bequeathed to us a polity, though vast in land mass and complex in its diversity, that showed enormous promise, and was indeed beginning to live to that promise: A polity where the social mantra was unity in diversity, where justice, fairness and equity reigned, where exemplary peaceful coexistence was the order of the day. Not only did succeeding generations of leaders including – sadly – our own, fail to sustain the benchmark handed over by our heroes, they let things to progressively and rapidly deteriorate, in the process exhibiting base irresponsibility of the worst kind. Thus, from those dizzying heights of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s when the North was the cynosure, if not the envy, of all eyes, we plunged to the nadir of the social ladder.”
The Forum however identified unemployment amongst youths, high illiteracy level, arms and drugs proliferation, poverty, inactive preaching, Almajiri phenomenon, lack of recreational facilities and sporting events, inadequate use of traditional institutions and lack of cottage industries to engage the unemployed as major causes of insecurity in the region. It commended the Buhari government for taking proactive measures to end the insecurity especially in he north and for prioritising the fight against Boko Haram and for initiating of the joint Multinational task force and security agencies for the continued onslaught on insurgents and terrorist in the north east. On their part, they agreed to constitute a committee of Attorney Generals of the Northern States to look into criminal justice system taking into cognisance the current security challenges so as to proffer strict punishments to crimes such as cattle rustling, kidnapping, terrorism, rape and domestic violence.
The governors are also concerned about the state of industries in the north especially companies where they have joint investment such as the New Nigeria a Development Company, Kaduna Textile and the New Nigeria Newspapers. They spoke of the need to recapitalize the New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC) and build it into a profit oriented industry and a breeding ground for youth of Northern extraction to be professional in all facets of human endeavour. They also agree to resuscitate the Kaduna Textiles Limited to operate in line with international best practices and agreed to have bilateral and multilateral cooperation with organizations and international institutions in order to explore the opportunity of reviving textiles industries in the region. They also acknowledged that the challenges facing the New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) limited is beyond mere injection of working capital and directed Secretaries to the northern state Governments to carry out an indepth study of the company and present a report for consideration at the forums next meeting.
