Arewa Forum At 25: Time For Sober Reflection

As the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) marks its 25th anniversary, the North stands at a historic crossroads. Institutions rarely survive a quarter-century in a political environment as volatile, distrustful, and factionalised as Nigeria’s.

That ACF, founded in 2000 at the dawn of the Fourth Republic, has endured through political transitions, economic instability, and widening security challenges is itself worthy of recognition.

Its resilience as a platform for northern consensus-building and its consistent advocacy for unity, peace, and national cohesion deserve acknowledgment.

While we celebrate the symbolic significance of the silver jubilee, we must resist the temptation to allow commemoration to overshadow sober reflection.

An anniversary is meaningful not because of ceremonies or speeches, but because of the questions it forces a society to confront. The ACF at 25 must, therefore, be evaluated not by longevity alone, but by its effectiveness, relevance, and capacity to boldly shape the future of the North in a rapidly changing Nigeria. Professor Jibril Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) aptly captures it well in a paper he presented titled “A trend analysis of where Arewa is headed in the next 25 years”. In the paper, Jibril painted a gloomy picture of Arewa’s future. Hear him “There is no soft way of describing the outcome we are currently chasing. Every day, we are warmed that to survive as a people, we must change our ways and move away from the massive level of public corruption and self-aggrandisement that makes it virtually impossible for governments to do their work of producing public goods for the people – security, welfare, good health, infrastructure and so on”. Simply put, the next 25 years matter far more than the last.

Over the years, the ACF has played an important role in providing a collective voice for Northern interests and offering a platform for constructive engagement among political, traditional, religious, professional, and civil society stakeholders. At a time when polarisation and distrust threaten national cohesion, the Forum has consistently affirmed commitment to “One Nigeria” and to peaceful coexistence. This is no small contribution. Nigeria today desperately needs voices that can bridge divides, restore public confidence, and counter the rising tide of extremism, ethnic hostility, and sectional intolerance.

However, celebration must not become a shield against accountability. The truth is that the North remains the region with the most pressing developmental crises in the country — insecurity, massive poverty, collapsing education standards, youth unemployment, weak governance structures, poor health indices, and stunted economic diversification. The North has the largest population, the largest share of the nation’s land resources, and immense potential for agriculture, energy, and industrial growth. Yet it tragically remains the least economically competitive region and the most vulnerable to violence and instability.

For an organisation that was created to advance the collective progress of the region, these outcomes raise difficult questions: What has ACF done effectively in the last 25 years? Where has it fallen short in these years? How can it transform from a respected voice of advocacy into an engine of measurable development? The situation Arewa finds itself today does not need another ceremonial body that issues communiqués in moments of crisis. It needs a results-driven organisation that mobilises expertise, resources, and coordination to address structural problems that threaten its survival.

That is why, we as a newspaper, insists that the 25th anniversary must not become mere pageantry filled with speeches, awards, dinners, and symbolic unity gestures. The time for symbolic leadership has expired. The North stands on the edge of a demographic and security cliff. With millions of children out of school, with youths lured into drugs, criminality, and extremism, and with rural communities suffocated by banditry and displacement, the next decade will determine whether Arewa experiences revival or collapse.

The ACF must therefore seize this anniversary as a turning point, not a resting point. This requires a radical shift from rhetoric to execution; from elite gatherings to grassroots mobilization; from episodic activism to systematic planning. The Forum must invest itself in a bold development agenda anchored on five critical priorities.

First is security. Without regional stability, no investment, no agriculture, no education, and no governance can function. The ACF must work collaboratively with governors, traditional rulers, security agencies, and community actors to develop a coordinated security and peace-building framework rooted in intelligence, social reintegration, and economic alternatives for youth.

Second is education and human capital. The North cannot compete if the majority of its children remain outside the classrooms. The ACF must champion aggressive reforms in basic and technical education and spearhead scholarship, teacher training, and school rehabilitation programmes backed by measurable targets.

Third is youth inclusion and empowerment. The future of Arewa belongs to the young, not to retired elites and aging power brokers. The ACF must institutionalise youth representation in its leadership structure and drive vocational training, entrepreneurship, innovation hubs, and agricultural value chain participation.

Fourth is economic transformation and infrastructure. The region’s vast arable land, renewable energy potential, and market size must be harnessed to create jobs and reduce dependence on federal allocations. The anniversary-initiated endowment fund must be managed transparently, targeted toward infrastructure, industrial processing zones, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) finance.

Fifth is governance and accountability. If the ACF hopes to remain relevant, it must evolve into a transparent, measurable, performance-driven organisation. It should publish a clear Arewa Development Agenda with a long-term vision to 2050, including specific Key Performance Indices (KPIs) and annual performance reports.

Arewa cannot afford another 25 years of speeches that produce no transformation. It cannot continue to be defined by insecurity and poverty while elites rotate positions and celebrate anniversaries. This moment demands courage, discipline, and strategic clarity. The ACF must prove it is not an echo chamber or nostalgic club of elder statesmen, but a living institution capable of leading regional renewal.

As a medium committed to national progress, we celebrate the milestone of the Arewa Consultative Forum. But our celebration is not unconditional. We challenge the Forum to match symbolism with substance, tradition with innovation, and identity with development. The North’s future, and indeed Nigeria’s stability, depends on what ACF chooses to do from this moment forward.

Anniversaries are not victories. They are responsibilities. If the ACF uses this moment to reform, rebuild, and re-imagine Arewa’s future, history will judge the silver jubilee not as a ceremonial gathering, but as the beginning of a new dawn. But if it settles for nostalgia, then the next 25 years will be remembered not with pride — but with regret.