Patron of Gamji Members Association (GAMA) and Mutawali of Ilorin, Dr Alimi AbdulRazaq, yesterday called on leaders of northern Nigeria to urgently address educational backwardness and youth unemployment to check insecurity in the region.
AbdulRazaq, while addressing members of GAMA in his Surulere residence in Ilorin, he said the leaders must urgently address the educational challenge by encouraging mass enrolment of youths in schools, noting that educated citizens would not take up arms against the state and innocent citizens.
He said the leaders should also make efforts to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the North.
AbdulRazaq who is also the grand patron of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kwara State, added, “Leaders should address the problem of insecurity in the North as an emergency. Lack of access to education and youth unemployment are the major causes of banditry and insecurity generally in the North. Kwara for instance is an example of a peaceful state. We want our leaders to replicate Kwara’s model across the 19 northern states. We thank the leadership of Kwara State and security agencies for ensuring peace in the state. Our leaders should please address the issue of insecurity in the north.
“There are challenges in the North today because of the failure of successive northern leaderships to promote the ideals of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and his colleagues. We must promote unity among northerners. We in Kwara will continue to promote and uphold the ideals of the late Sardauna,”
AbdulRazaq praised members of GAMA for their perseverance and for sustaining and promoting the ideals of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, whom he noted prioritized the development of the north and its people during his time.
He congratulated the Sardauna of Ilorin , Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, praying Allah to grant him long reign and more successes as a political leader and traditional title holder.
Earlier, the president general of GAMA, Alh Mohammed Tunde Akanbi, had, noted that the history of northern Nigeria will be incompleted without a mention of the name of the late patriarch of AbdulRazaq’s family of Ilorin, Alh AGF AbdulRazaq (SAN) who was the first lawyer in the entire northern region.
