Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has said that northerners have been holding key positions in successive federal administrations but have failed woefully to fashion out and implement programmes to tackle poverty, adress infrastructure gap and unify northerners.
The governor warned that if Northerners failed to retrace their steps and tackle insecurity and developmental challenges facing the region with all the energy and resources they can muster, they may not be able to sleep in their houses in the next five years.
The governor advocated that past and present northern leaders should fashion out a Marshal Plan for youth development in the North.
Speaking on Wednesday as a panelist at the Stakeholders’ Roundtable On Northern Nigeria Youth Development, organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani argued that the people’s patience was running out because, “they are beginning to question our actions. They are saying no to our self-centered politics. They are demanding answers. And answers we must give them.’’
Sani maintained that, “for us to make progress as a region, we must stop living in denial. We must look at ourselves in the mirror and accept that we have failed our people. Blaming others for our predicament will not take us anywhere. If we fail to retrace our steps and tackle our security and developmental challenges with all the energy and resources we can muster, we may not be able to sleep in our houses in the next five years.”
The Kaduna State governor noted that the Marshal Plan must involve all stakeholders, adding that “all Northerners who held political positions from 1999 to date (from the Federal to State Levels) must be involved in this Northern Rescue Mission.’’
‘’Our people want to know why the North is backward despite the humongous amount sank into its development. They want to know why the Northern Elite who have for years been in control of the levers of power failed to develop the North. They want to know why there are thriving Southern owned industries and banks, while very few are owned by people from the North,’’ he added.
He recalled that before 2016, the North was largely peaceful, adding that “there were only occasional ethno-religious conflicts. People could travel freely around the North without fear of being attacked by criminal elements.
The governor lamented that “while other regions are busy addressing developmental challenges and making life better for their people, terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, and communal conflicts have left Northern communities desolate. Our youths have been terribly impacted by the activities of non-state actors.Then came terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and insurgency. We folded our arms and failed to address the underlying causes of these threats to our collective existence.”
