With Determination, Sacrifice, North Can Regain Its Value – ACF

The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has said the North can regain its lost values and sense of purpose through determination, commitment and sacrifice.

ACF national publicity secretary, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, made the remark while speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday in reaction to the assertion by elder statesman and former Ahmadu Bello University vice chancellor, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, that the North had lost its value.

In a brief response, Muhammad-Baba said: “Prof. Ango remains a most respectable elder in the North, with a voice always packed with wisdom and sagacity. It is therefore difficult to fault his pronouncements on such matters.

“We can only wishfully add that all is not irretrievably lost. With determination and the necessary sacrifice and commitment to do the needful and the rightful by all, the North can regain its bearings.”

On its part, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) said the North lost its value when the regional system of government was abolished.

MBF spokesman Luka Binniyat, while responding to Abdullahi’s comments, argued that the North had failed to deliver meaningful political or economic benefits to its people.

“The North lost its value and ceased to exist when the regional government was abrogated. What is going on today is not new to us. The North is already gone, even now that Prof. Ango Abdullahi knows it has lost its value. As far as the Middle Belt Forum is concerned, the North has never had any value to its people in terms of politics, economic empowerment or virtually everything.

“It is only now that Prof. Ango Abdullahi has discovered that northern values have collapsed. The way forward is to restructure Nigeria.”

The MBF spokesman urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference.

“We are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take the 2014 Confab report, restructure Nigeria and create new regions.

“Remove the Middle Belt from the North-West. Remove the Middle Belt from part of the North-East. In fact, it was proposed that the Middle Belt should have two regions – Middle Belt West and Middle Belt East – so that we can embrace our civilisation and cultural way of life.

“And then there is resource control. The Confab was very clear on resource control. States or regions should control the resources they produce.

“We are also calling for the repeal of the Land Use Act. It is one of the most backward laws ever enacted. Nobody truly owns land under the current system, so the Land Use Act should be abrogated,” he said.

The loss of values is a national problem – Sani

However, former secretary-general of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, argued that the collapse of values is a national, not a regional, problem.

“National ideals and values have collapsed, not only in the North but across the country. There is no part of the country that is better. Look at the bandits who have spread to the South-West and look at what is happening.

“So, while Prof. Ango Abdullahi may be right, the situation is not peculiar to the North. Our national ideals, moral values and sense of purpose have collapsed across the country,” he said.

Sani called for what he described as a cultural renaissance to rebuild the nation’s moral foundation.

“What is required now is what I call a cultural renaissance. Leadership reflects society. Are Nigeria’s leaders from the moon? No. They are products of society.

“There is an adage that God gives people the leaders they deserve. What we are witnessing today is the consequence of the collapse of our values and national ideals. And this is happening across the country,” he stated.