A northern chieftain, Wazirin Katsina No. 5, Professor Sani Abubakar Lugga, has called on northern leaders to abandon all “elephant projects” and shift their focus to meaningful initiatives that will bolster the region’s economy.
Professor Lugga made the call during a community engagement programme initiated by the Coalition of Northern Groups aimed at tackling the socio-economic challenges facing the northern region.
He highlighted that the northern states have lagged behind in development compared to the southern and eastern regions of the country.
“While we are battling with Boko Haram and banditry, the western and eastern parts of the country are busy improving their infrastructures, industries, creating jobs, and economic channels for the development of their regions,” he said.
Lugga pointed out what he described as a looming catastrophe that could further harm the northern region.
“Did you realise that 80 per cent of industries in this country are in the south and east? Likewise, 80 per cent of higher institutions and universities are in the south and eastern parts of the country. What do we have here in the north?
Whatever we talk of are things of the past when patriotic northern leaders like Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, were in power.
This problem of insecurity we are battling in the north is far more severe than in the south. But because they are serious and united—take, for instance, Amotekun—it has been said that they even have a helicopter for fighting insecurity in the Yoruba region.
But because we are not united, we failed to take a common stand on the issue of fighting the menace of insecurity.
Today, the states that formed Biafra and caused the civil war in the country are not content; they are instigating a country of their own. The Yorubas, too, are calling for a country of their own despite the development in their regions.
What have we been doing to develop our region?”
The Katsina chieftain urged northern leaders to focus on developing the region before any potential disintegration of the country occurs.
“I was born and brought up in Kaduna, and I knew as a young person that between Arewa Textiles and the Peugeot assembly plant, there were thousands of people working. Where are these industries now? We have no industries that are working now in the whole of northern Nigeria. We therefore need to sit up, think, and get ready so that whenever disintegration comes, at least we have something to depend on.”
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