Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule; Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum, Chief Sunday Awoniyi; and National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Audu Ogbeh, have said the elite in the North should be held responsible for the “backwardness” of the region.
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Speaking at the second day of the first Northern Unity conference organised by the Northern Governors Forum, on Thursday, in Kaduna, they said that selfishness and discrimination had taken the place of selfless service and love among the Northern elite.
First to fire the salvo was Sule who lamented that the present set of Northern leaders had jettisoned the virtues of the first generation of leaders of the region.
He argued that the North would have been a better place, if its successive leaders had emulated the attributes of the late former Premier of the region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello; and former Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
He said, “Our past leaders knew no boundaries either on the basis of religion or tribe. The late Sardauna of Sokoto and premier of our region never discriminated against any Northerner.”
Sule charged Northern leaders, including traditional, religious and political leaders, to have a change of attitude in order to reunite the people of the North.
On his part, Awoniyi said the selfish and divisive tendencies of successive Northern leaders had frustrated all genuine efforts to move the once “powerful” region forward.
Awoniyi told Northern elite to take responsibility for the North’s underdevelopment.
According to him, “all Northern leaders should have themselves to blame, because we have all fallen short of praises”.
He noted that, instead of being more united, some prominent leaders who are looked upon as leaders, “have suddenly turned themselves into religious and tribal warlords”.
While restating that the ACF was non-partisan and open to all Northerners, Awoniyi, however, warned that, “no one should attempt to hijack the organisation for political goals.”
In his own remarks, Ogbeh lamented that, rather than find ways of helping themselves by embarking on developmental projects, the North was blaming others for its problems.
The PDP chairman told the cream of Northern elite at the conference to do something concrete and positive to clean the image of a “parasite presently given to it.”
He asked, “Where do we begin? When do we begin? How do we begin to solve these mirage of problems confronting us a people today?
“Are we thinking of re-assembling here next year to repeat the same discussions and arguments made here for two days? What do we do?”
According to him, “The biggest disease in the North today, we believe, is that everybody must get into politics as the only source of survival".
He enjoined Northerners, especially the rich, to engage in more productive sectors like agriculture, mineral resources development and other sectors of the economy.
"It is time to create wealth; not to cry, it is time to produce and not to consume, it is time celebrate and not to bemoan,” Ogbeh said.
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