Vice Chancellor, Usman Danfodio University Sokoto, Alhaji Tijjani Bande has attributed the high rate of poverty in Northern states to public apathy towards education and acquisition of western knowledge.
He lamented that less attention is paid to education in the Northern region which has further led to underdeveloped manpower resource, squalor and morally depressed society and appealed to the leadership to take proactive measures towards curbing the trend.
He made the assertion yesterday, during the 13th annual Ummah Convention held at Sultan Maccido Institute of Quranic and General Studies Sokoto.
The theme of the conference “Salvaging the Ummah from the Bondage of Poverty and Ignorance” was aimed at addressing the problems of educational and economic backwardness of Muslims in the Northern region.
According to Bande, poverty and ignorance is a veritable instrument in weakening a people, adding that political violence, insecurity, undisciplined citizens and unjust rulers are outcomes of the conditions of poverty and ignorance, the society has been subjected to.
He maintained that most youth are unemployed and are used by politicians as thugs and called for concerted
efforts and massive enlightenment campaigns towards addressing the scourge in the region.
In a paper delivered at the convention, Dr. Haruna Muhammad Salihi of the Department of political science, Bayero University Kano said poverty is a phenomenon that a Muslim should fight against by doing all that is permissible in order to have a comfortable life that is commensurate to his spiritual and mundane needs.
According to him, as the Northern Muslims try to catch up, they find themselves chasing moving targets because they do not define the contexts for the acquisition of wealth and education, pointing out that the advantage their sheer number has given them in politics has not rubbed out the disadvantages of poverty.
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