Northern Governors Forum and the Growing Disenchantment
John Shiklam writes on
the growing disenchantment in the North following the
failure of the region’s governors to tackle the myriad of
problems stunting development in the area
Northerners are becoming increasingly disappointed with the
Northern States Governors Forum over the perceived failure
of the governors to tackle the myriad of problems
bedevilling the region. The forum, an umbrella body for the
governors of the 19 northern states, was founded many years
ago to promote unity, political and economic development of
the region. However, since its establishment, the forum has
achieved little or nothing in terms of tackling the problems
facing the region.
Escalation Many people have continued to question the idea behind the
NSGF’s meetings in view of the peculiarities of the various
states within the region. They appreciate the lofty
intentions behind the forum but lament the continued
escalation of the problems, despite the meetings of the
governors.
Today, poverty is pervasive in the region, there is high
level of illiteracy, many industries have folded up, making
thousands of people jobless and susceptible to crimes, such
as armed banditry, cattle rustling, and kidnapping. The
people are sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines,
partly because of the bias and discriminatory policies of
some state governments in the region based on religious and
political considerations.
There also the Boko Haram insurgence, which has ravaged the
North-east, and the menace of Fulani herdsmen in southern
part of Kaduna State, Plateau, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa and
Zamfara states. Many industries have folded up, especially the textile
companies, which used to be the largest employer of labour
in the region after farming. These are the issues that have always topped the agenda of
the meetings of the NSGF. Yet little has been done to
address the problems.
Protest The forum has of recent has come under serious criticism.
The governors are accused of of wasting public resources on
their meetings, which many described as mere talk shops with
no concrete plan to deal with the issues that trouble the
region. . This was the reason behind the protest by the Coalition of
Northern Youths, when the governors held a two-day
extraordinary meeting with the Northern Traditional Rulers
Council, which started on Monday at Government House, Kaduna.
The youths had on Tuesday, the second day of the governors’
meeting, marched to the Government House to protest against
the meeting. Although they were prevented by policemen from
accessing the venue of the meeting, leader of the group,
Comrade Isa Abdullahi, declared that the meeting had no
direct bearing on the people. According to him, since the
inception of the NSGF, it has not impacted positively on the
region, instead, the North has continued to be inflicted
with problems.
He lamented the high rate of poverty, illiteracy, diseases
and underdevelopment in the region, despite its abundant
agricultural and mineral resources. “Every time they meet,
it is a repetition of the issues. They discuss the same
issues over and over again without any action. We have not
seen any economic or political benefit of these their
meeting since they started it many years ago,” Abdullahi
said.
He called on the governors to wake up and address the
problems. Also speaking, president of Arewa Defence League, Murtala
Abubakar, noted that the meeting of the NSGF had no
relevance, as it has failed to solve the problems facing the
region. He said, “Before the present administration, we
realised the meeting was just a mere talk shop. They will
come and drink tea and leave after which they will issue a
communiqué and go back.
“The next time they hold the meeting again, it is still
another empty talk, no action, they keep repeating the same
issues without solving even one problem. “Whatever decisions they take at the meeting, no action will
be taken. This has been going on for a long time. So as far
as I am concerned, they are just wasting resources and their
time.” Abubakar said his group started protesting against the
meeting since 2013 and when the governors became irritated
about the protests, they moved to Abuja.
“Now, they are back to Kaduna again, but this time, they
changed the venue (from Hassan Katsina House, Kawo) to the
Government House, so as to frustrate any protest against
them. “We want to see the governors being proactive, we want to
see them working for the people. In fact, our problems are
getting compounded, despite their meetings. So it is
counterproductive, it is a waste of time and resources, it
is not result-oriented.”
Although, Second Republic governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa, would not comment on the meeting of the NSGF,
he recalled that during the Second Republic, governors
across the federation had a forum where they meet. “I will not comment on northern governors meeting, but
during our time, all the governors in the federation were
meeting together,” he said. “Ours was called Nigerian
progressive governors meeting. We didn’t find it necessary
to have northern governors meeting, we find it more
desirable to have a national progressive governors meeting,
made up of governors of PRP (People Redemption Party), GNPP (Great Nigeria Peoples Party), UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria),
NPN (National Party of Nigeria) and NPP (Nigerian Peoples
Party).”
Musa said, “We were meeting to discuss national issues and
how to bring about unity in Nigeria. We were also comparing
notes with each other’s development programmes. We governors
of the PRP considered ourselves more progressive than
governors of the NPN and we wanted to bring about the
benefit of the progressives governors. “We had leaders like Aminu Kano, Waziri Ibrahim and Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe who everybody could see clearly that they
were more progressive than Shehu Shagari and the NPN
government. Today, you cannot clearly make that
distinction.”
Rationale Chairman of NSGF and governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim
Shettima, in his address at the Kaduna meeting, said it was
the first of its kind in recent memory. He said the meeting
was convened to collectively deliberate and “find urgent,
practical but lasting solutions to the myriad of
socio-economic and political problems besetting the region.” Shettima stressed that some of the challenges being faced by
the North were challenges of managing multiculturalism and
heterogeneous issues and good governance which must be
addressed for the region to move forward.
He stated, “As leaders of government, traditional rulers and
community as well as religious leaders, we must unite to
tackle the challenges that stare us in the face… “Our core challenges in the North today revolve around
intolerance, absence of peaceful coexistence, poverty,
illiteracy and lack of unity. How can we address these
critical concerns? We, the 19 governors of northern states
believe that a gathering of some of the key leaders of the
North is more than able to provide solutions to our
problems. “As governors, we are more determined than ever, to
sincerely walk the talks generated from this important
meeting.”
He said there was no gainsaying the North was a poor and
pathetic shadow of its former self. “ A well-endowed, promising geographic space which accounts
for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s land mass, up to at least 60
per cent of its population, with huge solid minerals
resources, with potentials for hydrocarbon resources, a
growing mining industry, rich arable lands, a blossoming
agro-industrial economy, Nigeria’s wealthiest region by GDP
and the region with the brightest prospects for accelerated
economic growth; in short, arguably Nigeria’s most thriving
region, has literally conspired against itself to be reduced
to the laughing stock of the world,” the NSGF chairman
lamented.
Shettima bemoaned the activities of the deadly Boko Haram
insurgents, rural armed banditry, cattle rustling, ethnic
and religious conflicts, saying the underlying causes are
poverty, illiteracy, social exclusivity and severely limited
economic opportunities.
Traditional Rulers Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, chairman of the NTRC
and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abukakar II, said
traditional rulers in the region were worried and sad with
the state of insecurity in the North, especially happenings
in southern Kaduna, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and the
state of IDPs in the North-east and other parts of the
country.
According to him, “One of the numerous reasons why violence
continues to thrive in our midst is the impunity that is
allowed to thrive in our midst. Nobody is punished for
criminal doings they commit. “We are therefore, strongly supporting more measures taken
and to be taken by governors of the northern states,
especially the governor of Kaduna State. We must all strive
to achieve lasting peace in the North in particular and the
whole country in general.” Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the host governor, in his address,
said the meeting came at a time when all hands must be on
deck to complement government’s effort to restore peace in
different parts of the North and Nigeria as a whole.
El-Rufai said, “I believe that one of the major issues that
would occupy our time today is to discuss the security
challenges bedevilling this part of the country, especially
clashes between herdsmen and local communities, terrorism,
kidnapping, cattle rustling, among others. “All political, traditional and religious leaders must rise
in condemning the incessant killings and destruction of
lives and properties in our region.”
El-Rufai noted that the security situation had become
worrisome, as people who had co-existed peacefully for
several years now allowed some unscrupulous elements to
instigate them to take arms up against one another, leading
to the wanton destruction of lives and property. “We must strive and restore our region to the status of its
glorious past of peace, progress and development. We must
not allow religion or tribal differences to be a barrier
between us and our common humanity,” he said.
Communiqué A communiqué which was issued at the end of the two-day
meeting said the leaders had resolved: “to accept the
recommendations of the Body of the Attorneys General of the
19 Northern States to domesticate the model penal code, the
model Fiscal Responsibility Law and the model Administration
of Criminal Justice Law through the necessary legislative
actions and subject to the individual peculiarities of the
state in order to ensure transparency, prudent management of
public funds as well as smooth dispensation of criminal
justice in the region; the restructuring of the New Nigeria
newspaper to a modern media outfit; reviving of Kaduna
Textile Limited, jointly owned by the states.” Some of the above issues had dominated previous meetings of
the governors, but nothing concrete was done to actualise
the resolutions. It remains to be seen if the northern
governors would prove the pessimists wrong this time.
