Northern Nigeria has similar devt indicators to Afghanistan – El-Rufai

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state has decried the poor economic indices of Northern Nigeria, comparing the development indicators to that of war-torn Afghanistan, while urging the 19 Northern states to collectively find solution to the myriad of challenges militating against the region’s development. 

El-Rufai, while contrasting between Northern and Southern Nigeria said that, looking at the statistics, Nigeria appears to be a middle income country that consist of two countries; a developing South and a backward, less educated and unhealthy North, with the highest number of poor people in the world.

Addressing the Northern Youth Summit organised by Northern Hibiscus Initiative, an NGO in Kaduna on Saturday, el-Rufai saidw the summit themed;  ‘Awakening the Arewa Spirit’ was very timely, “when we talk about awakening the spirit, it means the spirit is either sleeping or dead. Therefore, this summit is very important, just like our keynote address speaker has said. 

“We have to speak the truth to ourselves and ask why is it that, Northern Nigeria has development indicators similar to Afghanistan, a country still at war? We have the largest number of poor people in the world, most of them in Northern Nigeria. Nigeria also has the largest number of out of school children, virtually all of them in Northern Nigeria.

“Northern Nigeria has become the centre of drug abuse, gender violence, banditry, kidnapping and terrorism. We have also been associated with high divorce rate and breakdown of families. These are the challenges that confront us. This is the naked truth that we have to tell ourselves.

“We must therefore as leaders at all levels have conversation about the way forward for our part of the country. Because increasingly, as many of you must have seen on social media, we are being considered as the parasite of the federal economy, even though, that is not entirely true. Because Northern Nigeria still feeds the nation. The richest business man in Nigeria is still Aliko Dangote, not someone from Southern Nigeria, thank God for that.

“We still have a lot to be proud of, we should be proud of our culture and tradition, as well as unity. You hardly can find someone from Northern Nigeria convicted of 419 or being a yahoo yahoo boy. That is something we should be proud of.

“We are generally considered to be more honest and less corrupt than other Nigerians. That is something we should be proud of. In addition, our demographic superiority gives us a very powerful tool to negotiate in politics. And that is something we should be proud of and we should preserve. So, we have every reason to unite and not be divided.

“I therefore call on you the youth. You account for 80 per cent of the northern population and the future of this region lies in your hands, not in the hands of dinosaurs like me. I’m 59 and among the oldest five per cent of the northern population. I shouldn’t even be Governor, I should have been Governor 10 years ago. But ‘na condition make crayfish bend’, so we are here.

“In my view, we are here to prepare the next generation of leaders. That is why the agenda for this summit is very important. So, you should take the panel discussions very seriously and come up with very clear and implementable decisions that you will circulate to all of us elected to lead in Northern Nigeria.

“I urge Northern Hibiscus to send recommendations from this summit to the Chairman of Northern State Governors Forum. We have to do something about the situation of Northern Nigeria and we must do so as a group of 19 Governors, not individual state Governors,” el-Rufai said, while urging that the event be organised annually in Kaduna. 

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