Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that Nigeria is
made up of a developing South and a backward, less educated and
unhealthy North, with the highest number of poor people in the world.
El-Rufai stated this in Kaduna on Saturday.
Speaking at a summit, the governor noted that the problems of the
region must be addressed collectively as a group of 19 northern states
governors, not as individual states.
El-Rufai said the summit ” was very timely, adding that “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.
“But, looking at the statistics, Nigeria appears to be a
middle-income country. But, if we segregate those statistics across
states and zones, you will see that in terms of human development
indicators, Nigeria consists of two countries; there is a backward, less
educated and unhealthy northern Nigeria and a developing, largely
educated and healthy southern Nigeria.
“We have to speak the truth to ourselves and ask why is it that
northern Nigeria has development indicators similar to Afganistan, 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 a 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 businessman in Nigeria is still Aliko Dangote, not someone from
southern Nigeria, thank God for that.
“So, 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 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 ten years ago. But ‘na condition
make crayfish bend,’ so we are here.
“But, why are we 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.