•ACF national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh
The Board of Trustees of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has observed that Northern youths are a time bomb ready to explode at any moment, saying that the Northern governors have over the years refused to address the negative socio-economic situation youths from the zone are going through, thereby pushing most of the youths into criminality.
Speaking at the second meeting of the Board of Trustees in Kaduna on Wednesday, the chairman of the BoT, Ambassador Shehu Malami, noted that if urgent steps are not taken to address their plight, they would explode at any given moment.
To this end, he tasked Northern governors to industrialise the region, as well as establish financial institutions to facilitate employment and development.
The chairman also lamented the dwindling economic fortunes of the country, saying the negative effects of the nation’s economy is more pronounced in the north than in any part of the country.
He, however, blamed the bad economy on ineffective and inefficient monetary policies of the government which led to the current, “hyper-inflationary trends stiffing the economic and industrial growths and well-being of our people”.
“It appears that our leadership in the north is yet to understand and appreciate the bad situation of our youths. They are time bombs that can explode at any given moment. It is utterly injurious and catastrophic to delay any action to salvage them from lethargy, drugs and substance abuse and despondency, banditry and many more vices we can think of.
“No sensible being will be happy to rely on any form of palliative. Every average person wants to earn his living. Our leaders must show enough seriousness on the future well-being of youths. They must find the way and means to encourage them in productive activities.
“As critical stakeholders, it behoves on us to conscientiously address our State governments in the north to take decisive actions towards industrialising the region. Northern governors and persons of means should be in a position to establish banking and other financial institutions to facilitate growth and development.
“Solid minerals and other resources abound in every State of our region which should be tapped as a matter of priority and urgency for our collective good. Our governments in the region should be made to understand this fact; to neglect agriculture is to court disaster and peril to ourselves,” he said..
On the state of security of the nation, Malami regretted that despite ACF’s concern to ensure security of the people and the nation, “Boko Haram insurgency, Fulani wanton killings and kidnappings, herders/farmers face-off, and other insurgent group masquerading as the Fulani, have come to pose more security challenges facing the government and citizens, particularly in the north”.
The BOT chairman also took a critical look at various agitations for restructuring and the demands for the separation of the country as well as resource control, saying that, “While we do not harbour any fears for all these gimmicks, we must seriously be on our guard to stem any untoward moves from any group on our region.
“We need proper preparation even if dialogue is preferred against any form of physical confrontation. It is for this that the ACF should take every reasonable step to interface with our counterparts; the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the South-South Peoples Conference, the Oduduwa and the Afenifere as proposed last week during the NEC meeting of the ACF,” he concluded.
(Nigerian Tribune)
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