RIGHTS ACTIVIST, SANI, BLAMES NORTHERN LEADERS FOR NIGERIA’S WOES

HUMAN rights activist and leader of Northern Civil Society Coalition, Mallam Shehu Sani Friday, blamed the problems militating against the region, including the current Boko Haram insurgency on past leaders from the north. He said 70 percent of the socio-economic and political problems are attributable to them, while the remaining 30 per cent was as result of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration neglect of the north.
Sani described as ‘waste’ the years when past head of states and presidents of northern extraction had piloted the affairs of Nigeria, pointing out that they not only failed to empower the region, but also ruined it educationally, socially and economically.
According to him, the past leaders which included General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Generals. Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar as well as the late Umaru Yar’Adua, only left behind trails of poverty, discords among the people of diverse faiths and ethnicity rather than development.
Sani, who is also the President of Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and Senatorial aspirant of the Kaduna Central Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said while addressing sacked and unpaid workers of textile industries in the north, who gathered at the premises of the moribund Kaduna Textile Limited, Kaduna State yesterday, that the present state of the north and Nigeria in general was pathetic.
He insisted that the past leaders left behind a region, which future was in doubt, while president Jonathan compounded the woes of the region with the current neglect of his administration towards the north. He further alleged that President Jonathan only empowered the people of the South-South at the detriment of other citizens of the country.
The pro-democracy activist argued that, “70 per cent of the north is destroyed by northern leaders and 30 per cent is destroy by Jonathan. We must take the blame and must tell ourselves the truth. Northern leaders had the opportunity to industrialize, education and to uplift the socio standard of the region but they left behind a trailed of poverty, of discord among people of diverse faiths and ethnic affinities
“They left behind a region backward educationally, industrially. They left behind a region which future is in doubt.
For over three decades when northerners were in power they use the opportunity to empower traditional rulers and some religious leaders as well as making the rich, richer.”
He continued: “They have not been able to do what Jonathan is doing towards empowering the young and the Niger Delta militants, who are being enriched today. It was a wasted opportunity, which I believe should serve as a lesson next time when power is back to the regions.”
While condemning the insurgency in the north, Sani noted that the only way out of the wounds now for the region was to embark on rapid revival of its industries, agricultural sector as well as to harness the resources of the region, rather than over-dependence on the federal allocations.
“I must at this junction condemn the on-going violence in northern part of the country and the act of terror and the discord between the Muslims and Christians and the backwardness of the region.
“We are concern that northern part of Nigeria is today becoming a heaven or a theater of violence and mindless killings. If there are functional industries, educational system, leadership, the north could not have been where it is today.
“There is the need to end the insurgency. There is also the very need to restore the cordial relationship between different ethnic and religious groups that had been turned apart by years of violence. There is also the need to revive the agricultural sector that will provide raw materials that would revive our industries.”
Earlier, the General Secretary of the Coalition of Closed and Unpaid TEXTILE Workers Association, Kaduna, Mr. Ishar Iorngulum said the workers had decided to cue behind the aspiration of Sani to become the next Senator representing the Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly in 2015.
He also said that they would mobilised their other colleagues in other parts of the north on the need to vote against some leaders in the region, come 2015 general election.
According to him, “it is the irresponsibility of the northern governors that led to the collapse of the textile industries in the north so we will vote against them in 2015 election.”
Source: Guardian