The ongoing problems currently tearing the northern part of the country apart were engineered by ex Heads of State, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders from the region, President, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani has claimed.
According to him, 70 per cent of the problems facing the north were caused by ex-presidents and leaders from the region, while the remaining 30 per cent were as a reuslt of President Goodluck Jonathan’s poor and incompetent administration.
Sani described as a “waste” the number of years ex-heads of state and presidents of northern zone had spearhead the affairs of Nigeria.
He added that they failed to empower the region educationally, socially as well as economically.
According to him, past leaders such as Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari, Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, the late Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as the late Umaru Yar’Adua, all succeeded in inflicting the northern region with poverty.
Sani, who is eyeing for the seat of the Kaduna Central Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, argued that President Jonathan only worsened the problems of the region while past leaders of the North simply left a region in a sorry state.
The activist made these claims while addressing sacked and unpaid workers of textile industries in the North, who gathered on the premises of the Kaduna Textile Limited, in Kaduna State on Saturday.
His words said, “70 per cent of the North is destroyed by northern leaders and 30 per cent is being destroyed by Jonathan. We must take the blame and must tell ourselves the truth. Northern leaders had the opportunity to industrialise, to educate and to uplift the social standard of the region but they left behind a trail of poverty, of discord among people of diverse faiths and ethnic affinities.
“They left behind a region backward educationally and industrially. They left behind a region whose future is in doubt. For over three decades, when northerners were in power, they used the opportunity to empower traditional rulers and some religious leaders as well as making the rich, richer and pauperised the common man.
“They were not able to do what Jonathan is doing by 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 region.”
He said, “I must at this junction condemn the ongoing violence in northern part of the country. This act of terror and the discord between the Muslims and Christians and the backwardness of the region must stop.
“We are concerned that the northern part of Nigeria is today becoming a theatre of violence and mindless killings. If there are functional industries, educational system and leadership, the North could not have been where it is today”, he added.
Speaking earlier, the General Secretary of the Coalition of Closed and Unpaid Textile Workers Association, Kaduna State, Mr. Ishar Iorngulum, said the workers had decided to support the candidature of Sani as the next senator representing the Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly in 2015 because of his credibility and love for his people.
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