Rakiya A. Muhammad
18 November 2008
Sokoto — Chairman of the Northern Speakers' Forum, Goni Ali Modu yesterday harped on the need for the forum to examine and tackle headlong, all the economic, social and other pressing problems facing people of the region.
Modu who is also the Spea-ker, Borno state House of Assem-bly, was speaking at the opening session of the 16th conference of the forum holding for the first time in Sokoto State. He identified some current issues which he said the forum needs to deliberate upon as they affect the North. These include implication of glo-bal financial crises to the North, constitutional review, deplorable state of education in the north, agricultural development, impro-ving the transportation sector and religious pilgrimages among others.
"We must perform our consti-tutional functions diligently and work harmoniously with other arms of government in the inte-rest of our people", the chairman charged.
He recalled that the forum had recorded success in the some areas including resumption of oil exploration in the Benue trough and Chad Basin, utilization of waterfall at Mambilla Plateau for hydro electricity project, calls for desertification control, and reha-bilitation of roads.
In his welcome address the Speaker, Sokoto State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Balarabe Salame expressed joy that that the forum had impacted positi-vely on the lives of Nigerians and said it should to be sustained. Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Wamakko who declared the con-ference open, noted that while the primary functions of the legislature was to make laws, "this strategic arm of government must also have the capacity to be the protector and watchdog of the people's rights."
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