Northern governors need to go beyond the usual rhetoric for the region to prosper.
Northern Nigeria, a region made up of 19 states, is in trouble socially, economically and security-wise.
Over the years, the region has performed poorly in terms of economic indices with the recent multidimensional poverty index released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealing that the region has a total of 86 million poor people across the three sub-regions. The number represents about 80 per cent of Nigeria's poor people.
The region has also been battling divergent security challenges including the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east, farmers-herders as well religious clashes in the north-central and banditry across the north-west. Thousands of people have been killed and or displaced in the crises that seem unending.
From having the highest number of states that can't sustain themselves without federal allocations to a growing number of out-of-school children and a lack of sufficient manufacturing industries, northern Nigeria has been groaning in pain, as the fight for survival continues albeit in a difficult situation.
"It's the issue of leadership," Baba-Bala Katsina, a social historian, told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Katsina said the leaders of Northern Nigeria in recent decades have not been visionary like their predecessors.
"The past leaders were far better in certain areas of leadership. The past leaders were leaders of vision, ideas and development plans. They grabbed power for the sake of the development of society. That's why when they came to power they knew exactly what they wanted to do and for that, they were able to execute projects that are still in existence and continue to benefit the society. Their landmarks are in all the areas of development including economy, social cohesion, and education."
In contrast, Mr Katsina said, the leaders of today want power to access state resources "That's why they were not able to develop a society capable of managing a modern economy. It's always politics, power and access to state resources."
Troubled Arewa
The sorry situation of the region prompted the northern governors to resolve to face the situation headlong.
At the end of the Northern Governors Forum meeting in Kaduna on 15 December 2023, the governors said they would "pursue the collective interest of the North in areas of enhanced security, peaceful coexistence, economic development, youth employment, drug abuse and revitalisation of education at all levels."
But the meeting in Kaduna was not the first time. In 2016, a meeting of northern governors was held in the United States with the same issues of insecurity, economic mishaps, out-of-school children, and poverty discussed. But all the challenges have only exacerbated.
Now that the governors have taken a new pledge, public affairs analysts are asking them to go beyond rhetoric if they want to succeed.
It is believed in several quarters that the lack of synergy between the 19 governors is affecting resolutions taken during such meetings.
'One of the problems is that the governors see the challenges from their state's point of view. The governors and people of every state think anything that does not affect their state should not be seen as an issue,' said Bashir Danmusa, a Katsina-based economist. "Yeah, they would meet in Kaduna and discuss the challenges but the governors are different individuals with different mindsets and understanding of issues. Sometimes they just discuss and depart and no collective efforts would be taken further."
Criticisms against the governors are often correct because, over the years, the governors have not only failed to create and sustain a collective project or policy but have also failed to sustain the legacies of the first and only Premier of the northern region, Ahmadu Bello. Bank of the North, New Nigerian Newspapers and the Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) are a few examples of legacies that were allowed to run into trouble by the governors.
And though some of these establishments were taken over by the federal government, their acquisition was seen as propelled by the lack of commitment shown by the governors.
The 'Northern Identity' created by the 1960s regional leaders that led to the development of the region and made every person see himself as equal to the other (one north) ended in the gutters with the creation of more states in the country.
'After the creation of states and we ended up having 19 Northern states, the leaders were not able to sustain this Northern identity. In fact, the North became far more polarised through communal conflicts, political and religious crises in Kaduna, Plateau, Bauchi, Benue, Taraba, and Adamawa states.
"Even in the North-west where the identity is assumed to be common, recent conflicts in the subregion are creating a Hausa and Fulani identity crisis," Mr Katsina maintained.
What should the governors do?
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Mr Katsina said the present crop of leaders must create a "pragmatic and socially cohesive northern society" if they want to succeed.
"It'll be very difficult for them to reverse the trend at once but I think they should try a sort of regional economic integration. For example, the North-west can integrate its major sectors of development such as education, agriculture, healthcare and other sectors.
"It'll be difficult for the individual states to develop in isolation because history has created a kind of civilization space in the North-west. If for example, Kano State implements a policy in almajiri education, without the other states doing it, the policy in Kano will fail," he said.
Abubakar Ibrahim, a retired military captain, said the northern governors must be united first before they set out to bring back the glory of the region.
"It will be difficult to forge the sort of unity we had in those days. The past leaders were deliberate in what they wanted to achieve. They were united and had a common goal which was to develop the region. It will be easier if our present leaders including governors and other stakeholders can forget their own political and religious differences. They can not fight insecurity, for example, when they are not united themselves."
