ACF, NEF, others decry North’s leadership decline

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Arewa House and several other Northern groups have lamented what they described as a steady decline in leadership quality and governance standards in the North, 60 years after the assassination of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.

The groups made this known on Thursday at a joint press briefing held at the ACF Secretariat in Kaduna, where they announced plans to convene a major regional conference aimed at confronting the North’s political, social and economic challenges.

The conference is being convened by a coalition that includes the Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Arewa House, Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training (CEDDART), A.R.D.P., Arewa Defence League and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), among others.

Reading the text of the briefing on behalf of the organisations, ACF Board Chairman, Bashir M. Dalhatu, recalled that “Today is exactly 60 years since Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto and some of his colleagues were murdered by rogue elements of the Nigerian military,” an incident he said “plunged the country into series of crises including a 30-month Civil War and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.”

While noting that January 15 is marked nationally as Armed Forces Remembrance Day, the groups stressed that the date also represents a critical turning point for the North.

“Key elements of our history are also worth remembering, particularly where they remind us of major turning points in our lives as Northerners and Nigerians,” Dalhatu said.

The Northern leaders described the Sardauna as a model of visionary and accountable leadership, whose legacy contrasts sharply with current realities.

According to the groups, “Although they were human and vulnerable as leaders, their commitment to the people, competence in governance and administration and transparent integrity serve as unmatched standards for generations of leaders.”

They cited the establishment of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and massive investments in education, healthcare and infrastructure as enduring legacies of the Sardauna’s leadership.

They noted that he (Sardauna) “started with just a handful of government schools in the most populous region of Nigeria, yet he died leaving behind hundreds of learning institutions that allowed the children of the rich and the poor equal access to opportunities.”

However, the groups lamented that such achievements now appear distant to the majority of Northerners, particularly the youth.

“Today, more than 70 per cent of Northerners are under 60,” Dalhatu said, adding that the Sardauna and his contemporaries “sound like tales to millions of Northerners today, largely because the North looks back in vain for their successors.”

The briefing painted a bleak picture of the present-day North, pointing to the fragmentation of the old Northern Region into 19 states, rising cost of governance, insecurity and strained communal relations.

“We are having to deal with the unbearable cost of governance, deeply worrying and complex inter-communal relations, conflicts that take lives daily and fights which serve as evidence of poor standards of leadership and management of public affairs,” Dalhatu read.

The groups also lamented worsening poverty and youth disenfranchisement, noting that “millions of them are Almajirai with very little opportunity to be productive adults,” while stories of past public accountability now clash with present narratives.

“When our young hear of the Sardauna leaving behind him one personal house, they find it difficult to believe it,” he added.

Against this background, the ACF, NEF and their partners announced plans to organise the major conference titled ‘Sixty Years Without the Sardauna’ in the first week of April.

According to them, the objective of the conference “is not just to engage in consoling nostalgia, but to place the past in a position where it genuinely influences the present and the future of people of the Northern region.”

They said the forum would bring together elders, intellectuals, traditional rulers, clergy, entrepreneurs, women and youth, and would be “deliberately designed to allow the North to speak to itself, listen to criticisms, explore limitations and enhance understanding of its shortfalls and assets.”

The expected outcome, they said, includes informed and actionable strategies for improving security, economic development and peaceful coexistence, as well as helping the region “commence a productive reversal of its fortunes.”

The groups expressed hope that the conference would also help the North reassess its role in Nigeria’s democratic development and restore values of service, discipline and accountability that once defined its leadership.

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