President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that until there is trust, security challenges will persist, economic stagnation will deepen, and educational deficits will widen.
Tinubu, who was represented by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, stated this on Saturday, in Kaduna, during the 25th Anniversary (Silver Jubilee) of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the launch of the Forum’s Endowment Fund.
He said insecurity in Northern Nigeria remains his deepest worry, adding that it was threatening national progress and stability.
In his speech titled ‘A Generation Summoned by a Crisis’, Tinubu said he took over with multilayered security challenges in place but now addressing them with renewed urgency.
According to the President, “nothing troubles me more gravely than the security crisis bedevilling Nigeria, especially Northern Nigeria. Affliction in any part of the country is a setback for every part. We cannot prosper when one limb of the national body is paralysed.
“The layers and sophistication of the security challenges we inherited are daunting, but what should inspire confidence is the urgency with which my administration is pursuing solutions.”
He this is the time that the North needed more urgently honest, courageous voices .
“Yes, there have been missteps. Yes, there have been moments of drift. But we cannot say the North has failed unless we abandon our responsibility to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
“We fail the day we sleep comfortably while millions sleep with empty bellies, the day fear becomes a permanent companion for travellers moving from one village to another.
“But let no one believe that hope is lost. The dysfunction inherited over decades fractured bonds and strained unity. Yet the ethnic and religious diversity gathered here today is a declaration of the collective resolve to overcome polarisation and resist any agenda designed to divide.”
Tinubu said his administration was committed to restoring peace and prosperity across the region, just as he expressed determination to eliminate terrorist and bandit groups tormenting the North and reversing the region’s economic decline.
The president said there were ongoing infrastructural efforts aimed at unlocking growth, particularly the Abuja–Kaduna–Kano Superhighway, which, he noted, is expected to be inaugurated in Kano “in the coming months.”
According to Tinubu, each era has its unique challenges. “For some, it was to reclaim this nation from the restraints of colonial domination. For others, it was to design the architecture of a democracy that could hold our diversity together.
For yet others, it was to define the moral and social character of a people emerging into modernity.
“One of the gravest tests of its endurance, the corrosion of security, the erosion of communal values, and the distortion of the moral compass that once held communities as one family.
“We came at a time of a jarring rupture in the social ethics of a region whose stability is indispensable to our nation’s collective peace and prosperity.”
He described the gathering as a “sacred gathering of conscience and reflection,” and commended the ACF, saying that for 25 years, it has remained a moral and intellectual force in Northern Nigeria.
“It has assembled patriots, brilliant minds, moral fortresses, and selfless negotiators whose dedication has ensured that the North remains a central pillar in every serious national conversation,” he said.
