More than thirteen years after I passionately wrote a fiery letter to northern governors on this page, to lament the then ever-increasing rate at which poverty and unemployment were ravaging the northern region of Nigeria, I’m deeply pained and extremely disappointed that I still have a cause, today, to write on the subject matter of development crises on this same page to talk to the same elite characters many of who, rather than tackle the region’s multi-faceted yet inexcusable challenges, chose to prioritise self-aggrandizement and glorification over the development of the north.
At a recent meeting of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) held on Monday March 30, 2026 in Abuja, the Forum’s Chairman who is also the Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, linked the persistent insecurity in the north to poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. What a self-indictment and a resolve to restating the obvious! The northern governors, nineteen of them, have warned that achieving a lasting peace in the north would remain merely illusive without urgent investment in education and economic opportunities. This assertion was made by the Forum’s Chairman, Governor Iunwa Yahaya of Gombe State.
In his opening remarks at the Forum’s meeting, Governor Yahaya observed that insecurity across the north is deeply intertwined with underdevelopment and the growing number of out-of-school children; adding that “tackling illiteracy, poverty and youth unemployment must form the backbone of any sustainable security strategy in the region.” Yahaya also warned of possible farmer-herder conflicts as the rainy season approaches; a phenomenon that threatens agricultural productivity.
Before this collective declaration, the Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago had in May 2025 posited that insecurity in parts of the country was being fuelled by poverty and high level of illiteracy in the country. Governor Bago made the assertion when he received 13 members of syndicate 5, participating in the executive intelligence management course 18 of the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, who were on a course tour of the state. “Poverty and illiteracy are the bane of insecurity,” he said.
These issues that the NSGF is just coming to terms with now have long been identified as critical areas which northern leaders must squarely address if they meant well for the region. Unfortunately, many of them particularly in the past two decades of democratic rule turned deaf ears to the perspectives, warnings, suggestions, and counsels offered by some well-meaning people of the north. For instance, this writer in his column in this newspaper (philosofaith) wrote a piece in 2013 captioned, “A Letter to Northern States Governors”. The piece was serialised for two successive weeks and was published on January 5, 2013 and January 12, 2013. Some of the issues raised in the piece under reference are still valid and germane to the northern situation simply because the governors in the region failed to change the unpleasant narratives of their people. Such relevant excerpts include the following two paragraphs rendered in italics:
“The present state of infrastructural development in contemporary north of Nigeria is not near what the founding fathers of the region dreamt of. A region that was once not only famous with the export of two major cash crops (groundnut and cotton) but also played host to textile industries has nothing to show today in terms of industrial development apart from sachet water … Street begging could be added since such is almost but unfortunately becoming an “industry” in the north! The region’s major export commodities today are poverty, destitution and unskilled labour. No wonder the late Sardaunan Sokoto wrote the NSGF a letter through the eloquent and guileless columnist Aisha Umar Yusuf (published in Weekly Trust Saturday October 24, 2009) to disown your proposal, at that time, to launch a Memorial Foundation in his name.”
“Those who travel wide would attest to the fact that majority of wheel barrow pushers in the markets of Lagos, Enugu, Port-Harcourt, Benin and other major cities around the country are young boys from the north. The same reality reveals itself among commercial motorcycle (okada) and tricycle operators in these cities. The tag “mai-gadi” (Hausa name for a security man) is even portrayed in Nolly-Wood movies as synonymous with a northerner; or more specifically a Hausa man from the north. A character playing the role of a security man in such movies is simply given the name “Adamu”; to illustrate (in their prejudiced perception) that such a job, perhaps, is what a Hausa man from the north could best do to earn a living!
Reading the above excerpts only confirms that not so much has significantly changed. In the second part of the piece (published on January 12, 2013), too, are the following few paragraphs in italics:
“Your Excellencies! Do not take offence from my failure to sing your praises in this correspondence. Achievements are actually worth commending but the challenges confronting the north are so cyclopean that doing so would undercut the moral responsibility which this column, philosofaith, owes you. In the past, billions were mathematical expressions one came across mainly in geography when calculating the distance (in meters) between the nine planets and the sun. Today, the appropriation bill of every state in the north is in billions of naira. Yet, the infrastructural development in the region is, to speak the minds of many, not commensurate with the N8.3 trillion that accrued to the 19 northern states in 11 years!”
“Your Excellencies! You would agree with me that the job being done by the nineteen of you today was what Late Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello did alone as the Premier of Northern Nigeria. Yet, the region under Sardauna reflected quality progress which cannot be compared with what leaders in the north today define as ‘development’. These days, we have more schools with little education; more people to feed but few farmers and fewer tractors; and more diseases to fight with limited access to healthcare facilities.”
“It would equally be cost effective to reduce the sky-high number of political aides appointed by some of you. Government properties should only be disposed with a view to replacing them with new, and if possible, better ones. Breeding of thugs which is a practice common to the character of typical Nigerian politicians should be discouraged.”
While we exhort leaders to fear Allah and to see leadership position as a public trust, we pray that Allah guides northern leaders to write a good history of themselves; not a record of indictment that would seek to haunt them even after leaving office, Amin.
