Stories by Patrick Andrew
Deliberate policy set in motion since 2003 and perfected in 2011 laid the foundation for the insurgency that has ruined the economic and socio-political activities in the North East, according to a delegate to the National Conference.
Speaking at the confab yesterday, Dr Yerima Haruna, alleged that the administration deliberately impoverished education by budgeting only N20 per meal for boarding students from 2003 through 2011 thereby making education unattractive.
“There was no government in Borno from 2003 to 2011. The state government deliberately raped, divorced and impoverished education. The government budgeted N20 per meal for secondary school students, university students each were paid N3000 scholarship per session, a development that led to many students withdrawing from schools.
“It is obvious that the foundation of the insurgency was laid then and it thrived because of failure of leadership,” noting that the person that deliberately set the retrogressive policy in motion has four aircrafts but remains a free man.
Similarly, the Galadima of Damaturu, Alhaji Ali Alkali Yusuf, lent his voice noting that poor leadership has led to the slaughter of hundreds of persons by insurgents.
“One hundreds were killed and nothing happened, schools have been burnt still northing happened, villages have been burnt. How do you unite when with the people there is no peace?
You cannot change the attitude of people unless the attitude of leadership changes,” he said adding, failure of leadership has strengthened acts of violence across the states of the North and south.
Further, he asserted that the state of emergency declared in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe have failed because of poor leadership.
Also speaking, the chairman of Daily Trust, Mallam Kabiru Abdullahi Yusuf, who is representing the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) said the bane of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and constant agitation, was economy.
“The foundation of the dissatisfaction and division in the country is not religious or ethnic, but economic. This takes a social form, in the silent war between the teeming poor and wealthy few: in regional dimension, between resource rich and resource poor states,” he said implying that poor leadership in the distribution of wealth may after all be the bane.
“There are certain things that cannot be restructured, if we are to reach the semblance of a federation. And at the core of justice necessary for unity, the weight of every man’s vote must be equal. Democracy may be slow and disappointing, but it allows people of different backgrounds to coexist without rancor,” he further said, noting that federalism may not necessarily be the problem but the implementation of its tenets.
