By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Northern Consensus Movement (NCM), has called for the the creation of the Ministry of Northern Nigeria following the critical evaluation of the Socio-economic challenges of the North.
Comrade Awwal Abdullahi Aliyu, President of the movement in a statement said, “We have come to the conclusion that the creation of the Ministry will address the infrastructural deficits and challenges of decades of neglect.
“Once created, emphasis will be placed on specific project implementation, as in Education, Health, Security, Agriculture, Economy, Environment, Women and Youth development on Skill acquisition activities Management’ among others.”
The statement called on all and sundry, to support the Northern Consensus Movement for the creation of the Ministry of Northern Nigeria.
The statement stated that the challenges of contemporary northern Nigeria is the imperative that draw the attention of Nigerians, particularly their politicians who have been unable to confront the challenges that has dragged their politics down the drain into incessant Northern economy undermining their unity, integration and ultimately their economic, social and political progress.
The statement said, “This predicament has become a problem that has eaten into the fabric of our society, inflicting pain, suffering and division on us, in spite of who is the head of government. We need to understand the nature of this political problem, so that we could begin to develop a much more leadership policies for the good of our Norther Society and people.
“This malignant is so embedded and enmeshed into the Northern Fabric that we do not seem to notice the pain, the division, the destruction and the retrogression, that it has inflicted on us as a people on our Northern politics and our society at large.
“The Northern voters have always determined who to become the president of Nigeria through popular vote. But the Northern political competitors through propaganda, have always used population against the region, claiming that the North want to take power at all cost, saying that the North is using population to dominate the polity.”
Through this intimidation, the statement explained that the North has always been compelled to make political concessions, saying that politicians have always negotiated their power sharing mechanism, sometimes at the detriment of democratic values with adverse effects on the North.
It said that northern Nigeria is made up of 19 States of Nigeria, bounded by history and geography, stressing that its landmass is 725,078 sq. km that more than 75% of Nigeria’s total landmass of 923,768 sq. km.
It said the population of the Northern Nigeria is estimated to be over 60% of the North’s total, with nearly 75% below the age of 35 years, this has given the North Political advantage, with higher representation in the National Assembly, because democracy is a game of numbers as the North deserve a better deal in the Nigeria project.
