A member of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has blamed the political class in the region for the developmental challenges bedevilling the region. He spoke yesterday during the inauguration of students’ wing of Coalition of Northern Groups at Bayero University, Kano.

“Our north today is led by people poorly-prepared and ill-equipped to lead except for their ambitions for power and fantastic Wealth. Consequently, our people are left at the mercy of armed crime, unforgivable poverty and derision from other parts of Nigeria which once held us in awe and marveled at our systems and quality of leadership,” he said.

He appealed to northerners to consider the region’s diversity an asset, not a curse. “The north is the north of Muslim and Christians, of the largest and tinniest ethnic groups, of the strong and the weak. It is God’s creation” he emphasised.

The chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, described the north as a pillar in the Nigerian project, saying the region would never relent in its efforts to ensuring peace and unity of the country.

•Text (excluding headline) courtesy of Daily Trust