"North Needs To Stop Dragging Nigeria Down” — Shettima At NGF

The Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) held its inaugural closed-door meeting in Kaduna state yesterday, the first one to be held since President Muhammadu Buhari’s May 29th swearing-in ceremony. Twelve out of 19 states’ governors attended the meeting in person, while seven were represented by their deputies.

The meeting, dedicated to resolving issues such as poverty, clashes between farmers and cattle-rustlers, the most effective approach to develop the region and combat Boko Haram, took place at the Arewa House.

Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Plateau, Nasarawa, Zamafara, Sokoto and Kwara states’ governors were in attendance, while Kebbi, Niger, Katsina, Kogi, Yobe, Gombe, Jigawa states were represented by deputy governors.

In the video below, NGF chairman, Borno state governor Kashim Shettima, reads his opening address (courtesy Yusuf Usman Shettima, Governor Shettima’s special assistant on Twitter; see photo-report after the video):

In his speech, Shettima admitted that the North has become “the laughing stock” that is dragging the rest of Nigeria down with it due to mismanagement and subsequent rise of poverty, terrorism, violence, intolerance and joblessness.

Shettima urged his counterparts to “put [their] heads down, get to work and come up with an agenda for the speedy transformation of Northern Nigeria from its current travails into a well-modern, well-developed, prosperous, progressive, just and united polity for the good of its people and the entire Nigeria.”

“On my part, I promise, as chairman of this important forum, to do everything humanly possible to ensure unity and purposefulness in our ranks by running an open and democratic system and by carrying everybody along. I promise to do my best, and with your support, understanding and cooperation, to transform this forum from a mere talk shop into an action-oriented and agenda setting platform in the interest of all our 19 Northern states and, by extension, Nigeria as whole,” he pledged.

Shettima commended the federal government and President Buhari for having prioritised the defeat of Boko Haram in the region and achieved success so far.