The Northern Speakers Conference has proposed solutions to the region’s security challenges.
Hon Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani, Chairman of the Northern Speakers Conference, had charged the 19 Northern Speakers with finding solutions to the region’s insecurity.
He gave the mandate in his welcome remarks at the 2nd Regional Conference Meeting in Kaduna on Tuesday.
The speaker said in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani, that the region’s security situation is worsening, impoverishing more people.
According to him, the costs of staple food items are rising due to scarcity resulting from fear of farmers to go to their farms, describing it as a serious issue.
“Our farmers are afraid of going to their farms over apprehension of being kidnapped or even killed,” he said.
Zailani stated that he would have preferred to welcome the speakers of the Houses of Assembly of the 19 Northern states, but recent events in the region have dimmed his enthusiasm.
The forum’s chairman, who is the Speaker, Kaduna State House of Assembly lamented that the present situation of things in the region is worrisome, saying: “Our educational growth is threatened by frequent attacks and abductions at institutions of learning.”
He, however, challenged the forum to come up with workable suggestions that will tackle the twin problems of poverty and insecurity bedevilling the region.
“This is a serious threat to food security and our communities which are mainly agrarian in nature. We must rise to the occasion, put on our thinking caps and proffer realistic solutions,” he said.
In a communique issued at the end of the meeting, the speakers charged the 19 Northern states governors to sink their political differences and unite in order to tackle the insecurity bedevilling the region.
Hon Hamisu Ibrahim Chigari, chairman of the communique drafting committee, and two other members, Hon Saleh Yipmong and Hon P. M. Makonde, signed the communique.
The Forum also called on the relevant stakeholders to reconsider priorities in favour of the security of lives and property of our people, while noting that the provision of infrastructural facilities and other developmental projects are equally important.
The forum called on the Federal Government to provide more security to the Northern part of Borno State to take over the control of Guzamala Local Government Area that is under the full control of the insurgents and the deployment of more military personnel in Abadam and Baga Local Government Areas of the state to check the nefarious activities of the insurgents.
