BY NONYE EKWENUGO
Kaduna
A group under the auspices of the Northern Consensus Movement (NCM) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to create the Ministry of Northern Nigeria in other to address the infrastructural deficits and challenges affecting the region.
The President of NCM, Comrd Awwal Abdullahi Aliyu made the call on Thursday while addressing a press conference in Kaduna.
"The NCM haven critically evaluated the socio-economic challenges of the north, we found it appropriate and make bold to demand for the creation of the Ministry of Northern Nigeria. We have come to the conclusion that the creation of the Ministry will address the infrastructural deficits and challenges of decades of neglect".
According to him, once created, emphasis will be placed on specific project implementation, as in Education, Health, Security, Agriculture, Economy, Environment, Women and Youth Development of Skill acquisition activities Management.
"The Challenges of contemporary northern Nigeria is the imperative that draw the attention of Nigerians, particularly our politicians who have been unable to confront the challenges that has dragged our politics down the drain into incessant northern economy undermining our unity, integration and ultimately our economic,social and political progress".
Comrade Aliyu stressed that the challenges in the north has become a problem that has eaten into the the fabric of the society, inflicting pain, suffering, and division on the Northerners despite who is the head of government, he said.
"We need to understand the nature of this political problem, so that we could begin to develop much more leadership policies for the good of our northern society and People".
"This malignancy 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 in 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 wants to take power on all cost, claiming that the North is using population to dominate the polity.
"Through this intimidation, the north has always been compelled to make political concessions. Politicians have always negotiated their power-sharing mechanism, something to the detriment of democratic values with adverse effects on the north.
"The population of northern Nigeria is estimated to be over 60% of the North 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. With this emphatically development, the North deserves a better deal in the Nigeria project. It is imperative at this juncture to look at the socio-political and economic challenges bedeviling the north.