The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has advised that economic empowerment will solve the insecurity bedeviling the north.
A former Minister of Agriculture and Chairman of the forum, Audu Ogbeh noted that the entire northern region has been affected by the insecurity.
He stated this in Maiduguri when he visited the Borno State governor, alongside the Chairman Board of Trustees, Shehu Malami, and other members of the Forum to commiserate with the recent killing of farmers, a climax to the insurgency problem.
“The sàme disaster has happened across the north today we have no banks, you cant even take a loan and invest, no industries, agriculture has declined and our own children have turned to violence as a means of livelihood.
“We are very depressed because we have nothing to leave behind for our children and violence will not sustain us.” Ogbeh lamented.
“We in ACF have decided that we will not talk too much politics, you will not see us replying Ohaneze, Afenifere, or any other group if small matters come up. We have decided to focus on something else, we are going to start a programme of developing small scale agro-industries across the north.” The former minister revealed.
The ACF says it is incorporating a company which will be the holding company to manage the industry, adding that small industries would be built and rented out to the youths to establish mills and begin to practice industrial growth.
“The tragedy of the north is that the only industry we have left is politics and politics alone has never grown any society; we have to grow. As a people who are backward, making no progress, as people who are poor and so on and so forth this is not good for us, it is not good for our children it is not good for the future.” Ogbeh stated.
He said northern Nigeria accounts for 78 percent of Nigeria’s landmass, a potential that must be efficiently harnessed going forward.
Zulum thanked them for the visit and said he was willing to partner with the ACF in developmental projects with a view to ending poverty, one of the root causes of Boko Haram.
