A week ago, the northern intelligentsia converged on Kaduna at the instance of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to proffer solutions to the myriad problems bedevilling the North. The governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Tanko Al'Makura, who was part of the meeting, spoke with correspondents on issues at stake shortly after the meeting. Idowu Samuel brings excerpts:What is your view aboutthe just-concluded ACFpeace meeting in Kaduna'This conference organised by Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for peace and stability in the North is long overdue and the essence of the conference is to find lasting solutions to the incessant problems that are bedevilling the geographical boundary called Northern Nigeria.That is the focus of the conference. Anybody who is a true and patriotic son of the North will know that the region is in a state of distress and it requires some thought-provoking solution to solve these problems. If one can just take one's mind back, I sometimes feel, with nostalgia, that while I was growing in the early sixties, I used to know that I come from one monolithic big geographical boundary called northern Nigeria.I used to know that I had a leader who was not only charismatic and patriotic, but also selfless and visionary. And that leader was the Sardauna of Sokoto.While I was growing in the 60s, the North could burst, out of being buoyant, the North could burst out of the wealth and we were not restive because of the resources that we had at that time. Even though they were not unlimited resources, the people were comfortable.I used to know, while I was growing up, that even though the hospital we had in the North were not adequate to cover the whole of the region, if you went to any hospital at that time, you were assured of efficiency and effective medication. Coming to the area of education, you can count on your finger tips the number of secondary schools we had in the North. Nonetheless, anybody that went through those schools came out with qualitative education that made his or her life worth living. I used to know that even though there were no enough roads and communication, fraternisation was used as links to various communities around the whole North. And it was even easier than now.Now, the North has found itself in a dilemma; it has found itself in a situation of confusion, dilemma and a paradox in the sense that now, we are more wealthy; we have more schools; we have more hospitals; we have more money; we have more communication outlets but the quality of life is more decadent than what it used to be in the sixties, when these things were either terribly inadequate or not there. What has gone wrong' We must think and reflect upon these problems. We must return to the basics, ensuring that our ultimate goal lies with the development of the region.What would you say was responsible to the dilemma the North finds itself now'We have abandoned what I called core values, core principles, virtues that the North has been known to accord. It is the abandonment of those values and principles as well as the philosophy that has made the North a laughing stock today. So, if we want to revive the kind of life we used to live, we must have to re-orient our minds, our philosophy, our psyche; we must be selfless; we must exhibit sense of responsibility. And there are only two ways to do that by being simple and sincere.The Sardauna was more of a father to the entire North, not just a section or the area he came from. His ministers were Isa Kaita, Makaman Bidda, Makaman Nupe, Jersy Obande, Mallam Ojumu, Michael Audu Buba and a host of others. In spite of all the vantage positions they occupied in government, they were not the most wealthy. What has gone wrong then' In the public service, there was decorum. The public servant then never wanted anybody to know how much he was worth, because he was worth the quality of his service, not the amount of material wealth he had accumulated. But these things have been left just like that and what we have now is primitive acquisition, people got to acquire money that they may not even need till the end of their life. So, these are what are bedevilling the country, and the region in particular.What then is the way forward for the North'We must begin to think properly; we must promote those core values that made the North, in the past, the pride of this nation; that made the North one of the most sane parts of this country. We must focus on the values that made the North a subject of envy to other areas. The level of decay and rots in the North is legendary. Go to any part of the country other than the North and you will find out that the most mean and pedestrian jobs are being handle by only the people from the North - the shoe shiner, the nail cutter, the house guards. The fact is that we have marginalised ourselves.I consider this conference by Arewa (ACF) very vital and we should take the decisions so made very serious. We should look inwards and re-incarnate the core values that the North has been associated with. Let's start an ethical re-orientation, and this could be done only by setting examples. The leaders must set examples. The leaders must be people who are ready to give service, rather than to take wealth from the people's coffers.Secondly, we have to evolve what I called new socialisation. This is because the rots in the society have gone so bad that even the youth have already caught the bug. Unfortunately, children below the age of fifteen constitute 45 per cent of the total population in the North. The question is, what are we bequeathing to these young impressionable minds' Is this what we got from Sardauna, from Tafawa Balewa, from Sir Kashim Ibrahim and the rest of them'In fact, the North is in a situation of emergency in terms of what it ought to be and we have to put our heads together to look at these issues and fashion out how to set a new approach towards improving the quality of life and change the cause of decay that is affecting the development of the region.
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