The Northern Speakers Conference has proffered solutions to the security challenges facing the region.
The Chairman of the Northern Speakers Conference, Hon Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani had tasked the 19 Northern Speakers to proffer solutions to insecurity bedevilling the region.
He gave the charge in his welcome address at the 2nd Regional Conference Meeting in Kaduna on Tuesday.
In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani, the speaker said the worsening security situation impoverishing more people in the region.
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 said that he would have been more delighted to welcome the speakers of the Houses of Assembly of the 19 Northern states, but recent happenings in the region have diminished his joy.
“So I would simply welcome you to Kaduna for this important meeting,” he said.
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, therefore, 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 charged.
Charges Northern governors to unite on security
Meanwhile, 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.
The communique was signed by the chairman of the communique drafting committee, Hon Hamisu Ibrahim Chigari and two other members, Hon Saleh Yipmong and Hon P. M. Makonde.
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 wants budget preparation to skew in favour of the security of lives and property and called on all relevant stakeholders to use the ongoing constitution review to provide for community policing for better security of life and property of the citizens.
The forum also supported the devolution of powers by way of decongesting the Exclusive Legislative List for Concurrent Legislative List in the ongoing review of the constitution.
The forum advocated for more empowerment schemes that will ultimately engage the youth and take them off the streets thereby enhancing the security of life and property of the people in the region and charged security experts and professionals to train vigilantes and other local security groups to effectively complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies in the country.
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.
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