Ex-Northern Leaders, Jonathan Responsible For North’s Problems

The President, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani, has accused ex-presidents and leaders of northern extraction of being responsible for the problems plaguing the nation.
                     According to Sani, 70 percent of the problems were caused the leaders of from the northern region while President Goodluck Jonathan's administration's sectional leadership and neglect of the North was responsible for 30 percent, Punch reports.

While addressing sacked and unpaid workers of textile industries in the North who gathered on the premises of the Kaduna Textile Limited, in Kaduna State on Saturday, the CRCN boss explained that the likes of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari, Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, the late Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, as well as the late Umaru Yar'Adua, not only failed to empower the region but left behind trails of poverty, ruining the region educationally, socially and economically.
The activist said: "We must take the blame and must tell ourselves the truth. Northern leaders had the opportunity to industrialise, to educate and to uplift the social standard of the region but they left behind a trail of poverty, of discord among people of diverse faiths and ethnic affinities.
"For over three decades when northerners were in power they used the opportunity to empower traditional rulers and some religious leaders as well as making the rich, richer and pauperised the common man."
Sani stated that President Jonathan only empowered the people of the South-South on the detriment of other citizens of the country and the former northern leaders could not do what Jonathan is doing, which is empowering the young and the Niger Delta militants who are being enriched today.
He added that the northerners wasted the opportunity which he believes should serve as a lesson next time when power is back to the region.
Sani condemned the ongoing crisis in the North, pointing out that the only way out was for its leaders to embark on rapid revival of its industries, agricultural sector as well as to harness the resources in the region, rather tha depend solely on federal allocations.
Sani is aspiring for the seat of the Kaduna Central Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Jonathan had at the beginning of the month met with traditional rulers from the North led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, to deliberate on ways to end the sect's activities in the region.