The most prominent group in Northern Nigeria, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Monday lamented that the increasing rate of Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and banditry violence in the region has wiped out businesses, leaving nothing behind as legacies for the future generation.
ACF Chairman and former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said in Maiduguri in a meeting with Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, said in a statement that the “tragedy of the North today is that the only industry left is politics. And politics alone has never grown any society.”
The ACF delegation to Borno State on Sunday to empathise over Boko Haram’s serial killings, particularly penultimate Saturday’s beheading of over 43 rice farmers of Zabarmari community in Jere Local Government Area of the State.
Ogbeh said in a statement titled ‘Arewa Consultative Forum visits Zulum, says security situation depressing,’ that “we are depressed, very depressed. And anyone of us, of our age, who is not depressed, he was not well-born. Because we have nothing to leave behind for our children, and violence will not sustain us. The tragedy of the North today is that the only industry left is politics, and politics alone has never grown any society.
“We have to re-grow Borno State, we have to re-grow the north, we have to re-grow Nigeria. We have no industries, agriculture has declined and our own children have now turned to violence as a means of livelihood.
“Your Excellency, in ACF we have decided that we will not talk too much politics. We decided to focus on something else. We are going to start a programme of developing small-scale agro-industries across the North.”
The forum condemned the attack on innocent farmers earning their legitimate means of livelihood around Zabarmari, describing it as barbaric and inhumane.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ACF, Ambassador Shehu Malami, who delivered a condolence message and prayed for the restoration of peace in Borno and Northern Nigeria.
Other members of the delegation included Alhaji Ibrahim Sule, Alhaji Murtala Aliyu, Alh. Baba Sule Bisala and Alhaji Kabiru Ladan.
Governor Zulum expressed appreciation for the commiseration and urged the federal government to find lasting solutions to the crisis in the Northeast.