Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Rising from its national executive meeting, yesterday, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said the 19 northern governors should be held responsible for insecurity in the region.
In a communique after the meeting, which was signed by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Muhammad Biu, it noted that lack of commitment by the governors to provide education for the youth in the zone is responsible for over 10 million out-of-school children.
These dropouts, ACF said, have constituted security threat in the region; over the years.
“On the issue of more than 10 million children that are out of school in the North, the Council noted with concern the increase in the number of Almajiris and children roaming the streets and the unfortunate attitude of our states governors towards the development of education.
“Recently the emirs and chiefs in the North organised a conference on this burning issue where it discussed and issued a communique on how the Northern States should tackle the situation.
“Unfortunately, very few states attended the conference or even sent representatives. Furthermore, the Minister of Education recently lamented the attitude of state government to accessing funds at the Universal Basic Education Commission, for primary education development by paying their counterpart funding.
“This is an unfortunate development. Council, therefore, appeals to the northern states’ government to seriously address this out-of-school children menace, to avoid further escalation of insecurity and other vices that have bedevilled the North. Illiteracy, poverty and drug abuses are a result of poor education and nonchalant attitude of our leaders to good governance.
“The meeting discussed exhaustively security challenges especially the banditry involving kidnappings and killings of innocent people on the highways and frequent attacks on communities giving rise to growing death toll in States of Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Taraba, etc it however, noted that the underlying causes of insecurities differ from one geopolitical zone to another, hence the need for government to consciously develop appropriate measures to contain the situation.