A move long overdue
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) recently conducted a two-day Investment and Industrialisation Summit (NNIIS), to address the challenges of driving economic development of the country’s expansive northern region. With its theme ‘Unlocking Strategic Opportunities in Mining, Agriculture and Power (MAP 2025)’, it provides a welcome intervention in these topical areas with respect to the economic […]
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) recently conducted a two-day Investment and Industrialisation Summit (NNIIS), to address the challenges of driving economic development of the country’s expansive northern region.
With its theme ‘Unlocking Strategic Opportunities in Mining, Agriculture and Power (MAP 2025)’, it provides a welcome intervention in these topical areas with respect to the economic fortunes of the region.
Among the notable outcomes of the parley was the pledging by participants of over $10 billion to drive new investments in the region’s main thematic sectors – mining, agriculture and power. Also among the outcomes of the parley was the establishment of a new special purpose vehicle – the Northern Nigeria Economic Development Council (NNEDC), as the institutional framework to drive an equally new Northern Nigeria Economic Development Master Plan (NNEDMP). The masterplan for the NNDMP is anchored on the three pillars of security, policy coherence and private capital mobilisation.
Seen in both historical and contemporary perspectives, Daily Trust believes that the summit qualifies as a most welcome dispensation, whose coming was overdue. Also, given that it is better late than never, the organisers and participants deserve commendation for making it a success.
This is also why they deserve all the support that can be mobilised, to ensure that this new outing by the region’s leadership does not suffer any unwanted setback.
Until the coming of the summit, the conditions of living in the North for the various highly stratified communities had been a matter of significant concern for any right-thinking Nigerian, given a complement of factors.
There is no contest in the fact that the North has a young, energetic and active population, varying weather patterns that favour a wide complement of resource based enterprises, as well as high end stocks of financial muscle and significant clout in the country’s politics.
North, presently comprising 19 of the country’s 36 states, has endowment in vast arable land with a variety of flora and fauna, agricultural opportunities, and rich trove of assorted minerals.
Unfortunately, these advantages have been squandered for decades largely due to lack of political will.
As it stands, the condition of millions of people in the North is a far-cry from the vision and development template established by the late premier of the region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.
It is to his credit that in the face of significant handicaps like limited resources and other factors, he developed a masterplan for the region.
It is on record that for the love of his people, he established a string of industries across the entire expanse of the region.
The New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC), founded in 1965, was the Northern Regional Government’s main investment arm, managing assets like Arewa Hotels and Kaduna Textiles. Alongside the Bank of the North and Northern Nigeria Investments Limited (NNIL), it boosted industrial and financial growth. Premier Ahmadu Bello championed industrialization through defence and media industries. He modernized agriculture via cash crops, irrigation, and research institutions like IAR. Bello prioritized education and manpower development, establishing Ahmadu Bello University and enforcing the Northernisation policy. His administration also improved roads, healthcare, and sports infrastructure, notably building the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.
But succeeding administrations failed to improve on them, living students of history with nostalgic moments.
In fact, not a few observers have linked the current depressed state of affairs in the region with the failure of successive administrations to follow up with his laudable vision and enterprise for the good of the region.
Unfortunately, the questionable disposition to basic leadership style by many governors in the North has not helped matters. Many of them came to office without any blueprint on what to achieve all through their tenures. And the few that did, they easily got distracted and lost focus.
It is in this context that the new dispensation of NNEDC and NNDMP should chart a new course of action towards rapid development of the North within the shortest possible time. The region today is afflicted by the seeming unending insurgency and banditry occasioned by hunger, and the corollary between the three is manifest; hence the need to urgently change the narrative.
It is in that context that the new dispensation must run on an agenda that offers a paradigm shift devoid of distraction from its stated objectives. The advocates of the new dispensation need to work hard to ensure the redemption of the pledges made, and harness any other assistance as the mission on hand needs both speed and effectiveness.
We expect the governors in the region, in particular, to give this idea all the needed support. It is indeed a lifeline for them. They must be in the vanguard of this attempt to reinvent the North or risk being in history’s bad book.