Northern govs urged to address plight of street children

Governors of the 19 Northern states and other key stakeholders, including business mogul Aliko Dangote, have been urged to address the plight of street children roaming about and sleeping under bridges, in garages, markets, and other unsafe places. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, members of the Growth & Development of Northern […]

Governors of the 19 Northern states and other key stakeholders, including business mogul Aliko Dangote, have been urged to address the plight of street children roaming about and sleeping under bridges, in garages, markets, and other unsafe places.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, members of the Growth & Development of Northern Nigeria (GDNN) also called on the governors to syndicate a single loan facility and work with the federal government to ensure the completion of the A-K-K gas pipeline project.

Mallam Haruna Buhari, Acting Secretary of GDNN’s Public Policy Advocacy Unit, said governors and other well-meaning Nigerians must “design a solution to the challenges societal failure has imposed on these unfortunate children, so we can collaborate with similar concerned organisations to transform them into useful citizens.”

He added, “It is now clear that leaving foreign NGOs as the only players is risky, as they appear to be facilitating deterioration rather than assisting. We must remove them completely from the process.”

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Buhari also opposed the federal government’s suspension of licensing for new universities over the next seven years, but called for the scrapping of AMCON, which they described as a liability.

He further urged the 19 Northern governors, alongside the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to consider syndicating a common facility to develop a regional railway network linking the North-West and North-East, carefully routed through North-Central states to Abuja.

He also called for a joint effort by the governors to syndicate another facility for investment in Digital Transformation Planning (DTP), which would digitally and technologically intra-network the North, enabling the region to reap the economic benefits of technology as other nations with limited natural resources have done.