Ahmed added that the north has been prevented from developing due to religious and ethnic divides, adding that the area needs to adapt by looking back at the recent history of the region’s progression to understand how it was able to progress.
In his words, the region would never matter in the grand scheme of things in Nigeria until something changed.
The former SGF disclosed this at a one-day dialogue session organised by the Arewa New Agenda, with the theme; Renewed hope- the road to ending poverty in Nigeria on Friday.
“Poverty will not ordinarily go away from Northern Nigeria, and so far, it will continue even at our different levels and to emphasise our differences with a measure of pretentious loyalty to our region. The first thing that we will do that is dialogue is to agree that all of us are one.
“I would like to emphasise that to reduce poverty in Nigeria, we have to embrace each other, we have to tolerate each other, we have to respect each other, and we have to be solemn. I am appealing that, first of all, we should realize that our main problem is tolerance, accommodation, and respect,” he said.
While urging the region to tolerate and accept one another, he maintained that if these issues of religion and ethnicity have been with us and we have not been able to do away with them. We should better adjust and go back to the contemporary history of the evolution of Northern Nigeria to see how we were able to do it.
The forum’s convener, Senator Ahmad MoAllahyidi, stated earlier that data indicating that roughly five individuals are being thrust into severe destitution each minute supports the claim that Nigeria is the global center for extreme poverty.
The Arewa New Agenda Forum urged President Bola Tinubu to develop ways to deal with the high rates of poverty, banditry, and kidnapping in northern Nigeria, expressing concern about these issues.
The ANA said that roughly 94 million of Nigeria’s 218 million inhabitants live in abject poverty.
He noted that 88.4 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty, and almost 80 percent of the 88.4 million people living in poverty are from the northern part of the country.
“As we consider the issues related to poverty reduction, ANA is not unmindful of two critical issues that have a direct bearing on fighting poverty in northern Nigeria. One is the rift between two global business icons of northern origin and pillars of poverty reduction in Nigeria,” he said.
