North’s decline rooted in leadership failure, loss of values, Ango Abdullahi, Bugaje, Al-Mustapha lament

By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

Elder statesman and former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello llo University, ABU, Professor Ango Abdullahi; political economist, Professor Usman Bugaje; former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, retd, and other prominent Northern leaders, yesterday, expressed deep concern over what they described as the erosion of values, leadership and direction in Northern Nigeria.

They blamed the region’s worsening socio-economic and security challenges on the abandonment of the ideals that shaped its founding leaders, and linked the Boko Haram and other security threats in parts of the North-East to the environmental and economic consequences of the shrinking Lake Chad.

They spoke at the third edition of the Late Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference held at Arewa House, Kaduna, themed: ‘From Sacrifice to Strategy: Rekindling Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina’s Vision for a Prosperous Northern Nigeria’.

Prof Abdullahi said the North’s greatest challenge was not a lack of infrastructure but the steady erosion of the moral values that once distinguished the region.

“The North has lost its values. You may not want to hear this, but that is the case today. If we have not lost the values we inherited from our parents and pioneer leaders, the North would not be where it is today,” he said.

According to him, while cities across the region had expanded physically, virtues such as discipline, honesty, sacrifice and selfless leadership had gradually disappeared.

“The North is in a pathetic situation. For me, that is the only reason why the North has stagnated. Don’t worry about the buildings you see. The basic issue concerning where the North finds itself today is the loss of our values,” he stated.

He urged today’s leaders to emulate the integrity, accountability and spirit of service exemplified by the late Gen. Hassan Katsina.

“If we can go back to those values, particularly by remembering those who inherited them and practised them, there is no doubt in my mind that the North would have been different today,” Abdullahi added.

Prof Bugaje, in his address, said decades of economic decline, insecurity and institutional decay had resulted from the region’s departure from the leadership ideals represented by Gen. Hassan Katsina and his contemporaries.

“The troubles of the North are many and varied. Food production is going down daily, hundreds of thousands are being displaced from their homes, the economy has been shrinking, poverty has nearly tripled, education and healthcare have collapsed, and our human capital has been depleted,” he said.
He noted that insecurity had continued to undermine agriculture, commerce and social life across the region.

“It is indeed time to ask how much of the North still remains. Or better still, how much of the sanity of the elite, especially those in government, still remains? Today, who is there to go to? Where are the General Hassans to complain to? Where exactly is the leadership? Where is the direction?” he asked.

Bugaje criticised what he described as the complacency of sections of the Northern elite, arguing that many had become content with lamenting the region’s challenges rather than pursuing practical solutions.

“It has become the pastime of the elite to sit in the comfort of their homes and say that the North is in trouble. Some even scream that the North is finished. These comments only betray the complacency or even the complicity of the Northern elite,” he said.

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