Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega has challenged northern leaders on good, patriotic and selfless leadership in the mould of the late eminent statesman, Alhaji Maitama Sule.
Jega gave the challenge during the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organised by the Coalition of Northern Nigeria (CNG) on Monday in Katsina.
He described the late Sule, who was the Danmasanin Kano, as a selfless and patriotic Nigerian who served the country well and protected northerners.
The university don described the northern states as the region with the highest indexes of social challenges bedeviling the nation.
“Whether it is poverty, unemployment, insecurity, infant mortality, out-of-school children, poor girl-child education, or even early marriage challenges.
“Everything you can think of, the terrible statistics always come from the northern part of this country”, he said.
According to Jega, the fundamental causes of the crises originate from poor leadership and selfishness, with narrow vision and ideas to develop the country.
Jega said that erstwhile northern leaders, such as Maitama Sule and others, led the country at their youthful ages, and each of them did very well in protecting and developing the region and ensuring its integrity.
“But several decades later while cherishing these heroes passed memories of leaders, what kind of leadership qualities does the north have now,” he asked.
He called on the youth to know that they had a great task of developing themselves through active participation in politics in order not to let vandals destroy the nation economically.
Jega also commended the CNG for its creativity in realising the need to start engaging the youth to salvage Nigeria and in particular the north from the social crises bedeviling the region.
Earlier, the Special Adviser to Gov. Aminu Masari on Security Matters, Alhaji Ibrahim Katsina, called for the collapse of the country’s borders since Nigerian borders were poorly managed.
Dr Muttaqa Rabe-Darma, while speaking, explained that there were more than 3,000 illegal border routes in Nigeria.
According to him, such a situation is responsible for the numerous insecurity challenges the country is facing.
He called on the government to intensify effort in securing the borders by employing advanced technology- based devices. (NAN)