Northern Governors Express Fears Over Outbreak Of Another Hardship Protest

Northern governors on Monday expressed fears of a likely recurrence of hardship protest as witnessed in August charging members of the Northern Governors’ Forum to scale up efforts to forestall it.

This was the outcome of the meeting held in Kaduna on Monday involving traditional rulers, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and other stakeholders in a communique issued afterwards.

The North which has been hard hit by the administration of President Bola Tinubu has recently witnessed power cuts, throwing the region into darkness, paralysing business activities, and making the already difficult situation worse.

Calls for the government to resolve the power challenge has not yielded the desired results thus eliciting fears that the situation may spiral out of control sooner than later.

The governors expressed these fears and warned that the August hardship protest had emboldened the youth and bolstered their resolve to go after them unless something urgent was done.

They cited lack of jobs for the youth, insecurity that has limited areas of business operations and farming thus exacerbating the difficult situation, hardship and hunger with painful inflation as likely catalysts that could push the youth, who are mostly using social media, to kick them out of offices.

Consequently, the governors challenged one another to urgently tackle these challenges in individual states to forestall any unrest.

The forum in their resolution emphasised that traditional institutions are critical in the quest for lasting peace and security in the region.

They also acknowledged the commitment of traditional rulers in bridging the gap between the government and the people.

The forum advocated for increased roles for the traditional institutions to maximise cooperation with security agencies in the fight against kidnap for ransom, banditry, cattle rustling, communal clashes, farmers/herder clashes and other forms of criminality.

While acknowledging what they said were recent gains made against criminals, especially the elimination of bandits and terror leaders, they resolved to “sustain these gains in order to ensure lasting peace and stability in the sub-region.”

It commended the Federal Government and security agencies for their commitment in ensuring that northern communities are safe and secure.

They particularly commended what they said is “the untiring commitment of the Chief of Defence Staff General C. J Musa whose professionalism and innovative approach has made a difference in security architecture of the Country at large.”

Nevertheless, they said more needed to be done to address what they noted are pockets of challenges that abound in the northern region.

Concerning the ‘End Bad Governance’ protests, the Forum resolved to “scale up efforts to tackle the root causes of youth restiveness by investing in education, skills development, job creation and pathways for the youth to channel their energy into productive ventures, thereby reducing their vulnerability to crime and social vices.”

The forum also called on the Federal Government and relevant agencies to urgently address the current electricity power blackout affecting most of the Northern States due to vandalization of electricity transmission infrastructure.

They said the electricity “matter not only underscores the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, but also the need to build additional transmission lines and diversify our energy supply so as to better connect our region and improve our energy resilience.”