Bola Tinubu on Tuesday called on Northern leaders to devise effective solutions to the region’s numerous challenges.
Represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, Tinubu made this appeal during a stakeholders’ roundtable on Northern Nigerian Youth Development, hosted by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Abuja.
The roundtable, themed ‘Empowering the Next Generation: Strategies for Sustainable Youth Development in Northern Nigeria,’ emphasized the importance of youth-focused initiatives for the region’s progress.
Tinubu highlighted the enduring legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, stressing that the North’s development is vital to Nigeria’s overall prosperity. He underscored that the country can only thrive when every region achieves its potential.
“Whatever disrupts the growth of one region sets back the entire nation.
“Unless we as leaders wear our thinking caps and come up with robust solutions to Northern Nigeria’s problems, it is not beyond us. It is not rocket science; we can do it.
“This is why we prioritise initiatives such as the Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Commission, which collaborates with all levels of government to ensure that every child has access to quality education.
“For the dividends of democracy to reach every corner of our nation, we must empower local governments to serve as pipelines of governance.
“This is why we have prioritised Local Government Autonomy, enabling them to receive their full entitlements and improve primary education funding.
“But governance is a shared responsibility, and citizens must hold their leaders accountable to ensure that every child is given a fighting chance,” Tinubu added.
“The challenge we must confront with urgency, compassion, and resolve is investing in the education of our younger ones. Either we take care of them, or they will take care of us down the line
“We can afford to send our wards to private schools, but the children of the poor that we leave behind will certainly chase us out of this land,” Tinubu said.
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