Protest: Time to tell ourselves truth, Sule tells northern govs

The Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Northern Governor Forum, Abdullahi Sule, has said the just concluded nationwide #Endbadgovernance protest was an eye opener and pointer that the north is sitting on a time bomb.

Sule, who is the Governor of Nasarawa State spoke yesterday when he featured on Channel TV’s current Affairs programme, ‘Politics Today’.

Among others, he said “This protest that happened recently is an eye opener especially to my colleagues from the north. Even if anybody is not doing anything it should not be governors from the north. We must do something urgent.

“We can’t be blaming other people for our problem. I can’t wait to tell my fellow governors from the north in our next governors’ forum that it is time to look at another’s face as governors from the north and tell one another the truth and say we must do something now.

“In our next meeting as northern governors it will no longer be a meeting where anyone will say religion has forbidden me from doing this or that. We must all go out to say this is what we will do to move from where we are to where we want our people to be.

“During the last protest in Lafia, majority of those that came out on the streets were Almajiris. Some of them are five, six and seven years old. Lots of them did not even understand the meaning of the protest. When I spoke with them later I discovered that some of them didn’t even know what they were protesting about.

“Unfortunately in 2020 we sat down and took a decision on Almajiris but it could not work out as many of them went back into the practice and it took us to square one. Some of the leaders criticised the decision.

“But from what happened recently, I do not believe anybody will criticise the next actions that would be taken on the step to move forward, because as a time bomb, it will come and consume all of us.

“One major problem in the north is education. When people do not have education and economic empowerment they will continue to behave the way the Almajiris behave during the last protest.

“Education must be taken seriously in the north. We must be honest with ourselves. We must face each another and say, sir marrying so so and so number of wives, having so so and so number of children when you cannot take care of them is wrong.

“No religion actually promotes or allows that. The Quran did not make it compulsory, it says if you can, that’s if you can take care of them. Islam does not allow having children and sending them to the street to beg for food or livelihood.”

On the efforts by President Bola Tinubu to increase revenue allocation since assumption of office, he said “No state can say that their revenue has not multiplied by two. In the past the total revenue shared was around N600billion or M620billion maximum.

“Today the total amount being shared stands at N1.1 trillion to N1.3 trillion. Every state including the federal government is receiving improved revenue. Thank to Mr. President for allowing it happen like that.

“He would have said this is subsidy money and would have diverted it to other areas but he decided to share it across to all the state to do something. Nobody will receive that amount of money and will not do anything, nobody.  We must justice the money given to us as governors.”