Former Commissioner for Information, and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Niger State, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, says Northern leaders have failed the people of the region.
Vatsa said that no northern leader should be happy with the situation of the region now, blaming them for the mass movement of youths from the region to the Southern parts of the country.
The APC Chieftain, who was reacting to the recent arrest of over 200 northern youths, mostly from Katsina State last week, said the ongoing influx of northern youths to the south for whatever reason was an indication that Northern leaders had failed their people.
“No northern leader should be happy with what is happening in the region today. Northern leaders have failed in their primary responsibility to their people, and that is why the region is in disarray,” he said.
Vatsa blamed the influx of northern youths to the south on what he described as “high level of insecurity and the extreme poverty” in the north, noting that “this is what the former Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi has been hammering on and they ganged up against him.”
The former commissioner warned that the current situation in the north was a time bomb waiting to explode, adding, “The poverty in the north is man-made and the leaders are enjoying it, but it will surely consume all of them, if it is not addressed.
“The northern leaders created the poverty to oppress their people. They use the people as political thugs to achieve their political ambition. The youths will soon realize it and there will be no hiding place for all of us.”
Vatsa warned that the northern leaders could not be comfortable in the midst of uncomfortable people, expressing fear that “the current situation in the region is capable of triggering revolution. A hungry and insecure man is an angry man”.
He pointed out that the migration of northern youths to the south will no doubt affect food production in the north because “what is happening is a deviation from the usual practice where these youths returned home during farming season and go back to do menial jobs after the planting season.”
Vatsa dismissed insinuation that the migrants are Almajirai, arguing, “These are able youths looking for greener pasture. They are escaping the killings and the extreme poverty in the north.”
