A former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has exonerated President Bola Tinubu from the gross underdevelopment and various challenges facing northern Nigeria.

Lukman, in an Open Letter on Sunday, June 30, blamed the region’s decline on the failure of the administration of Tinubu’s predecessor, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, to improve the region’s fortunes.

In the letter titled: “Explosive North: Open Letter to Northern Politicians” made available to newsmen, Lukman described life in the northern part of Nigeria as Hobbesian, saying living conditions in the area are dire.

“If anyone is interested in finding the practical meaning of the Hobbesian description of life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,’ just look at what life is in Northern Nigeria. Indices of poverty, unemployment, and inequality are beyond description. The conditions of schools and hospitals are, to say the least, depressing. The civil service, in virtually all the nineteen states, is only a shadow of itself, with hardly any public service activity taking place,” the former member of the National Working Committee (NWC) wrote.

“Our illustrious and respected traditional institutions have been devalued and reduced to a state of hopelessness. Most of our religious leaders and centres are far removed from God’s way of life. Few industries exist in the region. And on account of insecurity, agricultural activities, which are the mainstay of the region’s economy, are in significant decline.”

He further regretted the alarming statistics of out-of-school children and the number of people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the region.

“Not to talk of problems of drugs and substance abuse. The problems of broken homes and abandoned children are quite alarming. As it is, the North is an explosive waiting to detonate. We have lost virtually all our homes, our families, and our children. Every person with human feelings should be saddened by the reality of what the Northern part of Nigeria has become. Sadly, even the one strength the North is known for, which is strongly united political leaders, has been lost.”

“More than any time in the political history of Nigeria, the North has never been so disunited without any semblance of political leadership like we have in today’s Nigeria. Partly, on account of the lack of unity, the quality of political leadership in the North is sharply on the decline. Many so-called politicians are Internally Displaced Persons/Politicians (IDPs), especially once they are out of office. Those in office today are potential IDPs.”

“Consequently, the worst among us, with hardly any commitment to resolving the challenges facing the North, find their way to political leadership in the North simply because they can cheaply access elective and appointive offices and control public resources, which is largely mismanaged and privatised.”

“Perhaps, the opportunity for Northern political leaders to redeem themselves and return the North to rational order with committed leaders capable of responding to the challenges of the region was blown away during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari. The painful reality was that no leader in the political history of Nigeria gained the kind of national acceptability former President Buhari had at the beginning of his tenure. The closest was Chief M. K. O. Abiola, whose election was annulled by the military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.”

“More than any Northern political leader, former President Buhari undisputedly won the votes of people from both Northern and Southern Nigeria, which could have been used to produce a new crop of selfless leadership for the country. Selfless leadership is required to put every part of Nigeria on the roadmap to national development.”

“Golden eight years between 2015 and 2023 were lost. Instead, the country, especially the North, became worse off with a crisis of insecurity taking over everywhere. Problems of poverty, unemployment, drugs, and substance abuse, etc. became almost peculiar characteristics of the Northern region.”

“Unfortunately, here we are under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who got the majority of the votes that won him the Presidency from the three regions in the North but seems to be only interested in taking advantage of the lack of unity among leaders in the region. Certainly, it is not his fault, and if he is uninterested in challenges facing the region, no one, especially Northern political leaders, should complain,” Lukman concluded.