By Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo
May I first congratulate Dr Ezekiel Gomos on his appointment as the freshly minted Director-General of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF). When I learnt of the appointment, my first thought was, this is a match made in heaven.
For background, the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF)is the first among all such regional formations in Nigeria. It traces its origins back to 1968 when it began as the Interim Common Services Agency (ICSA)—a body formed by the governors of the six northern states that succeeded the defunct Northern Region after it was dissolved in 1967. This arrangement was later renamed the Northern Governors’ Forum and continued through subsequent periods, including military and civilian administrations.
So, while the current Northern States Governors’ Forum as a regional platform evolved over time, its foundational predecessor was formed in 1968. So, it is an institution that represents northern pride and to be called upon to head it must be an honour beyond measure. You fit the role.
What has earned you this square-peg-in-a-square-hole status is multidimensional, to borrow a breathing economic terminology. As a development economist, Lead Consultant of the Jos Business School, JBS, policy expert, former Secretary to the Plateau State Government and holder of several elite scholarships, no one is better suited to conduct the affair of the most powerful pressure group in Nigeria’s democracy. Besides, these are desperate times and would require desperate but inspired moves to achieve positive outcomes.
Dr Gomos lives a life, in private and in public, that by all standards can be described as exemplary. His choice as DG of the NSGF methinks is a deliberate effort by the leadership of the regional forum to put its right foot forward. It is a one-size-fits-all appointment. The choice automatically ameliorates the sectional imbalances not just in ethnicity and faith but several other ramifications.
And here are my reasons. The north of Nigeria is currently in hot water, the type that is begging for an urgent 2k to resolve. Although Northern Governors even during the military had spearheaded these regional groupings, the NSGF cannot today stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its other counterparts like the Southern Governors Forum or even Development Agency of Western Nigeria, DAWN, its southwestern equivalent. So, the NSGF needs resuscitation, of an informed surgical nature. This is because north is at the core of what most people consider Nigeria’s albatross. There is multidimensional poverty in the north, more than ten million out of school children, insecurity including insurgency, kidnapping and banditry, alcoholism and drug addiction even among married women and young adolescents and for the most part, adult delinquency. Coupled with all these is the emergence of the divisive inclinations of the NSGF particularly where security, ethnicity and faith become an item.
For the NSGF to now step up to the plate, it requires the expertise of a core development economist, the experiences of a seasoned technocrat and the world view of a social butterfly. But there are tasks associated with each desperate sector, and you will have to get your priorities right.
To my mind, the impact of your tenure will be felt very quickly if the following in no particular order: unity, security, human capital development (better known as youth empowerment) before Wealth creation are confronted headon. These sectors are all so interwoven that none of them can thrive while the other is in decay. For example, no meaningful progress can be made in security coordination if the governors themselves are disagreeing over the strategy to apply in curbing the menace. It is my humble opinion that your first duty would be to bring them together on one page, to see the forum as one, with one destiny.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that once the Forum is focused on evolving the norths core values, half the job would have been done. It is possible to make the north of Nigeria the behemoth it used to be, once again. There are dissenting governors, who disagreed with the bloc on several issues and who fear that their people are being targeted unnecessarily. It is important that they are back to the fold to give the region a semblance of, even though currently fragile, unity of purpose. It has now fallen on your shoulders to reinvent the once reputable wheel called northern cohesion, where no man is excluded based on race or creed. This must be reflected, first in the composition of your secretariat, without which nothing tangible can be achieved.
The ground norm and veritable pathway to achieving this core variable is, as a cardinal rule, avoid politics. Too often people find this position alien because of the people that constitute the forum. But the NSGF is a development organ that deflects from anything political and focuses on the empirical actions, providing an enabling environment for youth empowerment, safe schools, secure farming and grazing areas, and a conducive trade climate. These are all primordial and basic needs of the region and there are areas in which your forum must coordinate with the others from across the Niger.
An unavoidable example is the establishment of state police. Regardless of how one looks at it, you must first be secure before you talk of where you come from. Just as the NGF was instrumental to the resolution of our national crisis through the “doctrine of necessity”, all the various fora must put hands on deck to ensure that there are concrete and strict regulations for all in the establishment of the defensive architecture that protects our brotherhood as Nigerians. Overall while commending the leadership of the Forum, I wish you a successful tenure as you design a new blueprint for the progress of our region.
Barkindo writes from Gothenburg
