Northern Nigeria Children Now Turn to Violence for Livelihood, Says Prominent Socio-cultural Group

Prominent northern Nigeria group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) says northern children have turned to violence as a means of livelihood, observing that the elites in the region have nothing to leave behind for the children other than violence.

Chairman of the forum Audu Ogbe stated this when he led a delegation to meet the Borno state governor, Babagana Zulum, noting that the security situation in the north is “depressing”.

According to a statement titled ‘Arewa Consultative Forum visits Zulum, says security situation depressing’. The ACF was in Borno to empathize over Boko haram’s serial killings, particularly the most recent, which was the beheading of over 40 farmers of Zabarmari community in Jere local government area.

Ogbeh told Zulum that the security situation in northern Nigeria, was depressing, noting that elites in the region now have nothing to leave behind as legacies for the future generation.

The ACF Chairman was quoted to have said: “We are depressed, very depressed. And anyone of us, of our age who was not depressed, was not well-born. Because we have nothing to leave behind for our children, and violence will not sustain us.

“The tragedy of the North today is that, the only industry left is politics, and politics alone has never grown any society. We have to re-grow Borno State, we have to re-grow the north, we have to re-grow Nigeria.

“We have no industries, agriculture has declined and our own children have turned to violence as a means of livelihood. Your Excellency, in ACF we have decided that we will not talk too much politics, we decided to focus on something else, we are going to start a program of developing small-scale agro-industries across the north.”

The forum condemned the attack on innocent farmers earning their legitimate means of livelihood around Zabarmari, describing it as barbaric and inhumane.

By Abel Ejikeme

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