Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, has said that instigating underage children of the poor to hit the streets while the sponsors go into hiding is unfortunate, ungodly, and condemnable.
During an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, Sani said that there was no significant problem in Kaduna because the protest started peacefully, but somewhere along the line, some people hijacked the protest. “I give a lot of credit to the police in Kaduna; they escorted the protesters, but unfortunately, it was hijacked.”
Sani said he warned a few days before the protest that Kaduna is a very fragile state, having issues with different groups. “Some miscreants hijacked the protest, and as a result, a police officer was shot. The police were able to recover some live ammunition from the protesters, which was unfortunate. After a lot of investigation, the report I received is that most of these miscreants that hijacked the protest used children between the ages of 15, 16, and 17.”
He added, “Today’s protest wasn’t the normal protest I expected. I led protests in Nigeria many times. The children that came out don’t even demand anything other than to break offices and attack police.”
Reflecting on the broader issues, Sani mentioned, “If you look at the developmental indices, I made it clear to everyone last week that as far back as 2016 in the northwest part of Nigeria, there was nothing but kidnappings and banditry. It all started in 2017. We have found ourselves in this problem because of the lack of seriousness of the leaders, including myself.”
Sani emphasised that everyone in northern Nigeria who held a leadership position, including the business community, should reflect on why over 70% of adults are financially excluded, 65% of people are living below the poverty line, and 70% of Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children are domiciled in the north.
“That is why, if you look at the protest today, most of the states that participated are from northern Nigeria. It is not because the north is against Tinubu and the government but because those that hide to sponsor these gullible children.”
He noted that Tinubu had met with stakeholders and traditional leaders from different parts of the country. “The leaders in northern Nigeria must sit down to hold a series of human capital development summits.”
In Kaduna, Sani has held series of town hall and stakeholders meetings involving every level of stakeholder, including youths, women, traditional leaders, students, and artisans. “We signed an executive order to ensure we bring back about 2.5 million poor people in Kaduna State to financial services. As we speak, all of them are benefiting from government programmes and activities, and we are changing their lives. In the last year, we have reduced the deficits and improved the economic activities of people in the northern area.”
Sani also addressed the financial constraints, stating, “Every year Kaduna State is paying 4.7 billion monthly as debt we inherited that needs to be paid. The first thing we did is cut the cost of governance. As we speak, no commissioner in Kaduna has gotten a new car, and even myself as governor. We have also built 62 secondary schools and 2,312 primary classrooms in Kaduna.”
NNEOMA UDENSI
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