Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbe has urged the North to focus on agricultural development rather than seeing politics as business.
He revealed this on Wednesday during a valedictory service in his honor.
Ogbe, who is the outgoing Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said the ACF is worried about severe shortage of finance in the region, especially as there are no banks to create the enabling environment for trading.
He regretted that northern businessmen have to travel to Lagos to access trading because of lack of industrial growth in the zone.
He said: “We are afflicted by very severe shortages in education, finance; we have no banks here really, most of our banks were sold between 2003 and 2005.
“So, today, it’s very difficult for a northern businessman to access trading; you have to go all the way to Lagos. We are not experiencing industrial growth and if we don’t have industrial growth, we can’t create jobs,” he said.
He added that, “Even agriculture is in trouble because of the endless kidnappings and killings that is troubling us.
“We have to get the north back to business; politics is not a business, it has never on its own grown any society. These are our concerns and that is why I am happy about what I saw in Sokoto. We will do the same in Kano.
“We will die one day and go out of this world, but you young people will replace us, if we are leaving nothing behind it’s unfair, we must work hard, create an environment where the young can comfortably come in, live well and take care of your children and run this country, it is the biggest problem we have and that’s why we are working together to solve these issues.”
