Former Chief Security Officer to late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd) has expressed the intention to get the Northern part of the country back on track and unified.
Al-Mustapha stated this while speaking to journalists on the sideline of an event in memory of the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello which was organised by the Rebuild Arewa Initiative for Development (RAI4D) in Kaduna.
The former CSO to late Abacha said it would be wrong to sit idly and watch the North decay, adding that “we know we would hurt people” to bring back the North on the path of progress.
“It is better to hurt people and get it back on course for us to achieve what we desire, so that the country at the final end, would be the beneficiary of the unity in the North.”
He explained that “institutions that are in the 19 Northern states, are either weak or not there at all. We are seeing gaps that are responsible for the social ills bedeviling the North.
“We cannot sit and say, we are from the North and continue to see institutions decay, crime rate on the increase, leaders’ indifference, younger ones in disarray, and we believe that is the right environment to be. That’s why when you allow wounds to get bad, definitely in the process of healing, there must be pains.
“Without mincing words, we are calling for processes of healing. Not only calling, we are part and parcel of it.”
Al-Mustapha expressed confidence that other parts of the country would copy from the North better economy, improved security, and solutions to social problems as well as impactful politics and polity, including healthier democracy.
“So we are starting here, not only to speak, the speaking is to get the leaders and the younger ones awakened for us to now march forward and outline plans.
“I learned that by February 22nd, there is another meeting coming up in Bauchi, I deliberately intend to be there; identifying some of the associations that are vibrant. What is left for us is to garner what’s necessary to get them involved,” he said.
The former military intelligence officer accused some current leaders from the region as directionless who also do not care for their states.
He added that, “There is today not a single joint central fund in developing educational development in the North. There is no programme as such.” Adding that “the most unfortunate thing that you see everywhere are traces of poverty, shamefully. I’m a Northerner, that’s most shameful.”
He said the Kaduna meeting which coincided with the unfortunate assassination of Sardauna Bello on January 15th, 1966,would not end there as there would be numerous other activities that would be going on.
He noted that the forum was to call for leadership that matters, not people who love funfair and running away from the responsibilities of their offices.
Al-Mustapha further expressed sympathy over the January 15, 1966 killings and the condition of the common man in the North and Nigeria as a whole.