Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has called on former Northern Nigerian leaders to admit their role in the region’s struggles over the past two decades and offer a public apology.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Sani said that anyone who held political office in Northern Nigeria over the last 20 years should take responsibility for the current condition of the region.
Sani expressed that he has no issues with people who criticize the current government. However, he questioned the sincerity of those who were once in power but now act like innocent bystanders. According to him, Northern Nigeria’s problems are not recent and did not begin with the current administration.
“The problem of northern Nigeria didn’t start two years ago,” Sani stated, adding, “we are looking at the trajectory in the last 20 years.”
He made it clear that the challenges faced by the North today are the result of long-standing neglect and failure by past leaders to address the region’s deep-rooted issues such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of financial access.
“Anybody from Northern Nigeria who held a political office in the last 20 years, all of us must look at ourselves in the mirror and apologize to the people of Northern Nigeria, we let them down,” he said.
Sani also pointed out that past leaders, including former President Muhammadu Buhari, had opportunities to improve the situation through social intervention programs. However, he argued that these efforts didn’t reach the people who needed them most.
“People tend to forget when Buhari was in power, he spent hundreds of billions towards social interventions. But I will tell you why the north became poorer even after that because 70 percent of people that live in northern Nigeria, particularly the masses, are completely financially excluded,” he noted.
He further insisted that every high-ranking political figure from the region—including ex-presidents, governors, and lawmakers—had a role in the current situation. “Every human being, if you’re a former president, governor, vice president, senator, house of Rep member in the northern Nigeria in the past 20 years, I will tell you you are part of the problem.”
The Kaduna governor criticized what he called the hypocrisy of former leaders who now pose as champions of the people, despite being part of the system that failed them.
“When you’re fighting a government that you were part of, you contributed to the situation where it is today,” he said, adding that misleading the people of the North is not the way forward.
