North West governors seek UN support for troubled zone

Governors from the North West states have approached the United Nations for humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation of their geopolitical zone.

Many states in the North West have been adversely affected by banditry and terrorism in recent years, causing untold hardship on the people of the area.

A statement on Friday by the national information officer, UN Information Centre (UNIC), Oluseyi Soremekun, noted that governors from the North West geopolitical zone of Nigeria met with the United Nations Country Team led by the resident and humanitarian coordinator, Mohamed Malick Fall, and that they had asked the UN to support their states to deal with the numerous developmental challenges they face.

The statement reads: “The chairman of the North West Governors Forum and the Katsina State governor, Malam Dikko Umaru Radda, led other governors in the zone, including Senator Uba Sani of Kaduna State; Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano; Jigawa State governor, Mallam Umar Namadi; Sokoto State deputy governor, Alhaji Idris Muhammad Gobir; and the Zamfara State governor, Dauda Lawal, to the UN House Abuja.

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“The governors highlighted the major challenges faced by the region, including insecurity, multidimensional poverty, a large population of out-of-school children, increased cases of illicit drug abuse, high child and maternal mortality, and a large youth population that is unemployed.

“They indicated that nearly 80 per cent of the population derive their livelihoods from agriculture, however, they face the challenges of land degradation and climate change, which have reduced their yields. The governors also highlighted the high levels of child malnutrition.

“They also committed to providing a strong political support needed to ensure that UN interventions in the North West are implemented with speed and at scale.”

The chairman of the North West Governors Forum was quoted in the statement to have said: “The only way we can surmount the challenges of the North West is through a regional approach, which demands that we work together in a coordinated manner. We need to collectively fight poverty and unemployment, being the major root causes of insecurity in the region.”

The UN resident coordinator, on his part, expressed delight at receiving six of the seven governors in the zone. He assured that the United Nations family would support the North West region to address those development challenges.

He noted that with the varied high level of multidimensional poverty, sustainable development goals would only be achieved in Nigeria if the North West got it right, and this in turn would impact positively on the African region.