Students In Northern Institutions Call On Youths To Rise Against Bad Leaders

Northern Nigerian students in higher institutions have been asked to mobilise to replace all manifestations of bad leadership that has held the country to ransom for the past 20 years.

Speaking at the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organised by the students wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups CNG at the College of Education, Gumel, Jigawa State, on Wednesday, Alhaji Shehu Dalhatu, who chaired the event, charged the students to replace the bad leaders who have monopolized the total available activity in the country since 1999.

Mr Dalhat said a majority of those in leadership positions in local government councils and state assemblies were below the age of 40 and wondered why students in the same age bracket would not rise to check their excesses.

He said, “Councillors and state assembly members are your contemporaries below the age of 40 and they are the ones that rule Nigeria directly being closer to the communities. You must create a network of students to checkmate bad leadership and call out bad leaders who only remember the people when they need votes.

“You are the ones used to conduct national census; conduct voter registration but used to put bad leadership in place. Rise to take control of your destiny and future, remember that every revolution throughout history begins with students.”

He said politicians ‘tend to manipulate the cleavages of religion and ethnicity to cause mass disaffection and bring about sharp divisions in society for their quest for power and wealth’.

The keynote speaker, Dr Saidu Ahmed Dukawa, said, “We must take charge of our own affairs by identifying ourselves. We must understand the nature of the polity by participating in the political process.

“We must understand the nature of our decaying politics and economy and learn trades and skills that will rebuild their foundations. Acquire quality and honest education of all kinds, because you cannot lead if you are both a cheat and a glorified illiterate. Knowledge is the foundation of good leadership.”

The paper presenter, Dr Saminu Umar, lamented that at no time had free and credible elections ever being conducted in Nigeria by what he referred to as ‘lying political elite who manipulate religion, ethnicity and regional sentiments to distort the minds of the electorate’.