Dogara: Northern Crisis Now National Emergency, Declares Region Under a Curse

•Says help will not come from anywhere 

•Saraki disagrees, seeks holistic national plan

Folalumi Alaran in Abuja

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, yesterday, warned that escalating insecurity and poverty in northern Nigeria had reached such an alarming state that they must now be treated as a national emergency.

Speaking during a panel session at the Nigeria Investment and Industrialisation Summit (NNIIS) 2025, organised by Northern Elders Forum (NEF) in Abuja, Dogara lamented the worsening bloodshed across the region, describing it as a spiritual burden that has crippled development.

Dogara stated, “With the kind of bloodletting we are witnessing in the north, if you are a person of faith, you will know that we are operating under a curse because it is human blood, the effect of a curse is that you sweat without results. That is why we are sweating in this part of the country without any tangible outcome.”

The former speaker stressed that security must take precedent over all other priorities, urging governors across the 19 northern states to consolidate resources in tackling the menace.

“If it will mean pulling all the 19 northern states’ resources together to tackle insecurity, we must do it. Otherwise, all our conversations here will amount to nothing,” he said.

Dogara also challenged the north to stop relying on external solutions, insisting that the region must take ownership of its future.

He said, “Help is not coming from anywhere. We must take our destiny into our own hands.”

Dogara added that Nigeria’s overall progress would remain stunted until the region’s vast population was developed.

He said, “The development of northern Nigeria is not a regional prerogative. It must be seen as a national emergency. If the vast number of people we have in the north are not developed, Nigeria is going nowhere.”

But former Senate President Bukola Saraki disagreed with Dogara’s call for northern governors to consolidate resources, insisting the challenge requires a broader, structured national response.

Saraki said, “We shouldn’t think it’s easy to put all the blame on governors. Even if you put a super governor in those states today, you won’t see investments unless there are incentives.”

He explained that some governors were already taking innovative steps, citing examples in Nasarawa and Zamfara, and urged a clear national development plan defining the roles of federal and state governments as well as the private sector.

Equally contributing, a member of the House of Representatives, Bello El-Rufai, raised concerns that the region’s large youth population, often described as its greatest asset, had become a liability due to widespread involvement in banditry and cybercrime.

“The most that get recruited by bandits are young people. The young people doing cybercrimes are also within our group,” El-Rufai stated.