Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has said what many in the North have whispered for years: politicians from the region have failed their people. And not just recently—he says the failure stretches back over the past two decades. According to Sani, anyone who has held office in the North in the last twenty years should offer a public apology to the very people they claimed to serve.
It was a rare and brutal moment of honesty from a sitting governor. “We have to stop lying to ourselves,” Sani said. “We are all part of the problem. The poverty, the insecurity, the broken education system—these didn’t come from nowhere. They came from our neglect, our corruption, our selfish politics.”
His words have stirred debate across the region. Some praised him for finally breaking the cycle of silence among northern elites. Others accused him of grandstanding. But the numbers don’t lie. Millions of young people in the North remain out of school. Insecurity has turned vast parts of the region into no-go zones. And poverty continues to deepen.
Whether or not his fellow politicians will take his advice remains to be seen. But Sani has thrown down the gauntlet. He’s asking the North’s leaders to look in the mirror—and to do something Nigerian politicians rarely do: say they were wrong.
Leave a Reply