By Chioma Ugboma
A legal practitioner, Modibo Mustapha, has tasked northern leaders not to allow President Bola Tinubu’s efforts on the Pulaaku Initiative to fail.
Modibo said this in a statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
He urged the Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, governors and leaders of Northern Nigeria to ensure the success of the initiative.
NAN reports that the Federal Government, in February, inaugurated a committee for the implementation of the Pulaaku Initiative.
“Pulaaku” is a Fulani word meaning “to be shy”.
The non-kinetic initiative was set up by the President Bola Tinubu administration to address the root causes of insurgency, banditry and poverty in the northern region.
Modibo said the personal commitment and political will with which President Tinubu approved the establishment of the Pulaaku Initiative could be seen in the prompt release of the N50 billion operational fund for its immediate take-off.
“However, as good and thoughtful as the initiative appears, the challenge still remains that the intended beneficiaries of the new programme need to be effectively mobilised.
“The beneficiaries should be carried along in its implementation. This is absolutely a challenge to the Northern establishment.
“It will amount to failure and self-indictment on the part of northerners in government, either elective or appointive, including the vice president, who coincidentally is the the custodian of the initiative.
According to him, leaders from the North, irrespective of their political leanings or inclinations, are expected to unite and give the Pulaaku Initiative the needed support to succeed.
“The emphasis of the Pulaaku Initiative on the provision of formal education and other social amenities, will go a very long way to give the vulnerable children in the North and the nomadic fulanis a sense of belonging.
“It will also provide a formal orientation needed to interact with their immediate social environment without fear of complex and discrimination.
“The nomadic Fulanis in Northern Nigeria have been neglected for too long, owing to the failure of governments at all levels.
“The Pulaaku Initiative is the first policy of its kind, ever deployed by government with a deliberate intention to create government presence within the nomadic communities in the North,” he said.
Modibo noted that the Pulaaka Initiative should be more important to the North at this crucial point in time, when peace and social stability seemed to have eluded the region.
“It is, therefore, incumbent on the current northern political class to pay more attention to issues like this that will bring genuine development to the people of the region.
“Northern leaders should desist from distractive arguments on mundane issues like the unwarranted controversy over transfer of some Federal Government members of staff to Lagos from Abuja.
“The President needs to be commended and encouraged to sustain his interest and spirited efforts on the implementation of the Pulaaku initiative.
“This is so, that the goals and objectives of the initiative can be achieved within a reasonable period of time, to the credit of his administration.
“Duty therefore beckons on the Vice President to use his good office to convene a summit of various leaders of the Fulani herdsmen, and owners of Sangaya Islamiya schools in the North,” he said.
He noted that the need for the North to support the Tinubu administration could not be over emphasised in the context of the initiative.
“The appalling neglect of socio economic issues relating to herdsmen and Sangaya Islamic education system by successive governments in Nigeria, is the root of the current insecurity in the North.
“The North must support the President’s creative and pragmatic intervention that will most likely, change the narratives around insecurity in the country,” he added. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
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