A former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has countered some claims made by Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai at a summit recently.
In a speech delivered Saturday during the Northern Youth Summit organised by Northern Hibiscus Initiative, in Kaduna, the state governor had lamented the poor development indices in Northern Nigeria.
El-Rufai said, ”Nigeria consists of two countries; there is a backward, less educated and unhealthy northern Nigeria, and a developing, largely educated and healthy southern Nigeria.
“We have to speak the truth to ourselves and ask why is it that northern Nigeria has development indicators similar to Afghanistan, a country still at war?
“We have the largest number of poor people in the world, most of them in northern Nigeria. Nigeria also has the largest number of out of school children, virtually all of them in Northern Nigeria.
“Northern Nigeria has become the centre of drug abuse, gender violence, banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism. We have also been associated with a high divorce rate and breakdown of families. This is the naked truth that we have to tell ourselves.”
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However, the governor said that despite these stark realities, the North still “feeds Nigeria” and the richest Nigerian, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is a Northerner.
And it was on the last two points that Fani-Kayode took exception.
Reacting in a series of tweets, the ex-minister disagreed with the notion that the North feeds Nigeria and described Dangote’s wealth as being a product of government patronage.
Fani-Kayode said, “The north has NEVER fed the nation but has ALWAYS lived off her. It has depended on the south for EVERYTHING for 105 yrs. Were it not for southern resources, kindness and generosity the north would be still be a barren desert.”
On Dangote, the controversial ex-minister said, “Any southern businessman that received the kind of support that Dangote received from FG’s over the last 40 yrs would be the richest man in the WORLD today.”
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