• Sule charges govs to jettison excuses, tackle security
• Lawal urges North to speak in unison on security, economy

President Bola Tinubu has disclosed that 78 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N330 billion social protection programme are from northern Nigeria.
  
This was as Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has charged his counterparts to take full responsibility for security, stressing that the unprecedented resources now available to them leave no room for excuses.
 
His Zamfara counterpart, Dauda Lawal, enjoined the 19 Northern states to forge a united front and speak with one voice on security and economic issues in the region.
 
Tinubu, represented by Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, spoke yesterday at the Northern Nigeria Investment and Industrialisation Summit (NNIIS) 2025 in Abuja.
 
According to the President, the funds distributed through direct benefit transfers have reached 8.1 million households nationwide, with 2.4 million households already receiving two tranches. He stressed that “the process is verifiable as each beneficiary is uniquely identified.”  He revealed that the North “holds the key to the country’s economic future”, given its vast arable land, mineral resources and energy potential.
 
Tinubu noted that fully developing the region’s mining, agriculture and power sectors would guarantee food security, boost exports and accelerate industrialisation.

ALSO, speaking at the Abuja summit themed ‘Unlocking Strategic Opportunities in Mining, Agriculture and Power’, Sule noted that monthly allocations to the three tiers of government quadrupled under the President Bola Tinubu administration.
  
“For the first time in our history, all tiers of government are sharing more revenue than they ever imagined. Over N2.2 trillion was shared this month alone. When I became governor in 2019, we were sharing between N590 billion and N620 billion. Today, it is four times that amount,” he said
 
Sule urged Northern governors to channel the windfall into sectors capable of transforming the economy while also taking charge of the security of their states.
  
“Every state now has the resources to secure its people. We should stop blaming anybody for our insecurity. If we must blame anybody, it is ourselves,” he declared.
 
The summit brought together stakeholders to explore pathways for industrialisation and investment across the region.  The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) had earlier announced the disbursement of N2.22 trillion among the three tiers of government in August, out of a gross total of N3.63 trillion.

LAWAL also spoke at the summit convened by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), led by Ango Abdullahi. His spokesperson, Sulaiman Idris, quoted the governor as commending NEF for the consistent commitment to the development of the region.
 
“By convening this gathering, you have once again demonstrated a clear-eyed focus on our collective future,” he said. “The choice of sectors (mining, agriculture, and power) is not accidental. It is a strategic diagnosis of the core pillars upon which the prosperity of northern Nigeria must be built.
  
“In Zamfara, we are aware of the paradox we face: a land blessed with immense mineral wealth and vast arable land, yet our people have not fully reaped the dividends of these endowments.”
 
The Zamfara governor said the real challenge for leaders was not identifying what should be done but finding ways to turn potential into prosperity through investment and industrialisation.
 
Lawal stressed that security must underpin all efforts, noting that investors would not commit funds without safety.
 
 “We must collectively secure people and investments. Security is the fundamental prerequisite for any meaningful development,” he said. “Investors, both domestic and international, are not philanthropists; they are realists; they will not commit capital where it is not safe.”