ADSI RE-AWAKENING THE NORTH

Having been engaged in various organizations for the development of Northern Nigeria, it was only on the 15^th of January 2020 having been invited by one of the organizers of an event at the Ado Bayero Mall in Kano, where his Royal Higness Muhammadu Sanusu II was the special guest, that I really found an organization that is indeed committed, capable and walking the talk in Northern development.

The North, a sleeping giant, is slowly being re-awakened by AREWA DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT INITIATIVE a non-governmental organization that was a brainchild of Huraira Musa. The incessant problem bedeviling the region has and is hounding any conscious northerner and many have come under different platforms to address the plight. All human development indexes: education, insecurity, drug abuse, unemployment, out-of-school-children, poverty, crime and what have you, put the region at the lowest rung of the ladder not only in Nigeria but in the world. The precarious conditions of the north painted a doomsday scenario in a few years to come if nothing is done to address it. Desperate situations calls for desperate measures and ADSI is pointing the way that must be embraced by all meaningful organizations or platforms that really want to tackle the situation head-on.

In his usual eloquence, during his long speech at the occasion, the Emir of Kano recounted a story when he was the Governor of Central Bank and they were discussing the problems of the North with Aliko Dangote where he suggested they call on one million northerners to contribute 5000 Naira to create a fund that will work towards poverty alleviation through skills acquision.  Unfortunately the vision wasn’t translated to reality as he rightly pointed to the northern mind-set that is unaccustomed to enlightened self-interest. Though, he went on further to rain down accolades to ASDI for its approach towards the problem. A few months back I wrote a fiery article that went viral accusing Aliko Dangote as one of those that failed the North for not investing as he should in the region and very little impact of his foundation at the grassroots. A senior official of Dangote reached out to me and even asked me for a proposal towards that purpose. Fortunately for me I already have a visionary plan when I was the National Publicity Secretary of Northern Youth and Elders Awareness Forum to create AREWAGRANT that will provide Scholarships, Literary Awards, Inter-Secondary schools Quiz/Debate, Art/Music/Movie awards and Start-up Grant. My proposal wasn’t for Dangote Foundation to provide the money to implement, but to take it as their brain-child to implement, but they didn’t.

As for ASDI, which started as a closely knit group of friends of about ten, begin to expand as members recruit more members on the condition that they are willing to sacrifice just 2000 Naira every month to the coppers of the organization. Today they boast of 1000 strong membership. They organization uses the money to train youths in skills acquisition of their choice which ranges from tailoring, carpentry, salon, electrical repairs, beads making, catering recycling etc. After the training they will provide trainees with tools of their trade for free, rent them shops and send them away but on the condition that any person that sell his equipment, his guarantor is liable to pay back. People were selected only if they can provide a guarantor that will undertake liability in case of default.

So far ASDI has provided training and tools of trade for 800 young northerners in 7 states across the region. The event held on the 15^th was the maiden edition of graduands from Kano where 115 young boys and girls received their certificates, tools of trade and showcase some of the products they produce during training for sales at the event. The ADSI Train will head to Adamawa and Gombe next.

The Emir of Kano extol the gesture and call on people to join ASDI, saying that time has passed when people in the region will continue to expect governments to cater for all their needs. He cited the fact that even if governments are willing and committed to provide for the people, where is the money? He asked. The Federal Government commits 25% of its budget on debt servicing and 80% of the reminder on salaries, he further asked rhetorically, where is the money left for government to commit on other infrastructures? Equally he called on us to put ourselves in the shoes of the southerners we sometimes blamed. Supposed the oil fields are only in the north and every month we went to Abuja and share the resource with the south, how would we feel? Will it continue like that forever as they parasite on us?

The North is blessed with everything needed for positive development as we have 2/3 of the country’s landmass, arable land, more than half of the 200 million population and various natural resources. The only thing we lack is cooperation and strategic thinking on how to harness our endowments. The Emir said if we could sustain efforts like ADSI it can grow to an extent that it could be building roads, creating educational institutions and training for our millions of youth. Our population could be an asset to become a power-house for small-scale enterprises and we could train them as IT companies that could be a major hub for outsourcing from other countries, as Lagos is currently doing. He went on further to say such programs could be adapted to use Arabic and train our Almajiris, as they are conversant with Arabic letters and numerals, in computer and IT technology and companies with such talents could outsource to the Middle East.

The ADSI initiative is highly commendable and has shown to us that if we can start little we could reach beyond our wildest imagination. Most of our organizations and platforms are becoming arenas for lamentation, gossip, bad-blood, bigotry and myopia. Everyone of us can talk and it isn’t what we really need at the moment, we need action and whoever is willing to help positively I suggest he/she should join ADSI to further strengthen this noble effort that could be our only way to, if I may use the Emir’s word “Revolutionize” the region with the little we can offer.