Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has stressed that the North Central zone had played a prominent role in the development and togetherness of Nigeria.
Saraki while receiving leaders of the North Central Peoples Forum (NCPF) who paid him a courtesy visit in his Abuja resident yesterday, said the zone deserve a body like this to speak for it.
He commended the leaders for coming up with a programme like this to bring peace and development in the region despite failed attempts in the past, to established similar forums.
He said: “Nigeria rely on our resources for development. You can’t talk of the unity of this country without the North Central. I am committed to this project and would support the forum.”
He, therefore, urges those who have the opportunity to serve in the forum to put in more effort because a lot had to be done to achieve the goal.
NCPF Board of Trustees,(BoT) Chairman General Jeremiah Useni, earlier in his remarks said that there’s an urgent need for a development commission to take care of the challenges confronting the north central.
Useni while presenting the Forum’s constitution to the Senator stressed that other regions in the country have gotten their commissions and NCPF will not hesitate to have one.
He said, “The northeast got a Commission, northwest elders forum is now trying hard to see whether they can get north west Commission. So, north central where we have a lot of resources cannot sit down and watch. So, we have to come up with this Forum hoping that very soon we will be able to get north central Commission from the Federal Government.”
Useni added that apart from the Commission, the Forum want to ensure peace within its territory, noting that without peace the region cannot do much.