Former President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, Tuesday, in Abuja stated that the only way the inherent potentials of the northern part of Nigeria can be unlocked is when all stakeholders in the project put their hands together without holding back anything.

Saraki, a former governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum stated this on the second day of the ongoing Northern Nigeria investment summit in Abuja.

Irked by the absence of governors of the region on the second day of the summit who, according to him, are the major stakeholders in the growth and development of the region, he said, “If the theme of this summit is on unlocking the political potential of the region, the entire hall would have been filled to capacity.”

“How often do members of the Governors Forum from the north interact with northerners and other stakeholders from the region?” he asked.

He was of the views that the time has come for collaboration with decision makers like the National Assembly in order to draft an enabling act that can give legal teeth to the planned reinvigoration of the north.

On his part, former speaker, House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara bemoaned the region’s fortunes despite the enormous land mass.

The north, he said, covers more than half of the entire land mass of the country with profound wealth and abundance that are lying fallow due to insecurity and lack of the political will.

“To make progress, we must do something about the backwardness of the region by taking the action of following up on whatever we discuss. The north used to generate a lot of money through agric, but we have abandoned all those.

“Let’s stop talking about asking people to come and invest without taking action. Investors would look at the security of their investment before they can come, but presently, that is lacking in the region.

“Let’s protect our existing indigenous industries like Dangote Refineries which is being stifled by selfish interest. I wish most of our millionaires in the region would invest in mining and agriculture rather than investing in Dubai. By that, we can handle the issue of banditry and insecurity in the north,” he noted.

“The north is presently at a crossroad even when it has the population that should have been an advantage. With her youthful population engaged in banditry, cybercrime and drugs, the region has a lot of problem coupled with the region having the largest out of school population. It is for reasons such as these that the Northern Elders Forum organised this investment summit to harness the potentials of the region.

“If we need to put all the resources of the entire 19 states together in order to recover the region from backwardness, let’s do it,” Dogara concluded.