African richest man and Chairman of Dangote Group of Companies Alhaji Aliko Dangote has revealed alleged prayer point of people of Northern extraction.
Dangote made this disclosure while speaking at the fourth edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit (KadInvest 4.0) in Kaduna yesterday where he attributed the overwhelming poverty in the north to bad leadership.
Noting with concern the untapped resources abound in the region, he hinted that several people of Northern stock including him had recourse to God.
His word, “Nigeria is ranked at 157th out of 189 countries on the human development index. While the overall socio-economic condition in the country is a cause for concern, the regional disparities are in fact very alarming.
“In the North Western and North Eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty. It is instructive to know that the 19 Northern states, which accounts for over 54 per cent of Nigeria’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generate only 21 per cent of the total subnational IGR in the year 2017.
“Northern Nigeria will continue to fall behind if the respective state governments do not move to close the development gap. And that is why we are always saying that, the biggest challenge that we have and what we have been praying for is to have 10 governors like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to move the northern Nigeria forward.”
