SHEKARAU TASKS AHMADU BELLO FOUNDATION MGT

Governor Ibrahim Shekarau has tasked management of Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation to evolve policies and programmes that will be binding on all the 19 northernstates. Receiving management of the foundation in his office, the governor said the northern states had been unable to make headway in certain critical areas of human development because of political differences.

He said unlike during the days of the late Sardauna when the North was a single geographic entity, the situation was very different today as the states did not have common policies, owing to party affiliations.

Malam Shekarau, therefore, charged the team to take the bold step of providing a sustainable platform to address issues such as the almajiri phenomenon, agriculture and desertification, among other things.

The governor maintained that unless the states work as a team, it would be impossible to overcome some problems peculiar to most of them and promised that Kano State would support the foundation to achieve the desired objectives.

Earlier, managing director, of the foundation, Dr. Shettima A. Ali, told the governor that the foundation plans to deploy a strategic tactic of 'High Visibility/ High Impact', a strategy used by the late Sir Ahmadu Bello to lift the North to an exalted position in honesty, education, industry, agriculture, peace, harmony and tranquility.

Toward actualising this goal, he said management of the foundation had designed programmes in four key areas: sensitisation program for women and youth on leadership, good governance and entrepreneurship, education conference, ICT backed secondary schools education program and a scholarship scheme, awaiting approval of the foundation's board of directors.

Ali, therefore, appealed that Kano State Government and other citizens of the state should redeem their pledges to help the foundation to enable it execute its mandate efficiently.