A SILVER JUBILEE IN THE MIDST OF SHADOWS: A CALL FOR THE ACF TO DELIVER REAL SOLUTIONS NOT JUST SPEECHES. ByTijjani Sarki

 A SILVER JUBILEE IN THE MIDST OF SHADOWS: A CALL FOR THE ACF TO DELIVER REAL SOLUTIONS NOT JUST SPEECHES.

ByTijjani Sarki

Good Governance Advocate & Public Policy Analyst

I will be sincere,as I listened to the tributes, dignitaries, eloquent speeches, and ceremony marking the Arewa Consultative Forum’s silver jubilee, two emotions battled within me respect and a deep, unsettling discomfort.

Respect, because surviving twenty-five years in Nigeria’s volatile political climate is no small feat. The ACF has weathered transitions and turbulence. The BOT Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, reminded us how, in 2000, northern elders, governors, emirs, and statesmen unified rival associations to create a platform that would protect the region’s dignity and pursue peace.

But discomfort, because beneath the polished speeches and chandeliers, a harsh truth echoed:

This is not enough. Not anymore.

The North is bleeding, and speeches,no matter how elegant can no longer slow the flow.

A REGION IN FEAR, EVEN AS WE CELEBRATE

The Chairman spoke honestly about the horrors:

the beheading of a Brigadier General,the abduction of 215 schoolchildren in Niger State,the kidnapping of 25 girls in Kebbi,school closures,and the ever-expanding map of insecurity.

He told the truth. But telling the truth is not the same as confronting it.

Villages are being emptied. Families sleep in fear. Nightfall has become a threat, not a time of rest. Even grief has grown weary, its repetition has made it hollow.

So I found myself asking:

What exactly are we celebrating?

Twenty-five years of the ACF?

Or twenty-five years of rising insecurity, deepening poverty, and children growing up with fear as their inheritance?

POVERTY OUR UNWANTED COMPANION

Unity is admirable, but unity does not fill empty stomachs or reopen abandoned classrooms.

Across the North, hunger and hopelessness roam freely. Children haul burdens heavier than their futures. Education is not merely underperforming, it is collapsing.

How do we celebrate a silver jubilee in a region where “silver” appears only in speeches, not in the lives of ordinary people?

LEADERSHIP: LOUD IN HALLS, SILENT IN REALITY

Representatives of president Ahmed Bola Tinubu, governors, ministers, and traditional leaders filled the hall. Yet outside that hall, ordinary northerners ask a painful question:

Do our leaders still see us?

Attendance at ceremonies means nothing when absence in governance defines daily life.

THE ACF AT 25: CELEBRATION OR WARNING?

The ACF was founded to defend northern interests within a united Nigeria. That purpose remains valid. But relevance is not automatic, it must be earned.

The North no longer needs ceremonial rhetoric.

It needs courage.

It needs honesty.

It needs solutions.

Condemnations do not resurrect the dead.

Communiqués do not reopen schools.

Sympathy does not stop kidnappers.

Solidarity does not plant crops.

We need leadership that does not just gather to mark time but gathers to change it.

A COMMENDATION WITH A NECESSARY WARNING

One moment in the Chairman’s speech stood out:

the announcement of a N100 billion endowment fund to finance community development projects across the North.

This is bold.

This is timely.

This is visionary.

And it deserves commendation.

But let me be blunt,

If this fund becomes another pool of money recycled through conferences, jingoistic events, or well-furnished halls, then the region will remain trapped in the cycle of waste that has plagued us for decades.

This fund must not become another jumboree.

It must not fund meetings, it must fund transformation.

It must not produce communiqués, it must produce results.

THE ACF MUST HOLD NORTHERN LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE

For once, the ACF must rise above ceremonial relevance.

Every northern governor, every senator, every House member, every minister must be held to a standard of measurable responsibility.

They must:

Present realistic, sustainable development projects,

Implement them with transparency,

Show measurable results,

And account for every naira and every promise.

No more watery projects that change nothing.

No more white elephant initiatives whose only achievement is a plaque on a wall.

If the ACF wants to lead the North, it must demand accountability, not just host meetings.

WHAT AREWA URGENTLY NEEDS

I hoped to hear a regional blueprint a roadmap. But what the North received were reflections, not solutions.

Here is what Arewa desperately needs:

A regional security framework rooted in community intelligence, modern technology, and local cooperation.

A Northern Education Marshall Plan bold, urgent, unapologetically focused on literacy, safety, and skills.

Monthly governors’ coalitions producing measurable progress not photo ops.

A joint economic revival charter focusing on agriculture, industry, mines and youth employment.

ACF task forces not ceremonial committees strategies, not statements.

The North is starving for solutions, not speeches.

WE CANNOT CELEBRATE WHILE OUR PEOPLE MOURN

So yes, I congratulate the ACF.

But my congratulations carry a warning, a reminder, and a plea:

If the ACF wants relevance, it must become daring.

If Arewa wants survival, it must reinvent itself.

If northern leaders want respect, they must earn it not in dignified halls, but in the lives of forgotten people.

The North does not need another anniversary.

The North needs a turnaround.

We have commemorated enough.

Now we must act.

For the sake of our children, our security, our dignity, and our future the next 25 years must not resemble the last.

The North deserves better.

And I, for one, will not applaud shadows.

Tijjani Sarki

Good Governance Advocate & Public Policy Analyst

Writing from Kano

22 November 2025