Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has said that the recent hunger protest in the north is a wake-up call for governors in the region.

Sule stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.

He said that the majority of protesters in Nasarawa were almajiris who did not even know the meaning of the protest.

He added that the governors must address the issue of out-of-school children to get it right.

The governor said, “The protest in the north is a wake-up call for us as leaders. Our region is good in agriculture. Everyone of us should go back to the field. For me the background is there. I managed the Savannah Sugar company. I was the chairman of all the companies that are producing sugar in Nigeria. I am familiar with agriculture. I love agriculture. I have my personal farms. In Nasarawa we have 5,000 hectares. We are going to do our first harvest.

“The next meeting we should have as governors of Northern Nigeria will no longer be a meeting where you will say religion has forbidden me to do this. God has gifted us this leadership. If we don’t go out to say this has to be done right.

“During the last protest in Lafia majority of those who came out to the street were almajiris. Some of them are five-year-old. Others were seven-year-old. A lot of them did not even understand the meaning of the protest. They didn’t even know what they were protesting against.

“When we moved to address the issue of almajiris, some religious leaders criticized it. But from what is happening now nobody will criticize it. Otherwise it will come as a time bomb and consume all of us.” (Daily Trust)