By HUSSAINA YAKUBU

Gov. Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State and the former Minister of Communications, Prof. Isa Ali-Pantami, on Saturday traced the deepening socio-economic challenges of the North to a widening skills gap and the collapse of industries that once powered the region’s economy.

They spoke at the maiden North-West Stakeholders’ Development Summit organised by the Joint Senate and House Committees on the North-West Development Commission (NWDC) at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Conference Centre, Kaduna.

The speakers agreed that insecurity, poverty, youths unemployment and the alarming out-of-school children crisis were symptoms of deeper structural failures rooted in poor education outcomes and the disappearance of industrial capacity across the region.

Yusuf, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Umar Ibrahim, narrowed the region’s crisis to what he called the “twin and intertwined challenges” of insecurity and systemic decay in the education sector.

He lamented that banditry, kidnappings and cattle rustling had displaced communities, destroyed farmlands and markets, and deepened multidimensional poverty across the sub-region.

Yusuf said overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated infrastructure, shortage of teachers and lack of learning materials had crippled the capacity of public schools to transform the youths into productive human capital.

He proposed the creation of a sub-regional education transformation body under the NWDC to coordinate restoration, innovation and improved education delivery across the North-West states.

The Governor also advocated a sub-regional security collaboration framework to enhance cross-border intelligence sharing and support rehabilitation of displaced persons.

Pantami, in his intervention, linked the region’s present difficulties to the collapse of industries that flourished in Kaduna, Kano and other northern cities in the 1970s and 1980s.

He observed that Northern Nigeria had shifted from being a producer region to largely a consumer one, warning that the trend threatens the future if not urgently reversed.

Pantami blamed the growing skills gap on poor curriculum alignment and the absence of practical, vocational and technical training that matches modern economic demands.

He recommended the adoption of a “dual education” model, where classroom learning is combined with hands-on vocational training, similar to systems used in Germany and Switzerland.

The former minister also highlighted the out of school children crisis, noting that a significant proportion of affected children are in Northern Nigeria, posing long-term risks to stability and competitiveness.

The speakers agreed that addressing insecurity without fixing education and skills development, or improving schools without securing communities, would produce limited results.

As the summit opened, participants expressed hope that the NWDC would provide a practical platform to integrate efforts across states and revive the North-West’s lost industrial strength through coordinated development. (NAN)