Maku lambasts northern leaders over development

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku,  has lashed out at former presidents and leaders  of the North.

The minister at a Town Hall meeting to climax the good  governance tour  on Tuesday in Kaduna said President Goodluck Jonathan  had developed  the North more than  past leaders of the region  since independence.

Maku said the North should blame its past leaders and not the President  for  the under development of the region.

He said  gone were the days when the North dictated to the rest of the country  who governed them (Nigerians), saying that the presidency would now go round the entire country.

According to Maku, who is also the supervisory minister of defence, northerners should be grateful for the efforts of the President in providing infrastructure for the use of northerners.

He said “There has been a denial, a deliberate denial that President Goodluck Jonathan is not developing the North and there has been an agenda of deceit which is carried out mainly by people and some politicians in some parts of the North who want to deny the achievements of this administration.

“The truth is that never in this country have we seen a government that is impacting significantly on the development of the North as President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and I want to challenge anyone to a debate on this and I will back it up with facts.

“We have been to a number of northern states and now, we are in Kaduna the capital of the old northern region and in all the places we have gone, the evidence is very clear that since 2007, the Yar’adua/Jonathan Presidency has impacted so much on the development of the North.

“For those who say that the leaders of Nigeria must come from the North, let me say that Nigeria has changed and the story is different.”