Kaduna, November 23, 2025 – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described the persistent insecurity ravaging Northern Nigeria as the issue that troubles him most profoundly, warning that the crisis not only threatens lives and livelihoods in the region but also constitutes a grave danger to the overall progress and stability of the entire country.
The President made these remarks through his representative, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, during the well-attended 25th Anniversary (Silver Jubilee) celebration of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) held at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Indoor Sports Hall in Kaduna on Friday.
Delivering a keynote address titled “A Generation Summoned by a Crisis,” President Tinubu acknowledged the complex, multilayered nature of the security challenges his administration inherited in May 2023 but insisted that his government is now tackling them with unprecedented urgency and determination.
“Nothing troubles me more gravely than the security crisis bedevilling Nigeria, especially Northern Nigeria,” the President declared. “Affliction in any part of the country is a setback for every part. We cannot prosper when one limb of the national body is paralysed.”
He emphasised that the sophistication and entrenched character of the threats—ranging from insurgency and banditry to farmer-herder clashes and kidnappings—present daunting obstacles. Yet, he said, Nigerians should draw confidence from the renewed vigour with which the current administration is confronting these problems.
“The layers and sophistication of the security challenges we inherited are daunting,” he admitted, “but what should inspire confidence is the urgency with which my administration is pursuing solutions.”
Speaking directly to the Northern elite and political class gathered under the ACF platform, President Tinubu stressed that the region has never needed “honest, courageous voices” more than it does today. He urged Northern leaders not to shy away from difficult conversations or surrender to despair.
“Yes, there have been missteps. Yes, there have been moments of drift,” he conceded. “But we cannot say the North has failed unless we abandon our responsibility to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.”
The President painted a stark picture of what failure would look like: “We fail the day we sleep comfortably while millions sleep with empty bellies, the day fear becomes a permanent companion for travellers moving from one village to another.”
Nevertheless, he struck an optimistic note, insisting that hope is far from lost. He described the decades of dysfunction that fractured social bonds and strained national unity, yet celebrated the ethnic and religious diversity present at the ACF event as living proof of collective resolve.
“The ethnic and religious diversity gathered here today is a declaration of the collective resolve to overcome polarisation and resist any agenda designed to divide us,” he said.
The Silver Jubilee ceremony itself was a colourful blend of reflection, celebration, and sober reckoning. Dignitaries from across the North and beyond filled the venue, with traditional rulers, governors, former heads of state, serving and past federal lawmakers, business leaders, and civil society representatives in attendance.
The Arewa Consultative Forum, founded in 2000 as a socio-cultural and political platform for the nineteen northern states and Northerners in the diaspora, used the occasion to appraise its quarter-century journey while charting a path for greater regional cohesion and national influence.
In his own remarks, ACF Chairman and former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmadu Coomassie (represented at the event), praised President Tinubu for what he called “visible commitment” to restoring peace in the North through increased military deployments, intelligence-sharing, and socio-economic interventions. However, he also called for more inclusive dialogue that brings traditional institutions, youth groups, and women into security architecture planning.
Other speakers, including Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State (the host governor) and former Vice President Namadi Sambo, echoed the President’s message of unity and resilience while stressing the need for sustained investment in education, job creation, and infrastructure as long-term antidotes to insecurity.
The event featured the launch of a commemorative book chronicling ACF’s interventions over the past 25 years, the presentation of awards to distinguished Northern sons and daughters, and cultural performances that showcased the region’s rich heritage.
As the ceremony drew to a close, participants rose for the national anthem, many visibly moved by the President’s charge that the current generation has been “summoned by a crisis” and must answer with courage, honesty, and unity.
President Tinubu’s emphatic declaration that insecurity in the North remains his “deepest concern” is likely to resonate beyond Kaduna. It comes at a time when banditry, kidnappings, and communal clashes continue to claim lives and displace thousands across states such as Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, and parts of the North-West and North-Central zones.
The President’s words also serve as a reminder that, nearly thirty months into his administration, the battle for a secure and prosperous Nigeria remains the defining challenge of his tenure—one he clearly believes can only be won when every region, and every citizen, refuses to let any part of the country remain “paralysed.”
