By Israel Adebiyi

“When truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.”
— Émile Zola

There’s a kind of silence that settles over the land after years of failure. A silence made of shame, denial, and carefully chosen half-truths. In Northern Nigeria, that silence has become an institution — polite, predictable, and profoundly dangerous.

Then came Uba Sani — with words that cut through like harmattan wind.

At a recent citizen engagement summit in Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani did what few northern politicians have ever dared. He faced the region and told it the truth: “We failed our people.” Not they. We. All of us who have held power in the North in the past two decades, he said, must offer the people an apology.

In that single moment, he shattered the convenient forgetfulness the North has grown used to. He didn’t call out Abuja. He didn’t drag the South. He didn’t blame some vague colonial past or “outsiders.” He pointed the finger inward — and included himself.

That is no small thing. That is not politics. That is an act of courage.

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Because what Governor Sani spoke to is not just political miscalculation. It’s a generational betrayal. A betrayal that has left too many Northern children unschooled, too many women dying in childbirth, too many communities in darkness, and too many homes listening for the next gunshot.

Let’s stop for a moment and look at the evidence — not the emotion, but the math.

According to the 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index, nine of the ten poorest states in Nigeria are in the North. In Sokoto, over 90% of people live in poverty. Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa — same story. We’re not just failing; we’ve normalized failure.

And yet, this is the region that has held the most power in Nigeria since independence. Presidents. Military heads of state. Senators. Generals. Governors. Ministers. National Security Advisers. We’ve produced them all. But not the outcomes.

We’ve built palaces in Abuja, but not a working school in Shinkafi. We’ve padded budgets but abandoned hospitals in Birnin Kebbi. In some states, over 60% of children aged 6–15 have never seen the inside of a classroom. What kind of leadership allows this?

Northern mothers still die in delivery rooms at three times the national average, according to the latest NDHS report. Some rural health centres don’t even have paracetamol. The elites fly abroad. The poor bury their dead.

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Security? Forget it. From Zamfara to Katsina to Niger, bandits have made homes out of forests. Whole villages are ghost towns. And yet, most of the top military chiefs in the last decade came from this region. Who, then, is to blame?

Let’s talk money. The North is land-rich but cash-poor. While Lagos alone contributes over 30% to Nigeria’s GDP, most northern states struggle to hit 1%. But the same northern governors go cap-in-hand for federal allocation and call it development. Where are the industries? Where is the productivity?

This is what Sani is shaking — a region that has grown comfortable with underdevelopment and allergic to self-reflection.

Some elites have pushed back, of course. Former senators and political juggernauts who built their careers on recycled loyalty have tried to downplay his remarks. They say he was too harsh. That he forgot their “service”. That he shouldn’t “wash dirty linen in public.”

But if that linen hasn’t been washed for 40 years, where should it be aired?

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Let’s be honest — it is easier to blame Buhari, or Tinubu, or the South. But Sani refuses the easy route. He says: we, the North, are not victims here. We are architects of our own decline.

He refuses to play the amnesia game.

You can feel the discomfort in the air. He has stepped on toes — and many of those toes wear agbadas. But the truth is not about comfort. It’s about course correction.

This isn’t about just Uba Sani. It’s about whether the North still has the capacity to face its reflection. To see the rot — and clean house. To stop building dynasties and start building schools. To stop naming roads after ancestors and start giving roads to rural farmers.

Too many of our children are stuck in almajiri cycles while the children of the elite occupy UK universities. Too many of our mothers die in labor while wives of past governors set up foundations for photo-ops. Too many old names have stayed too long — and are grooming their sons for the throne.

That is what Governor Sani is fighting: not just silence, but the inheritance of silence.

He says, “Let’s apologise.” But apology alone is not enough. It must be backed with a plan. A Marshall Plan for the North — real investment, not campaign slogans. Functional education, not workshops. Security that protects, not retaliates. Jobs that empower, not enslave.

It must come with the rethinking of what power is: not title, not convoy, not prayer photos — but legacy measured in lives changed, not lives lost.

Governor Sani’s voice may be lonely now. But history listens to such voices. And perhaps, just perhaps, in that lone voice, the North might find a new beginning.

Because silence, when it becomes tradition, is nothing but consent.

And now, one man has dared to shout.

The government of Edo State has assured pensioners in the state of improved welfare and universal health coverage.

The state deputy governor, Hon. Dennis Idahosa gave the assurance in Benin on Tuesday, during a courtesy visit to his office by members of the Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP).

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Friday Aghedo, Idahosa assured the pensioners of Monday Okpebholo’s led administration commitment to improving on the welfare of all citizens.

Idahosa said that the government remains upbeat and committed toward representing the interest of pensioners.

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“The Governor is committed towards the welfare of the pensioners of Edo State,” he stated.

Idahosa, who reacted to a request concerning the need to expedite payments of outstanding arrears to already screened pensioners cutting across local government and state level, pointed out, “The Governor is keen at clearing all outstanding arrears.”

Simirlarly, the assured that the pensioners of benefitting from the state universal health coverage.

He concluded with the assurance that the governor’s work would soon be visible to all across the state.

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The State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Samuel Okhuelegbe, who spoke on behalf of his executive, enumerated challenges of the union, which includes meager amount received as pension

He commended the state government for setting up a committee to review the Contributory Pension Scheme.

“The essence is to narrow the yawning gap in monthly pensions between counterparts, under the contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as define benefits of the scheme.

“Though the report of the committee has long been submitted, the final outcome of the report should be considered in the interest of affected pensioners,” he appealed

He, however, sued for improved benefits for retirees going by the improved minimum wage as applicable to workers in Edo State.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has deployed no fewer than 1,700 corps members to Bauchi State for the 2025 Batch ‘B’ stream 1 orientation exercise.

Mr Jacob Unogwu, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the scheme in the state, stated this in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Bauchi.

According to him, registration of prospective corps members would commence on July 30 and end at midnight on July 31 at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Wailo, in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state.

He explained that the swearing-in ceremony of the prospective corps members would be conducted on Aug. 1, while the orientation exercise would end on Aug. 19.

Unogwu also said that each of the prospective corps members would be allowed into the camp only after being adequately certified to be genuine graduates.

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He said that discreet screening of the corps members would be conducted as part of security measures to ensure that there was no intrusion or impersonation.

“Registration dates have been announced to the corps members, and they are advised to adhere strictly to all camp rules and regulations.

“Defaulters will be sanctioned in accordance with the scheme’s extant rules,” said Unogwu.

The PRO also reiterated that the scheme frowned at late-night journeys and urged prospective corps members to avoid it for their own safety.

He, however, tasked them to be punctual and diligent as well as comply with the camp’s acceptable dress codes, adding that flouting the directive would be sanctioned.