Dutse  – Gov. Sule Lamido of Jigawa and his Katsina counterpart, Gov. Ibrahim Shema, have refuted the claim that northern governors were responsible for the social and economic challenges confronting the region.

In their separate speeches, during a courtesy call by Shema to Lamido in Dutse on Friday, Lamido said the military government was responsible for all the problems in the north.

He explained that northern governors were not responsible for the problems of the north, pointing out that the crisis in the region was a manifestation of failure of its leaders in the last 25 years.

Lamido said that all the governors in the north had been doing their best to solve the long term problems.

He enumerated insecurity and poverty as main challenges confronting the northern part of the country.

“We the governors in the north are doing our best to restore the hope of our people and provide them with the social needs,” he said.

In his speech, Shema said that the northern region setback was a long term problems and could not be solved over night.

He added that the governors should not be blamed for the problems in the north.

Shema noted that democracy started in 1999 and was too young to solve the lingering problems that had been there for in the last 50 years.

“Corruption and poverty have been there since 1959 and we cannot solve them over night. There must be committed leaders and all hands must be on deck to solve the problems,’’ Shema said.

He said that there was no longer excuse for leaders and followers as everybody must be ready to address the challenges together.  (NAN)