ACF, time to move beyond talkshops

By Muhammad Musa-Gombe

At a time when Northern Nigeria is bleeding from insecurity, poverty, and despair, leadership can no longer afford the comfort of conferences without consequences.

When the Arewa Consultative Forum marked 25 years of existence in 2025, expectations across Northern Nigeria rose sharply. The celebration was not just about history or nostalgia. It came with the announcement of a development fund reportedly exceeding ten billion naira, buoyed by substantial contributions from leading industrialists such as AbdulSamad Isiaka Rabiu of BUA Group and Aliko Dangote. For many Northerners, it felt like a turning point, a long-awaited shift from speeches to solutions.

Months later, that optimism has thinned. Rather than immediately engaging its vast constituency, rolling out sensitization programmes, or launching quick-impact projects capable of touching lives across the region, the ACF returned to familiar territory. Another talkshop followed, this time reflecting on leadership sixty years after Sir Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and Samuel Akintola. While history deserves reflection, the timing unsettled many who believe the North needs action more urgently than remembrance.

The sense of urgency is unmistakable. Across the North, communities are battling relentless insecurity. Farmers abandon their fields. Traders travel in fear. Children remain out of school in alarming numbers. Entire local economies are stifled by violence, displacement and poverty.

In this environment, many Northerners expected the ACF to seize its development fund as a tool for immediate relief and strategic intervention.

Instead, silence greeted the public on what to expect, how the funds would be deployed, or which priority sectors would benefit. No broad communication. No regional sensitization. No visible low-hanging fruit projects to signal a new direction. For a region in distress, this pause feels costly and unsettling.

The frustration is heightened by developments elsewhere in the country. In the South West, regional cooperation has moved beyond declarations into infrastructure planning, economic hubs, technology clusters and coordinated policy direction. States collaborate, pool resources and pursue long-term competitiveness. In the South South, structured community engagement and development frameworks increasingly shape how interventions reach the grassroots. Even parts of the North Central are quietly building innovation hubs and targeted economic programmes to prepare young people for a digital future.

Against this backdrop, the North appears to be lagging not in ideas but in execution.

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What makes the situation more troubling is that the North no longer enjoys the political luxury it once did. Demographic advantage without human capital has become a liability, not a strength. Electoral numbers cannot compensate for weak productivity, poor negotiation leverage and diminishing moral authority. Regions that invest in ideas, data and delivery increasingly shape national outcomes, while those relying on sentiment and size alone are steadily sidelined. The ACF must confront an uncomfortable truth: relevance in modern Nigeria is earned through results, not reminiscence.

This is not for lack of resources. The North has land, people, history and influence. It has goodwill from its sons and daughters in business, industry and public service. What it lacks, many argue, is a clear, time-bound development plan that translates concern into coordinated action.

The ACF occupies a unique position in this equation. It is not a government, but it is also not a mere social club. It has access to policymakers, traditional institutions, private sector leaders and international partners. Its voice carries weight. Its convening power is respected. With that influence comes responsibility.

Stakeholders are therefore asking simple but powerful questions. What is the roadmap for Northern development between now and 2030? How will the development fund be used to complement federal and state efforts? Which sectors are priorities education, agriculture, health, youth employment, security support or infrastructure? How will communities be engaged and results measured?

These are not unreasonable demands. They are the expectations of a people under pressure.

The danger of endless reflection is that it risks disconnecting leadership from lived reality. While conferences debate leadership decline, ordinary Northerners are coping with hunger, fear and shrinking opportunities.

While papers are presented, young people are leaving the region in search of dignity elsewhere.

This moment therefore calls for humility as much as it calls for boldness. The Forum must listen, especially to voices it has historically sidelined. Young professionals, civil society actors, women leaders, development experts and technocrats across the North are already doing hard work in silos. Harnessing this energy does not weaken traditional leadership; it strengthens it. The ACF does not need to abandon its elders or heritage. It needs to expand its tent, modernize its methods and accept that the North it seeks to lead today is not the North of 1965 or even 2000.

To be clear, reflection and dialogue have their place. The legacy of the Sardauna and his contemporaries deserves study. But legacy becomes meaningful only when it inspires action. The greatest tribute to those leaders is not another symposium but bold programmes that lift people out of despair.

What is required now are visible steps. Small but impactful projects that restore confidence. Sensitization tours that explain plans and timelines. Strategic partnerships that unlock jobs and skills. Clear communication that reassures contributors and beneficiaries alike that development funds will not sleep in accounts while the region burns.

The road to 2030 is short. Development does not happen by speeches alone. It happens through planning, implementation and accountability. The North cannot afford to drift while others move ahead with clarity and purpose.

The ACF still has an opportunity to redefine its relevance. It can move from being remembered as a forum of speeches to being recognized as a catalyst for regional recovery. But that window will not remain open indefinitely.

For millions across Northern Nigeria, the message is clear. This is not the time for more talkshops. It is time for action.

Muhammad Gombe is a media practitioner based in Abuja. [email protected].