We are under a curse – Dogara laments insecurity, poverty in north

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has warned that the scale of killings and bloodshed in northern Nigeria has placed the region under a spiritual curse, stressing that the crisis must now be treated as a national emergency.

Dogara, speaking on Tuesday during a panel session at the Nigeria Investment and Industrialisation Summit (NNIIS) 2025 organised by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) in Abuja, said the situation had gone beyond ordinary socio-political concerns.

“With the kind of bloodletting we are witnessing in the North, if you are a person of faith, you will know that we are operating under a curse because it is human blood,” the former Speaker said.

He lamented that insecurity and poverty in the region had reached catastrophic levels, warning that Nigeria’s overall progress would remain stalled unless urgent steps were taken to address the crisis.

“The development of northern Nigeria is not a regional prerogative. It must be seen as a national emergency. If the vast number of people we have in the North are not developed, Nigeria is going nowhere,” he cautioned.

Dogara urged northern leaders and citizens to abandon a culture of dependence on external solutions and instead take charge of their own destiny.

“We need to depart from doing business as usual and embrace radical, transformative action. Help is not coming from anywhere — we must take our destiny into our own hands,” he declared.