By Onyekachi Eze

Political activist Usman Bugaji, has created the stabilisation of the Northern region on former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Bugaji, who was special adviser to Atiku on political affairs, at the 2024 Atiku’s Week of Service in commemoration of the former vice president’s birthday in Jada, Adamawa State yesterday, said as the highest political office holder in the North in 1999, Atiku engaged political and traditional leaders in the region for the revival of its industries and the creation of jobs.

He said: “This was the beginning series of programmes to re-position the North.” Bugaji also credited the the formation of Northern Consultative Forum (NCF) on Atiku, recalling that he took stock of the state of Northern leadership and noted that there was division and fractionalisaion.

“He set up a committee under the leadership of the late Maitama Sule to go round and reconcile and unite the North. “That was what led to the creation of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) into which all groups melted into one body.

“Not many today know that ACF was the vision and creation of Atiku Abubakar,” he said. Bugaji commended Atiku for his interest in education, recalling that in 1999, “figures of qualified northerners in civil service were very low, transitions very poor, the quality of products shabby.