ABUJA - Gov. Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State today called for a peaceful environment in the North, to attract investment into the region. Yuguda made the call at the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit in Abuja. He particularly decried the past crises under the guise of religion, saying: “This must be stopped to encourage development in the region .” “We must have the needed peace in the North for any development to take place because capital can not flow in an environment that is not peaceful,” he said.

He said that the high statistics of death, birth, poverty and other economic indicators showed that the North was going backwards.

Yuguda also noted that access to capital was very difficult because the banks preferred visible collateral in Abuja , Lagos or any of the big cities, but not in villages.

He called for the establishment of micro finance banks where poor people could access capital.

“We cannot grow an economy without money, he said.

Yuguda called for the re-structure of the railways System, building of good roads and dredging of the rivers.

“We have all the land to grow cotton and other agricultural products but no accessible transportation, so we need to dredge our rivers, re-structure our railways system and build good roads,” he said.

Yuguda said the forum should not be a talk shop like other past summits where the communiques “never see the light of the day .” Gov. Mahmud Shinkafi of Zamfara, said the state had the highest deposits of solid minerals in Nigeria.

Shinkafi called for political will to transform the deposit into wealth.

“We must educate, challenge, compel and enlighten our people, to be able to create and generate wealth for the North,” he said.