The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) says northern children have turned to violence as a means of livelihood.

Speaking at a meeting with Babagana Zulum, Borno governor, Audu Ogbeh, ACF chairman, said the security situation in the north is “depressing”.

Ogbeh led a delegation to Maiduguri to meet with the governor and commiserate with him over the Zabarmari killings.

The former minister said the tragedy of the north is that politics is the only industry in the region, adding that politics has “never grown any society”.

“We are depressed, very depressed. And anyone of us, of our age, who was not depressed, he was not well-born. Because we have nothing to leave behind for our children, and violence will not sustain us,” a statement on Monday quoted Ogbeh as saying.

“The tragedy of the north today is that the only industry left is politics, and politics alone has never grown any society.

“We have to re-grow Borno state, we have to re-grow the north, we have to re-grow Nigeria. We have no industries, agriculture has declined and our own children have now turned to violence as a means of livelihood.

“Your Excellency, in ACF we have decided that we will not talk too much politics, we decided to focus on something else, we are going to start a program of developing small-scale agro-industries across the north.”

On his part, Zulum thanked the forum for commiserating with him and the state over the killings.

The governor asked the federal government to find lasting solutions to the insurgency in the north-east.