… southern groups disagree
Arewa Consultative Forum on Wednesday said that the North is being provoked by incessant attacks on northerners in the South.
The northern group said this a summit organised by the Professor Ango Abdullahi-led Northern Elders’ Forum held at the Arewa House, Kaduna State.
The ACF spoke at the event through its Deputy Chairman, Senator Ibrahim Ida.
He said, “We are the fabric holding Nigeria together. We are being provoked by the incessant attacks on northerners in the South. We must therefore ensure at the end that nobody takes us for granted or underestimates us. Let us change the template, portray our interest in the way we want it.
“The North is at a crossroads. We really need internal cohesion through elite consensus of what the North stands for, the resources available and what we want to achieve.
“We have enemies within and we need to turn them around and make them see things our own way. There is absence of inclusion in the way we run our affairs.”
Speaking earlier at the event, Prof Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Chairman Northern Elders Forum said that the North would only vote as president in 2023, anyone who has socio-economic development plans for the North irrespective of the tribe and religion of the person.
According to him, the North must, “think out of the box and elect new sets of leaders who will do a lot better than the current ones.”
Cautioning those agitating for the breakup of the country to have a rethink, Abdullahi called on the Federal Government to take seriously issues of threat to disintegrate the country.
He added that Boko Haram and Fulani bandits were not problems of the North but threat to the Nigerian nation.
“Northern voters have supported three southerners, Abiola, Obasanjo and Jonathan to victory in the past, two of them against Northerners. Northern voters are enlightened and conscious of their responsibilities. They have learnt, perhaps at greater cost than most Nigerians, that ethnicity and faith alone do not make good leaders. They will not accept to be further weakened so that they abandon the same rights all Nigerians enjoy.
“Those politicians who want Northerners to vote in a particular manner should soil their boots and convince Northerners how their candidates will improve security, economy and society in the North and the country. Using restructuring as a threat or bargaining tool for accepting zoning will destroy the imperatives of restructuring and imperil the country.
“Politicians and leaders who desire to lead need to understand that Nigerians are watching what they do in their immediate constituencies that will entitle them to ask for our support. We should speak frankly and directly to the rest of Nigeria on this issue.
“Politicians who cannot impose their influence on irredentists that threaten our corporate existence and the lives and livelihoods of our fellow northerners stand on very thin ground in our estimation.
“Politicians who cannot or will not influence public sentiment which demonises our fellow northerners and leaves them open to attack will not weigh much in our consideration as leaders under whom we will feel safe and secure,” Abdullahi said.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youths Congress in a statement on Wednesday faulted northern groups positions.
The President of IYC, Peter Igbifa, responding in statement said that the claim by the ACF and Abdullahi-led NEF was amusing and contrary to the current realities in the country.
Igbifa reminded the northern groups of a recent statement by one of its own, Senator Shehu Sani, who recently speaking on the state of the nation said, “The only region that is comparatively peaceful is the South that is why the heart of the country is still beating, despite the bloodshed and violence in the other regions. We should all be grateful.”
Punch report also quoted pan-Yoruba social-political organization, Afenifere, in its response said that there was a need for the other geo-political zones of the country to produce the next president come 2023.
According to the newspaper, the National Secretary-General of the association, Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, told one of its correspondents, that it would be unfair for the northerners to hold on to power because power was not an exclusive possession of any part of the country.
“As long as we want merit and quality as criteria for a person to become the next President, there is no geo-political zone in this country that has no quality and competent person to become the President.
“’So in the spirit of fairness, I think the power should shift to the other part of the country. Power shift is an Ingredient of true federalism and anybody that is against power shift is an enemy of true federalism,” Arogbofa was reported saying.
The paper also quoted Ohanaeze Ndigbo to have accused the ACF of turning facts upside down, arguing that it has been the northerners that have been carrying out killings in South.
Ohanaeze spokesperson, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, who reacted to the development said, “it is not part of our culture to kill. We respect the sanctity of human life. Igbo don’t kill rather Igbo are very hospitable; very accommodating; they welcome strangers of all sorts and allow people of diverse ethnic groups to transact their businesses in their land. What Igbo admire is ingenuity and hard work. In Igbo we don’t advertise killing, it is not part of our tradition and culture, rather we talk about ingenuity.
“In Ebonyi State the Fulani invaded communities and massacred Igbo natives. At Iga community in the Uzo-Uwani Local government, Fulani invaded the community and killed the Igbo. Herdsmen from the North are having clashes with the southerners. Why are they turning it upside down?”
On the 2023 election he said,
“Nigeria will start moving well when you place competence and record of accomplishment before appointment into sensitive positions.
“If recruitment process is based on competence and record of accomplishment Nigeria will move well. But as long as we give priority to ethnic, and religious sentiment what you hear and see in Nigeria will continue. So we have two options – it is either we bring people with competency in the position of authority or we go on with religious and ethnic sentiment and continue the way we are saying. I want to believe that the greater majority of Nigerians will wish that we go with competency in an appointment so that Nigeria will become better than it is today.”