http://www.newsportng.com.ng Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has cried out over the resolution of Northern Governors on the need for power shift to the Southern part of Nigeria in the forth coming 2023 general Elections.
The Arewa group made this known in a statement signed by the National President, Alhaji Yerima shettima, on Sunday expressed that the plan by the Northern Governors of the ruling all progressive Congress is aimed to sell the right of other Northerners for their own selfish gain.
According to shettima, the resolution is a deliberate attempt to frustrate President Muhammadu Buhari who has massive love for his People, the Northerners, demanded that equal rights be given to every aspirant to contest regardless of their region for national interest.
He said, “We have been following with keen interest the open disdain for the ethics of democracy by 11 Northern Governors who, willy-nilly traded off our region’s right to participatory democracy by taking a stance on direct powershift to the South.
“We are deeply disturbed that in addition to their failure to save the North from massive poverty, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, they are turning around to deny us the right to freely choose where our people want the next president to come from. But we don’t expect party Delegates to follow the self-serving agenda.
“It is undemocratic to Zone Nigeria’s presidency to the South in 2023 because it is the prerogative of voters to decide which candidate they would like to vote for, whether a Northerner or a Southerner. The masses have not spoken yet and it amounts to imposition to declare that South is the way to go.
“The 11 Northern Governors did not indicate a single effort they made to consult their people in the region, before their wholesale endorsement of the declaration for a Southern presidential candidate. An important pillar of democracy, whih is consultation with the masses, is out of the question because our governors would rather pretend that their wish is supreme.
“Going by what has happened so far, it is now abundantly clear to innocent Northern voters that their mind is being conditioned to accept a purely selfish and shameful political agenda of relinquishing power on a platter of gold , like the military was doing in the past
The Arewa group further expressed that they are aware of how much the North’s Founding fathers like Sardauna Ahmadu Bello worked for the interest of the region, but the Sardauna’s agenda have been undermined by the inordinate ambitions of the northern Governors.
“we are not surprised that Sardauna agenda has now been undermined by the inordinate ambition of our governors. It is worrisome that our Governors have sold out completely this time, with their smear on democracy and the electiral rights of the masses.
“We the Arewa Youths are deeply worried that the dream of having new faces at the helmsman of affairs of our democratic institutions has now been deliberately killed by self-serving Governors of the North.
“The real agenda of these Northern governors, which is now unfolding, is to deliberately blackmail Buhari into doing their bidding. They expect the President, who loves his people so much, to turn his back via allowing his successor to emerge through the backdoor. We urge President Buhari never to succumb to these Governors’ cheap balckmail of selling out our people’s right to vote the real candidate of their choice – whether a Northerner or not.
Shetima called on all Northerners of good conscience to reject the ‘wholesale disenfranchisement’ of innocent Northern voters in broad daylight and say no to the ‘brigandage and brazen dictatorship in the guise democratic strategy’.
“We are seriously looking up to President Buhari, not to let the North down. And our biggest hope are the Delegates who have a duty to do whatever is democratically right to defend, promote and project the interest of Nigerians in general and the Northerners in particular.
“We are still watching very closely to this disenfranchising move of the Northern governors against their people, for self-serving political agenda. And we are also waiting to see what happens tomorrow, to see whether they have a new definition of democratic culture and decorum.” He added.
