From Jibrin Miachi, Kaduna (The New Diplomat’s Northern Bureau)
The recent attacks and killings of Northerners in some southern states are part of calculated attempts to provoke the North into bloody action in revenge, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said Wednesday.
Deputy Chairman of ACF, Senator Ibrahim Ida stated this at the Arewa House in Kaduna while reacting to the attacks during the Northern People’s Summit.
After a careful assessment, he said the North must ensure that nobody takes it for granted or underestimates the region as it is the fabric holding the nation together.
According to him, “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 underestimate us. Let us change the template, portray our interest in the way we want it,” he said.
Speaking further, Senator Ida said the North requires internal cohesion through elite consensus as the region is presently at crossroad considering its numerous woes.
According to him, “the North is at crossroad. 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 then see things our own way. There is absence of inclusion in the way we run our affairs,” he said.
Also speaking, the former Speaker House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba said “in the last 60 years, the system has worked for Northerners. Lots of people are eligible to contest but not suitable to lead” because “leadership is not for everybody. It is not an all comers affair; leaders must possess so many virtues.
“In 1999 when I realized that there was an agenda against the North, I did everything possible to ensure it doesn’t succeed but it is among our governors that I met one of the stiffest oppositions. Some of them because they want to come back, some because they want to become president, worked with the president who wants to destroy the North”, Na’abba claimed.
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