APC primary: Ignore Northern governors, Arewa group tells delegates

The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has kicked against the move by the 11 Northern Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to concede the presidency to the south calling on delegates not to succumb to the self-serving agenda.

This was contained in a statement issued by the National President of the forum, Yerima Shettima, and made available to Tribune Online on Sunday.

He noted that they were disturbed by the failure of the Northern Governors to tackle the massive poverty, insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping in the region now they are turning around to deny the people the right to choose who they like to succeed Buhari.

The statement noted that following this development, ” we don’t expect party delegates to follow the self-serving agenda of the governors.

”As a group that upholds the ethics of democracy, we feel duty-bound to call out these Northern governors. And we wish to state as follows:

”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, which in 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

”Though we are aware of how much the North’s Founding fathers like Sardauna Ahmadu Bello worked for the interest of the region, we are not surprised that Sardauna’s 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 electoral rights of the masses.

”We 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 by allowing his successor to emerge through the backdoor.

”We urge President Buhari never to succumb to these Governors’ cheap blackmail of selling out our people’s right to vote the real candidate of their choice – whether a Northerner or not.

”We call on all Northerners of good conscience to reject this wholesale disenfranchisement of innocent Northern voters in broad daylight, by State Chief Executives that are bound by the constitution and the Rule of Law to protect and promote our interests as obedient followers.

”We say no to this brigandage and brazen dictatorship in the guise of democratic strategy.

”We are seriously looking up to President Buhari, not to let the North down. And our biggest hope is 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.