THE mouthpiece of the North, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has accused the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic nationalities of plunging the nation into a dangerous crisis by playing religious, ethnic and tribal politics.
In a statement on the just concluded elections issued to newsmen in Kaduna on Friday and signed by its Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, the ACF said although the election was peaceful, the introduc- tion of religious, ethnic and tribal politics was becoming too dangerous for the country.
The organisation said: “Un- fortunately, there is one par- ticular problem thrown up by these elections that can- not possibly be addressed by the courts. It is the deploy- ment of ethnic and religious sentiments as a driver of politics in Nigeria.
“As we have seen in Lagos and elsewhere, ethnic and religious zealots have a way of turning political and election campaigns into life-and-death struggles.
“They issued threats of violence and at times actu- ally attacked supporters of rival candidates with a view to intimidating and stopping them from casting their votes. It ought not to come as any surprise that voter apathy and absenteeism were unusually high in many areas as well as why voter turnout was very low across the country.
“In Lagos where the problem created by ethnic and religious politics has continued to fester, acrimony and bad blood between Yorubas and Igbos have become a matter of concern to the security agencies.
“In the wake of the ethnic crisis, Yoruba and Igbo par- tisans freely profile one another and accuse themselves of criminal conduct, including as cheats, bandits, kidnappers, land-grabbers, etc.
“Ironically, ethnic profiling and accusations of criminality without evidence have always been levelled against hapless Northerners, especially the so-called herders or economic migrants by the South and mostly supported by the press.
“They stigmatised Northerners, convicting them for offences they know nothing about. Northerners were forced to live under the shadow of guilt and criminality without trial.
“Perpetrators of these in- justices couldn’t have known that a day such as this would come when they will inflict injustice not on Northerners but against one another.
“All of this underscores the very serious consequences of politics rooted in religion and tribalism. It is a political virus.
Nigerians must do everything within their power to eliminate this virus and go on to inoculate ourselves against re- infection in the years to come.
“This time, it is truly a matter of life and death. Let us, as Nigerians, love and care for one another. Let us focus on what unites us and not our differences.”
