17th July, 2013
THE NORTHERN YOUTHS NETWORK
PRESS RELEASE:
NORTHERN YOUTHS
DISSOCIATES SELF FROM THE ACF & NEF’s SELFISH RESOLVE TO RECLAIM POWER IN
2015.
The Northern Youths Network (NYN) unambiguously dissociates itself
from the selfish and sentimental campaign being peddled by our supposed elders on
the platforms of the Arewa Consultative
Forum and the Northern Elders’ Forum
respectively as led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, which seeks only to return
power at the centre to Northern Nigeria in 2015.
As a budding organization, whose cardinal objective is to
raise the level of consciousness of the average northerner, in a bid to compel
a paradigm shift in the socio-economic and political affairs of northern
Nigeria in particular and the nation in general, we wish to state very clearly
that ethnicity, religion and all the other primordial sentiments which our
elders have whipped up in the past to sway the choices of the people during
election times, must be hurriedly discarded as we prepare for the 2015 general
elections, so that credible and competent leaders will rule the nation and advance
our democracy.
We consider it very inappropriate for a man of Prof. Ango’s intellectual
standing to describe the South-South region as a tiny enclave of a few people, not
bigger than Kaduna State! This is a man who would pose tomorrow as a
nationalist, an elder statesman! Yet he cannot even try to conceal his regional
bias. It is ludicrous to hear him boast of the demography of Nigeria as
bequeathing the north with the potential to keep power indefinitely, on the
basis of one-man-one-vote! May we humbly ask which age group constitutes the
virile population of northern electorate? It is undoubtedly the youths! But
have the elders considered it imperative to consult the youths with a view to
harmonizing positions in this pointless crave to return power to the north in
2015? No! They just assume that as usual, they can set their selfish agendas
and the youths, most of whom they have deliberately left impoverished, will
fall in line automatically! But this time, they are in for a big surprise.
Experience has shown us that politics is not really a game of
sentiments, but of interest! Therefore any leader who is capable of protecting
and advancing the interest of the north would enjoy the support of the northern
youths; it does not matter to us if that leader is from a relative minority
group in the south-south region!
We should take a moment to ponder that in the 52 years of
Nigeria’s independence, power at the centre has resided in the north for much longer
than it has been in the south. But what do we have to show for it in the north?
It is pervasive poverty, insecurity, hunger, disease, illiteracy and
underdevelopment! The egocentric and recycled politicians of northern Nigeria,
who have over the years used poverty and illiteracy as instruments of
oppression to subject the majority of their fellow northerners to be at their
beck and call and hence to do their dirty biddings, do not really wish well for
their people. They do not have any genuine desire to develop the northern
region and its people.
Today, the average Northern youth is being regarded as a
terrorist, a sad situation which is far from the truth! This is because our
elders have not shown any tangible commitment towards checkmating the Boko Haram upsurge and other hostilities
in the north. Instead the northern elders prefer to leave the youths
perpetually impoverished, so that they can hardly see beyond their noses! Our
northern leaders do not really believe in leadership succession, that is why
they do not care to empower the youths.
We are fully aware that some of the northern elders are some
of the richest persons in Nigeria. They hold a good number of the oil wells in
the south-south region of the country. But what do they do with their
stupendous wealth? They only entice the people with peanuts and alms, to keep
them begging and looking up to them forever, while their own children are
exposed to the highest standards of education abroad. That is really not fair.
We recall that Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was personally able to place several
indigent students on scholarship! How many northern elders can boast of similar
feats? It is high time the youths opened their eyes to the antics of these
disgruntled politicians.
In conclusion therefore, we the members of this organization,
on behalf of the teeming youths of northern Nigeria, are very willing to
negotiate with His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR to see how he can intensify his
current efforts to salvage northern Nigeria from
underdevelopment and backwardness. We appreciate Mr. President’s commitment to
educational development in the north, as evident in the Almajiri Schools Project he had embarked upon. We shall see how he
can intensify this effort beyond 2015, if he eventually decides to contest
again for the exalted office of President. We know that education is capable of
liberating the north, ending insecurity and terrorism, as well as all the other
malaises confronting the north. Thank you.
Mallam Ali Kano,
National Coordinator
Mallam Or whatever ur archaic name is! U may sound pathetic about d plights of an average youth in d north, but be inform dat we know u and ur likes. Ur sweet tongue concern about the youth is as shallow as ur stingy arm which cant stretch farther 2 even ur close friends n associates. U can support Jonathan as long as i care but d future of d northern youth is not in d greedy hands of ur group nor Goodluck Jonathan!
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