Some northern youths under the aegis of the Arewa Youth Consultative Movement on Thursday said they were supporting southern presidency in 2023 because the political elite of northern extraction had failed the region and Nigeria.
They said, “Insecurity, strangulation of government work, corruption, disregard for the rule of law, marginalisation, nepotism and the trampling of the fundamental human rights of the ordinary citizen has become the order of the day.”
Against this background, the group has, therefore, reiterated its resolve to settle for South-South presidency in 2023.
A coalition of youth groups in the region had also on Wednesday clamoured for power to shift to the southern part of the country, particularly, the South-South geopolitical zone in the 2023 presidential poll.
This was against the political permutation of the Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s-led Northern Elders’ Forum which wanted the region to retain the presidency in 2023.
But while addressing a press conference at the Arewa House, Kaduna on Thursday, the spokesperson for the group, Abdullahi Balarabe, said it was time the political elite from the North, who had dominated the political space since independence, gave other geopolitical zones a sense of belonging.
Balarabe also said a youthful southern president remained the choice of the youths of the region, come 2023.
He said, “It is obviously clear that our country is on a threshold, and the crossroad to which we have found ourselves is very pitiable.
“The issue of insecurity, strangulation of government work, corruption, disregard for the rule of law, marginalisation, nepotism and the trampling of the fundamental human rights of the ordinary citizen has become the order of the day.
“These anomalies that have stunted our growth as a nation since independence is clearly as a result of misgovernance occasioned by the selection of favoured incompetent persons into the helms of affairs.
“Elections are not free and the issues of our common interests have been thrown to the dogs.
“There is no even distribution amongst the various classes of citizens in terms of leadership.
“This, of course, has led to the recycling of the ‘old order’ who continue to plunder our resources.
“The Arewa Consultative Youth Movement has followed with interest, how the leadership of this country has been concentrated in the North for too long.
“Despite the erroneous clinging to power by the northern elite, issues of religious discrimination and tribal or ethnic sentiments have remained the order of the day.
“The need for us to be introspective and proactive on issues has now warranted us to state clearly without equivocation that we are calling for a return to the South-South presidency.
“We have a mission to change the mindset of youths and to reawaken them to the spirit of nationalism and dedication to ways that will bring about peace, progress and development in Nigeria.”
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