Some Northern Youths Back Jonathan For Second Term
Featured, Latest Headlines, Uncategorized Friday, January 30th, 2015
Audu Limun, Bauchi – Youth group under the auspices of Concerned Northern Youths Forum, (CNYF) has thrown its weight behind the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan and condemned the purported endorsement of General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF); describing the decision as untenable and a mere fiction of their imagination, which does not represent the general feelings and opinion of majority of Northerners.
Addressing a press conference in Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi, the CNYF’s National Chairman, Comrade AlKasim Charanchi, assured President Jonathan and his running-mate Architect Namadi Sambo of substantial votes of the northerners and that his forum has mobilized its members across the 19 Northern states to vote for PDP from top to bottom.
According to him, “We totally condemn the recent support of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) for the presidential candidature of retired General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming election. We view the so-called support as not only partisan but against the collective interest of the whole North.”
He said their decision to condemn the NEF’s position is because the elders’ standpoint was not in tandem with the collective resolve of the north and advised them to be neural as elders and not bias in taking decision concerning the future of the north.
Charanchi said: “As elders, we expect that the NEF would look far ahead and plan accordingly. The North already has a Vice-President in Architect Namadi Sambo and allowing President Goodluck Jonathan to have a second slot at the presidency means giving the North an automatic ticket for the presidency in 2019.”
He said the achievements of President Jonathan’s administration in the North is unprecedented and is enough for the NEF to canvass support for Jonathan in the February polls rather than ganging up with retrogressive group to work against the return of Jonathan alleging that the elders are championing a clandestine motive that was not known to the youth.
Though, he said, they are not holding brief for President Jonathan and that the ‘pull-him-down’ attitude adopted by the elders does not augur well for the unity and cohesiveness of Nigeria as an entity saying that in line with PDP zoning arrangement, the presidency would be ceded to the region in 2019 and any plan to scuttle this cannot be said to be in the interest of the North.
According to him, “As a body of elders which seeks the collective interest of the North, we should have thought that the NEF would be neutral and not single out a candidate for its support because our votes alone cannot ensure the emergence of a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We need the support of other parts of the country to produce a president, we need a national president, not a regional leader.”
He condemned the elders for traveling from one state to another begging governors for money to fund the General Bauhar’s campaign and their collusion with some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure Buhari’s victory at all cost in the next month’s election.
Comrade Charanchi said, “This it has done by purchasing computer sets to ensure that as many voters as possible were captured in the recent Continuous Voter Registration in the APC strongholds with the view to giving Buhari candidacy an undue advantage, in their now-or-never attitude of installing President of Nigeria come February 14.”
He accused the elders of making the insurgency problem as their major campaign issue against President Jonathan saying Jonathan has done the needful in curbing the menace of insurgents by deploying troops to the troubled North East region but called on every well meaning Northerner to cooperate Jonathan in combating the insurgency.
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Nonsense. Just as they claimed the Northern Elders had no mandate, they too, the youth group have no mandate. Northeastern Nigeria according to UN documents has one of the lowest human development indicators in the world. Illiteracy is very high in the North. Poverty is equally highly concentrated. The PDP government has not any plan for developing or transforming Nigeria in the past ten years. Yet, this is the second decade of the 21st century and Nigeria has no clear sense of direction. Simply because they can call a meeting does not mean they represent any youth in Northern Nigeria. They are representing their interest. But many of our youth have been left in situations worse that a cow in Europe which is subsidized not less that $2:50 per day under the common agricultural policy of the EU. How many youth in the North make $2.50 daily? The cow in this case is relevant in the global economy because it produces something of value: milk, cheese, beef, and hides and skin. But public policy has rendered many of our youth to produce nothing of value in the global economy. Let us talk about specifics. We want good governance and not empty rhetoric. The youth group do not represent any youth but their interest. When they go to pray today they should ask God for forgiveness because they lied in the name of some people in order to pursue their selfish interest. In Hausa this is a kind of thing called “ZARMEWA.” They are so much in pursuit of their aggrandizement that they lack self restrain. The struggle for a more just society continues.
Thank you, my brother, for this thoughtful and insightful comment. Of course, we know that we still have “sycophants” in Nigeria and that,certainly, may not stop very soon. I hope that they are truly not “sycophants”. However, I am not saying that the youth group are not entitled to their own opinion in a democratic nation if indeed we have been practicing any true democracy, but I believe that we seriously need a change in Nigeria now for the better. My wish is that it becomes as better as all Nigerians would expect if Buhari succeeds in winning come February 14, 2015.