Niger Delta youths, have reigned heavy knocks on Northern elders forum over unguided statement that “The North must continue to rule Nigeria due to their numbers and whoever doesn’t like it could leave Nigeria.”
It would be recalled that the Director of Publicity and Advocacy of Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed had said the North must continue to rule Nigeria during a lecture he delivered on Saturday 18th of September at a series organized by the student wing of Coalition of Northern Group in the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The Northern Elders Forum’s spokesman also claimed that Northerners are the owners of Nigeria while placing discontentment on the position of the Southern governors’ forum on their agitations to produce the next president.
He said Northerners are first-class citizens and would not accept the second fiddle.
But reacting, Israel Joe, a Niger Delta activist, on behalf of the youths, stated that the utterances speak poorly of such a highly placed northern elder.
“The youths of Southern Nigeria read with storm, the statement credited to Elder Hakeem Baba-Ahmed who is the director of Publicity and Advocacy of the Northern Elders Forum when he delivered a lecture on Saturday 18th of September at a series organized by the student wing of Coalition of Northern Group in the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
“Paraphrasing his statement, he revealed that the north must continue to rule Nigeria due to their numbers and whoever doesn’t like it could leave Nigeria. The spokesperson has also seen Northerners as the owners of Nigeria while placing discontentment on the position of the Southern governors’ forum declaring that Southern Nigeria should produce the next president, by saying the North are first class citizens and would not accept the second.
“The youths of the South wishes to state categorically that such statements speak so poorly of a highly placed northern elder as Hakeem Baba-Ahmed. We stand to back the position of the Southern governors that the South should produce the Next President. What election can the North win alone without the input of any Southern region? It is important to state that Southern Nigeria would never also play a second fiddle in the next election.
“While we wish to allay the defects of a federal system in terms of majority domination, the north should be conscious also that Southern Nigeria also have a monopoly of the Nigerian economy and once the north are tired of the marriage done by Lord Lugard in 1914, they can ask for a memorandum and national conference to determine the fate of the union. For sake of equity and trust, we urge the northern political class to refrain from heating the polity as the youths of Southern Nigeria is well prepared to defend the region once we sensed domination in the 2023 politicking,” the statement reads.
