The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Northern youths

  • No cause for alarm on Northern youths’ threat – FG

    No cause for alarm on Northern youths’ threat – FG

    The Federal Government on Wednesday said there was no cause for alarm on the threat issued to the Igbos by Northern youths on Tuesday.

    A coalition of the Northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum at a press conference held in Kaduna, gave all Igbos living in the 19 northern states a three-month ultimatum to quit or be forced out after the expiration of the October 1 deadline.

    The groups also called on northerners living in the South-East to prepare to come back home.

    The ultimatum by the northern groups followed the May 30 sit-at-home order enforced on the five South-East states by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

    But fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said security agents are on top of the situation.

    He was accompanied to the briefing by four other ministers – Isaac Adewole (Health), Abubakar Malami (Justice), Ogbonnaya Onu (Science and Technology) and Adebayo Shittu (Communication).

    Mohammed said Nigeria is not new to one group or another issuing such threats.

    He said: “The issue of one or two groups issuing statements that is capable of destabilizing the polity did not just start today or did not start yesterday.

    “What I want to assure you is that security organizations are very very much on top of this matter.”

    On whether the ultimatum given by the group was discussed at the FEC, the minister replied with a simple “No.”

     

     

     

  • Northern youths declare support for Kachikwu

    Northern youths declare support for Kachikwu

    Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has been urged to remain resolute in his drive to sanitize the petroleum sector from the rot of the past.

    The National President, Arewa Youth Integrity Forum, Alhaji Audu Zakari with journalists in Abuja, said that the group has great confidence in the ability of Mr. Kachikwu to manage the affairs of the ministry.

    Zakari condemned the recent attempt to link the minister, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to alleged manipulation in the NNPC.

    They urged Kachikwu not to be deterred by the cabals in the sector, who he said, are not happy with new reforms introduced by the minister.

    He said: “The recent attempt to blackmail the minister by a faceless group known as South-South All Progressive Congress Youths which tried to fruitlessly link the minister to alleged manipulations in the NNPC is a typical demonstration of corruption fighting back.

    He said its investigation had revealed that Dumebi, whose name has become a tool in the hands of mischief makers, had no experience in the oil sector.

    “His major areas are Telecoms and Agriculture, especially animal husbandry,” he said.

    “It is obvious that every Nigerian is now happy that for the first time the high tower is experiencing peaceful and positive changes without the usual hardship that citizens were made to go through in the past as a result of deregulation.

    “His choice by President Muhammadu Buhari is a clear demonstration of his full understanding of the sector being a former Minister and an active player in the industry,” he added.

    According to Mr. Zakari, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu deserves commendation over his handling of the oil sector since assuming office, warning that  it is no longer business as usual.

    It would be recalled that a group known as South-South All Progressive Congress Youths had recently accused the younger brother of the Minister of state for petroleum of interfering with the operations of the NNPC.

    “They are angry that the President has appointed somebody that has refused to share our money for them to sleep at Nicon Hilton Abuja. The same persons yesterday could sit down to allocate to themselves oil lifting licenses and are bitter that the system has changed,” he added.

     

  • Northern youths reject national confab

    Northern youths reject national confab

    An amalgam of northern youth organisations, Arewa Citizens Action for Change , declared yesterday that all recommendations and resolutions of the ongoing National Conference stand unacceptable to it.

    The forum said those purporting to represent the North at the talks are not in any way speaking for the people of the North and are at best,loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan and the state governors who picked them.

    This mode of selection of delegates to the conference,it added,has already discredited the conference and its outcome as the delegates are not the true representatives of the people.

    Rising from a two-day summit in Kaduna,the youth resolved to disown northern representatives at the conference and all recommendations of the conference.

    In a communiqué signed by the convener of the summit, Ashir Sharif, on behalf of the 17 youth groups that attended the summit, the northern youths said that the convocation of the conference amounts to a “brutal incursion into the sovereignty of the subsisting constitution that vests such powers in the National Assembly”.

    It said: “This infringement of the nation’s constitution, the action of the President has, ipso facto, rendered the conference illegitimate by itself and its subsequent outcome null and void as far as the summit is concerned”.

    The youths lamented the level of insecurity in the North and said that government seems more concerned about next year’s elections than the welfare of the over three million people who have been displaced across the region by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    “At no time did the region’s stock of retired Generals, past and present top political office holders ever made any effort at sitting together to work out a solution,” they said.

    They also resolved to send a delegation to the retired Generals of northern stock to express their displeasure at their inaction.

    Continuing, they said that the disconnect among the elite, elders and political leaders in the region has resulted in the lack of experience/exposure and wisdom that has undermined the logic of mentoring,besides a general loss of the North’s sense of cultural norms and values.

    The northern youths were also not impressed by what they called the present disposition of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of next year’s elections.

    They cited the last governorship election in Anambra State and said INEC’s handling of that poll had stripped it of every credibility and reliability to conduct a credible election.

    They asked the National Assembly to pass a law for an enabling act for the reconstitution of a truly independent electoral body elected through a referendum by the people to conduct the 2015 elections.

  • Northern youths flay ACF, NEF over 2015 comment

    Northern youths flay ACF, NEF over 2015 comment

    Youths under the aegis of Northern Youths Network yesterday disassociated itself from the comments reportedly credited  to some leaders of the the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) seeking to return power to the North in 2015.

    President of the association,  Mallam Alli Kano, in a statement in Abuja said those speaking for the North concerning the 2015 presidency are doing so for their selfish reasons.

    Kano said: “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.

    “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 agenda 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.”

    He contended that in the 52 years of the nation’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? He asked, adding “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.”

    According to him, some leaders in the region have no genuine desire to develop the Northern region and its people.

    He lamented that: “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.”