Asaba declaration exposes northern governors’ failure – CNG

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) yesterday said the last week’s declaration by 17 southern governors in Asaba, Delta State, exposed the total failure of northern governors to speak up for the rights of northerners.

The CNG, in a statement in Abuja yesterday by its spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, accused the northern governors for failing to provide quality leaders within their domains.

“The Asaba meeting has exposed the extent of the bankruptcy of northern governors who have not, for once, met to take concrete steps to anticipate and checkmate the maneuvers of the south, particularly with the creation of such armed outfits as the Amotekun, Eastern Security Network and recently the Ebubeagu which are now the tools used to intimidate northerners in the South and to challenge the Nigerian State.

“It also exposed the total failure of the northern governors in the vital area of speaking up for the rights of northerners to be protected from illegal harassment where they earn their living; their rights to places of worship, and their rights to full protection when they live as minorities among other communities in Nigeria.

“The southern governors typically neglected to acknowledge that just as development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations, so also has the mass movement of millions of people from the south into the vast interior of the North and the permanent nature of this movement,” the statement read in part.

The CNG also urged the Federal Government to design a National Policy on Grazing and Livestock Development to deal with the needs of herdsmen community across the country.