The Guardian (Nigeria)

Arewa youths fault Daura on Northern presidency

Say country doesn’t belong solely to region

- From Saxone Akhaine and Abdulganiy­u Alabi, Kaduna

AREWA Youth Consultati­ve Forum ( AYCF) has faulted calls by a Northern elder statesman, Sani Daura, that the North should vote massively for a presidenti­al candidate from the region in 2023.

The National President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, stated, yesterday, that the choice of a Southerner for president by the region was clearly in the spirit of justice because “Nigeria does not belong to the North alone.”

According to him, even on moral grounds, the most responsibl­e political action by the North is the decision on powershift in 2023, because the presidency cannot be hereditary and Nigeria is not a Banana

Republic.

Shettima remarked, further, that Daura was expressing his personal opinion and not the stand of the North in general, adding: “Little balancing is needed in the position of our father, Daura, moreso when he admitted that the elders are mere escorts to the younger generation today.”

The AYCF noted that when 13 Northern governors, led by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el- Rufai, endorsed a Southern candidate for the 2023 presidency, they repeatedly cited political justice.

His words: “Though we are not card- carrying members of the All Progressiv­es Congress ( APC), we shared the view that the decision was in line with being fair to the South in 2023.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria