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Tag: Northerners

  • 2023: Why Northerners Should Support Southern Presidency – Ndume

    2023: Why Northerners Should Support Southern Presidency – Ndume

    The lawmaker representing Borno South District, Senator Ali Ndume, has explained why northern politicians and their supporters should support a southerner to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

    Amid the debates and controversy over the zoning of the presidential tickets within some political parties ahead of the general elections, Senator Ndume believes the North stands to benefit more from a southern presidency.

    “Personally, I feel we will be better off with the President coming from the South,” he said on Tuesday while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today. “The current President comes from the North and if you look at it analytically, the South benefitted more.

    “If the President comes from the South, we will benefit more – just as we did previously during (former President Goodluck) Jonathan’s (administration). It pays the South when there is a northern President.”

    Earlier, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State advised his party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) to avoid self-inflicted crises ahead of the 2023 elections.

    In a statement titled ‘Our Party, APC Must Tread The Path Of Equity,’ he said it would be dishonest for anyone to argue against rotation at this period.

    Akeredolu, a two-term governor on the platform of the APC, stated that the national chairmanship position was zoned to the North while all other offices were filled on that understanding, adding that it was the time for the party leaders to make a categorical statement, devoid of equivocation, on the pattern of succession.

    Ndume, in his reaction, supported Governor Akeredolu’s position that the APC should zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the South.

    He also highlighted some of the contributions of the present administration to the development of infrastructure in the southern part of the country.

    “I support that 100 per cent. I support his (Akeredolu’s) position. I’m from the North but I am a Nigerian who believes in justice, equity, and fairness, and that is what the party is built on, and I think what Akeredolu said is just my advice to the party too, they should make a decision,” he said.

    “When Buhari was appointed (elected), the South benefitted more. Let me count it for you; they (the South) have the vice president and the vice president is so powerful because the President at one time handed over the country to him when he left – that was unprecedented.

    “You have the Vice President from the South West, you have the Speaker (of the House of Representatives) from the South West and from the South, there are more than five strategic ministers — the minister of finance was from the south-west until the south-west pushed her out because it was the media hype that pushed her out because of the trivial matter of NYSC certificate.

    “Then, we have the ministers of works, health, and state for health from the south and then, another important ministry is petroleum— the president is the minister, but the de facto minister is the minister of state is from south-south.

    “If you look at what the government is out to do, especially in the area of infrastructure, the South benefitted more because you have the second Niger Bridge to be completed very soon; East-West road will be completed, we have the Deep Blue sea project, the Lagos-Ibadan rail was started and commissioned, then we have the Lagos-Ibadan expressway (project) also going very smooth; so many projects in the South.”

  • Some Northerners Made it Impossible for Jonathan to defeat Boko Haram – Babangida Aliyu

    Some Northerners Made it Impossible for Jonathan to defeat Boko Haram – Babangida Aliyu

    Babangida Aliyu, former governor of Niger state, says some northerners made it impossible for former President Goodluck Jonathan to defeat Boko Haram.

    Speaking during an interview with the Punch, the former governor said it is unfortunate that insecurity has been allowed to escalate.

    “When Boko Haram started and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s government started doing something about it, it fell on former President Jonathan to carry on. Many northerners misconstrued his (Jonathan) position at that time and for political purposes, they threw many arguments that made it impossible for the proper articulation and proper implementation of policies that would have got rid of Boko Haram and now, we still have them till today,” he said.

    “The banditry that many of us thought was impossible to happen, I am yet to hear from anybody about the statement credited to Kawu Baraje, our former PDP national chairman in Kwara State, when he stated that they brought the bandits or Fulani from other places. I think based on the thinking that probably former President Jonathan wouldn’t have handed over power even if they had won, but he handed over.

    “He congratulated them even before the conclusion proper counting of votes which then took away whatever purposes of bringing those people would have served and I would have thought that if that is true, then those who brought them in would compensated them to go back to where they came from.”

    Speaking further, Aliyu said he believes that “if the governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, we would have got rid of the banditry”.

    ”Today it’s so unfortunate that you probably have to be praying when you leave Abuja for Kaduna or Kaduna to Abuja or indeed, particularly in the northern states,” he said.

    “Now, even in the day time, you can’t drive freely and comfortably. So, I believe that the first port of call for fighting insecurity is the governors. Maybe you heard me in Kano when I was saying could one be greater than 19 because at one time, even though the circumstances were different, we had one man for 19 states and now, we have 19 governors and still, we have more problems than we did the last time.”

  • Coalition tells Northerners to boycott goods from South East

    Coalition tells Northerners to boycott goods from South East

    Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has directed all Northerners to boycott the sale, purchase and consumption of goods from the South East from April 2022.

    This comes in response to IPOB calls for ban in consumption of Fulani cow in the south east

    CNG Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, stated last night that the IPOB’s order last Monday “amounts to grave provocation and serious threat to Northern commercial interests in the South East, and by extension to the physical wellbeing of Northerners living as minorities among Igbo communities.

    “It is a renewed resolve to pay coin for coin any direct or indirect attack or threat to Northerners and their interests anywhere in the country.”

    The group also called on Northerners to decline support for any political party, formation or movement that has the active participation of South-East politicians.

    Suleiman said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the North, while maintaining its tradition of tolerance and accommodation, shall, however, no longer be disposed to condoning further acts of irresponsibility in the form of deliberate threats of intimidation or harassment targeted at Northerners living and doing legitimate businesses elsewhere in the country.

    “Since such targeted utterances had, in the past, been the prelude to physical attacks on Northerners and destruction of their properties, particularly in the South East, we urge Northern transporters and suppliers of goods to consider alternative trade routes to avoid the imminent risks that come with this IPOB threat.”

    According to the coalition, the North has had enough of the antagonism from the South East and IPOB, and will no longer remain passive under such deliberate and sustained attacks, but will henceforth be forced to react to every provocation and unwarranted abuse and violation.

    “All those who have no other useful vocation than attacking Northerners under the slightest of pretexts should know that our patience has reached its nadir.

    “The North’s reticence in speaking out or taking action is not borne out of fear or ignorance of how to respond in kind,” Suleiman added.

    According to the coalition, the North has had enough of the antagonism from the South East and IPOB, and will no longer remain passive under such deliberate and sustained attacks, but will henceforth be forced to react to every provocation and unwarranted abuse and violation.

    “All those who have no other useful vocation than attacking Northerners under the slightest of pretexts should know that our patience has reached its nadir.

    “The North’s reticence in speaking out or taking action is not borne out of fear or ignorance of how to respond in kind,” Suleiman added.