The Northern Elders’ Forum has accused governors in the Southern region of building “ethnic monsters” and hiding behind them to whip up sentiments.
The group in
a statement released by its spokesperson Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, berated Southern
leaders over the ban on open grazing and also claimed there is a desperate but
futile attempt to split the North along lines that suit people who ignore its
complexities and plurality.
NEF also
claimed that elected people who swore to protect the constitution and protect
the unity and integrity of Nigeria have decided to surrender to deeply divisive
or out-rightly irredentist and secessionist tendencies and movements.
The statement
read;
“It is now
clear that elected people who swore to protect the constitution and protect the
unity and integrity of Nigeria have decided to surrender to deeply divisive or
outrightly irredentist and secessionist tendencies and movements.
“Governors
are building ethnic monsters and hiding behind them to whip up sentiments in a
crude attempt to extract concessions no one is in a position to give or
guarantee. A desperate but futile attempt is being made to split the North
along lines that suit people who ignore its complexities and plurality when it
is convenient to lump all Northerners and submit them to humiliation or
attacks.
“In the South
East, governors are yielding their political turf and mandates to
secessionists, criminals and subversives who think they can exterminate federal
presence and northerners from the region, and achieve dubious political goals
related to 2023, or break away from the country.
“In the South
West, elected leaders and pampered ethnic bullies are closing ranks to provide
a front that apes the do-what-we-want-or-we-leave-the-country strategy of the
marginalized leaders of the South East.
“The South
South is squeezed between fear and uncertainty, and its leaders are gambling
that they can benefit from further weakening the federal administration and the
North if it rides along with the rest of the South.
“The forum
supports a citizen-driven national dialogue and a campaign to get the
government to accord its outcome the respect it deserves.
“The forum
extends its hands to groups that genuinely believe that Nigerians should demand
and design the type of country we want, and should not wait for people we
elected to set the boundaries and conditions of our existence.
“The forum
restates that the North will not be cowed and stampeded into escorting
political ambitions of politicians at the cost of its rights, security and
dignity.
“It demands
that President Buhari asserts the powers our constitution gives him to protect
our territorial integrity and secure citizens, or accept that he is incapable
of leading the nation through these unprecedented challenges.”
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