…Says North now a human abattoir
A Northern group, Arewa Concerned Civil Society Organisations of Nigerian, (ACCSON), has said that in the interest of fairness and equity, the presidency in 2023 should go to the South-East geo-political zone.
This was contained in a statement signed by Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, the group’s spokesperson.
The CSOs lamented that the North has turned into a human abattoir under the incumbent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The group lambasted the President of Arewa Consultative Youth Forum, Yerima Shettima, describing a statement attributed to him to the effect that ‘It is too late for the 2023 Presidency to be zoned to the South-East’, as “indecorous and even outrightly provocative and inciting in nature”.
ACCSON, an umbrella body of over 40 CSOs, youth, students and women groups in the North, said it considered the said statement attributed to Yerima as a reckless one devoid of reason, empathy, and fairness.
According to him, “Our northern region today has been reduced to a human abattoir, to say the least, where all our communities have been converted to a mass grave due to the failure of government at all levels. For instance, between October 2021 till date, over 150 citizens of northern extraction have been murdered by terrorists in Sokoto state alone, not to talk of Zamfara, Kebbi, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Benue, Borno and Yobe States. Despite the claims by the government that terrorism and violent insurgency is aggressively being fought, the north has remained a killing field”.
“Our country is about the highest importer of Arms and Ammunition in Africa and our region is seemingly the poverty capital of Nigeria, yet our people occupied and are still occupying the most sensitive positions in government from 1999 till Date”.
“It is, therefore, the position of our northern umbrella youths coalition, the Arewa Concerned Civil Society Organizations of Nigeria (ACCSON), that since our people in leadership positions in Nigeria can not bring development, peace, progress, and prosperity to our region, let us try people of other regions, particularly the region or geo-political zone that has not produced a President or Vice president of Nigeria in other to further promote fairness, equity, unity or oneness of the country. Long Live, Nigeria!”
“It is noteworthy to restate that the position of our group, the Arewa Concerned Civil Society Organizations of Nigeria (ACCSON) calling for the rotational presidency among the six geo-political zones of the country was as a result of our peculiar regional experiences. Both past and present crop of elected and appointed leaders from within our region have failed us completely. They have failed to meet up with the expectations of our people, and have continued to betray our trust, confidence, and respect for them”.
“We strongly believe that no genuine democrat with sincere national interest and who cherishes the spirit of unity and corporate existence of Nigeria will utter such insensitive comments at this critical political time in our country”, he said.
