Arewa says attacks on northerners in South is provocation

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has stated has stated that attacks on northerners in the South were targeted to provoke the north.

Deputy Chairman of ACF, Senator Ibrahim Ida, stated this at Arewa House Kaduna on Wednesday while speaking at the Northern People’s Summit.

He said the North must ensure that nobody takes it for granted or underestimates the region as it is the fabric holding the nation together.

According to him: “We are being provoked by the incessant attacks on Northerners in the South.

‘’We must therefore ensure at the end that nobody takes us for granted or underestimate us. Let us change the template, portray our interest in the way we want it.’’

He also said the north requires internal cohesion through elite consensus as the region is at crossroad considering its numerous woes

“The North is at crossroad. We really need internal cohesion through elite consensus of what the North stands for, the resources available and what we want to achieve.

“We have enemies within and we need to turn them around and make then see things our own way. There is absence of inclusion in the way we run our affairs,” he said.

Former Speaker Ghali Umar Na’abba said in the last 60 years, the system has worked for northerners.

‘’Lots of people are eligible to contest but not suitable to lead. Leadership is not for everybody, it’s not an all comers affair. Leaders must possess so many virtues.

“In 1999 when I realised that there was an agenda against the North, I did everything possible to ensure it doesn’t succeed but its among our governors that I met one of the stiffest oppositions.

‘’Some of them because they want to come back, some because they want to become president, worked with the president who want to destroy the North.”

-The Nation