The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has described as mischievous, comments against the coming together of northerners in search of peace and unity, saying a United North is better for the country.
Speaking at a reception organised in his honour by the Kogi State government and the state branch of the forum, the chairman of the National Executive Council of the ACF Chief Sunday Awoniyi, said such rebukes can only emanate a from those who are afraid of united and prosperous north.
The north, he said, contrary to the belief did not take the second place to any group or individual in its love of Nigeria and its unity.
Speaking further on the contribution of the north towards a more united and prosperous Nigeria, Chief Awoniyi said, “the north along with millions of other Nigerians saved this nation by its exertion in war. This same north working again with millions of peace loving Nigerians, will by its example, and by the grace of God, preserve this nation in peace and harmony.”
ACF he said, believed that a disunited north cannot be an asset to the unity and harmony of Nigeria rather a liability to its development.
“Our federation is so closely knit that instability in one part affects the whole he said and advised critics to support the forum so that it could benefit from their superior contribution.
“We are starting from the familiar to the unfamiliar and that was what we did in 1949 and we are trying to do same in 2004,” he said.
The north he said, in trying to unite its people of all shades is not being in anyway parochial noting that a United North is bound to strengthen the nation.
Also speaking, former Nigeria Permanent Represe-ntative at the United Nati-ons, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule (Dan Masanin Kano) alerted that the north is again under threat politically reminiscent of its experience in 1949.
In a keynote address at the reception, the Dan Masa-nin Kano said the 1949 exper-ience when the north felt threatened politically has again reared its head and called on the northerners to support the ACF under a northern Christian for the great unity of the north.
Dr Maitama Sule noted that when the north was under similar threat in 1949 it formed the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) a cultural non-political organisation embracing the whole of the north irrespective of religion and tribe and elected a nort-hern Christian Dr R. B. Dikko as its president-general.
The north, he stressed, would be better for it under Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) with a northern Chris-tian at the helms of affairs with the present threat of political extinctions.
“Today we are facing a similar threat to that of 1949 and we need unity in the north as a spring board to national unity.”
He urged the north to eally behind Chief Awoniyi who he said, is capable of getting the north out of its present jam noting that as Sardauna’s boy, he (Awoniyi) has imbibed the legacy of integrity, dedication, commit-ment reminiscent of Sardauna’s time. |
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