Arewa Youth Forum demand Apology from past leaders

Arewa Youths Forum (AYF) has
called on past and present leaders
of Northern Nigeria to apologize to
the North as a matter of morality
and sincerity, specifically naming
former military leaders Ibrahim
Babangida and Abdulsalami
Abubakar.
“We got to the mess we are in due
to their insensitivity, and approach
to governance, which was contrary
to the principles of our leader Sir
Ahmadu Bello,” they said in a
statement issued on Sunday
following an emergency meeting in
Kaduna attended by Northern
Muslim and Christian youths.
Lamenting the “avoidable
quagmire” in which the North has
found itself, the AYF said, “We are
at the bottom of every index
ranging from health, education,
social amenities, and several other
sectors. Worst of our woes is the
insecurity ravaging the North.”
The youths blamed for that situation
“all Northern leaders who held
several positions, i.e. Generals
Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami
Abubakar, and others, whom they
said received “golden opportunities”
to turn the fortunes of the region
around but failed to do so.
“This they should know and accept
much of the blame,” they said,
dismissing as a “ruse” the
continued search by those former
leaders for what went wrong. “Our
indigent peoples are not in any way
responsible for our predicament but
the elites, who on several times
Allah has willed leadership.”
The statement said: “Northerners
and the world needs explanation as
to what led the North to the rut it is
today. It was not magic but man-
made as a result of deliberate
manipulation of religion, self
enrichment and pervasive
corruption our leaders adopted to
the detriment of the lager peoples
of the North. It must be further
explained to tell undiluted history,
that had our elites continue in the
way and direction erected by our
leader Sir Ahmadu Bello, it would
have been a different ball game, but
sadly, our region is now being
mocked and laughed upon, we are
being denigrated and termed as
“parasites” and those “benefiting”
from where they have not sown.”
The AYF called on the people of
Southern Nigeria also to recognize
that their own elites cannot be
exonerated from the mess Nigeria is
in today, and to discontinue
unnecessary “mischievous”
generalizations about the North, as
most Northerners do not fit into
them.
They concluded that what the North
and Nigeria in general need now is
“practicable good governance on
the basis of unity, justice, equity,
oneness and togetherness.”