Arewa Youths Appeal To MASSOB To Lay Down Arms Over Agitation For Biafra Nation

AN Arewa youth group, under the aegis of Arewa Triumphant Youth Foundation (ATYF) has appealed to their warring Southeast counterparts, the Movement of the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) to lay down their arms, and allow peace to reign in the country.

The Arewa group said that even though tribe and religion differ, it would not be happy to see their Eastern brothers and sisters, going their separate way and leaving Nigeria dismembered.

The President of ATYF, Mallam Ibrahim Yusuf, spoke at a press conference yesterday, heralding activities lined up for a proposed Arewa Youth Leadership Summit scheduled for this month in Kaduna.

Yusuf said it was regrettable that major actors in pro-Biafra protest, Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, and Fulani herdsmen crisis across the country were youth of present generation, saying: “There is no point for our eastern brothers and sisters to be agitating to pull out of Nigeria; we are brothers, we should be able to live together as one big family, nothing should separate us.”

Insisting that “MASSOB should lay down their arms, and allow us to stay together for the betterment of this great country”, Yusuf argued that “there is no doubt that 99 per cent of these people that are into these various crises are young persons, and this is because they are jobless, and to stop them from being violence, government at all levels must provide jobs and enabling environments for the youth”.

“President Buhari should fulfill his promise of N5, 000.00 to unemployed persons in the country, even though I don’t support the idea of sharing money because it may cause crisis, and make the people lazy. I will rather support government giving the people nets to catch fish than giving them fish to eat, and rebuild the country of one nation, one vision and one goal.

“Government should realise that as one Nigeria, until it brings everybody together, the country will continue to have problem of crisis”.

The youth leader also explained that “since the youth are the leaders of tomorrow, if they are well equipped, they would constitute the strength of the nation,” adding: “It is a well known fact that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow, it follows, therefore, that the youth, to a great extent if well equipped constitute the strength and workforce of a nation.”

He continued: “In our societies today, majority of youth are faced with issues of ethnic, religious and political crisis, drug abuse, crime, violence, sexuality, poverty, identity crisis, lack of self confidence and low self esteem, sense of hopelessness, confusion and ambiguity concerning moral issues, shifting economy, education disparity, thus instilling fear in the hearts of many and thereby creating a tension zone society.”

“It is in response to these problems that Triumphant Youth Foundation has come and devised a means of inculcating right values in our youth to protect and teach them a peaceful and tolerant coexistence with one another by means of organising seminars/workshops, vocational activities, mentoring relationship programmes that will transform and raise a new generation of youth,” Yusuf added.