Arewa youths fault Daura on Northern presidency

Say country doesn’t belong solely to region
Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has faulted calls by a Northern elder statesman, Sani Daura, that the North should vote massively for a presidential candidate from the region in 2023.

The National President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, stated, yesterday, that the choice of a Southerner for president by the region was clearly in the spirit of justice because “Nigeria does not belong to the North alone.”

According to him, even on moral grounds, the most responsible political action by the North is the decision on powershift in 2023, because the presidency cannot be hereditary and Nigeria is not a Banana Republic.

Shettima remarked, further, that Daura was expressing his personal opinion and not the stand of the North in general, adding: “Little balancing is needed in the position of our father, Daura, moreso when he admitted that the elders are mere escorts to the younger generation today.”

The AYCF noted that when 13 Northern governors, led by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, endorsed a Southern candidate for the 2023 presidency, they repeatedly cited political justice.

His words: “Though we are not card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), we shared the view that the decision was in line with being fair to the South in 2023.”

“We are aware, as well as our father, Daura, that the North is respected for honouring its promises to the South, and this is one absolutely undeniable character of all Northerners.”

We are not known to break promises and that explains why our son, President Muhammadu Buhari, never objected to the idea of Southern presidential candidate in the ruling party. In the North, our father, Daura, also knows, promises are sacred and, in fact, a culture,” AYCF stressed

In a viral audio, Daura, while addressing a group of youths, suggested that they should throw their weight behind a fellow Northerner for the presidency in 2023, citing historic and religious instances, something the AYCF said it believed had been overtaken by events, current realities and the spirit of justice in the Nigeria project.