The Northern Elders Forum has dismissed the National Conference, which is planned to commence next week, saying it “lacks a constitutional basis or any form of legitimacy or authority to speak for the people of the North or other Nigerians.”
In a declaration adopted at the end of its meeting in Kano on Tuesday, the group said the proceedings, conclusions and recommendations of the National Conference would therefore be of no consequence and would not be accepted by the people of the North.
The NEF further added that the critical issues of national development were fairly well known and could be incorporated in amendments of the constitution, and that the North must work with other Nigerians to seek more legitimate avenues for discussing the nature and future of the Nigerian nation, including all options which may be negotiated with other Nigerians.
It noted that while the people of the North were aware that the on-going challenges to security of life and property in the area represented acts of hostility against the people by leaders who have responsibility to protect them, the intolerable assaults must be stopped by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, or “by another responsible and committed leadership that should emerge in its place.”
The northern elders’ declaration, among others, said, “The rather diabolical, purposive and systematic underdevelopment of Northern economic and its social structures by the national leadership and some leaders in the North must be resisted; and policies which deepen inequity, underdevelopment injustice against the North must be reversed.
“Political activities, including elections must respect the will of the people; and further attempts to deprive the North of its rights to benefit fully in the democratic process will be lawfully and firmly resisted;
“Unfair and unjust allocation of resources of the nation which deprive the North of its legitimate rights must cease; and the North must intensify efforts to improve the exploitation and management of its own human and other resources;
“The planned National Conference has no constitutional basis, or any form of legitimacy or authority to speak for the people of the North or other Nigerians. Its proceedings, conclusions and recommendations are therefore of no consequence and will not be accepted by the people of the North. The critical issues of national development are fairly well known and can be incorporated in amendments of the constitution.”
NEF also called for the 2015 elections to be conducted in a peaceful atmosphere throughout the North and the nation, stressing that the armed forces and the police must not be abused in the process and that the will of the people must prevail.
It urged Northerners to resist attempts to intensify insecurity or cause further divisions and violence around faith and ethnic groups in the North.
5 comments:
Why is the Hausa and fulani afraid of the Confab or sepration on Nigeria, could it be because they will starve of hunger like Niger people, Why are they agitating and yet using Boko haram to terrorize Nigeria, what is the problem, ? You dont like us , yet you want our oil in delta, know you want to claim the oil by mapping means. You people are very foolish people o . Go your way with sharia law , you say no , no one can please you people. Ok you say you have Yabas, and groundnut and farming , ok we will buy from you , but you need to go your way. You have been milking the oil for over 50 years , time to go your way Aboki....
It is significant that as Northern leaders, under the aegis of the Northerners elders forum, were meeting in Kaduna to blame everybody else, but themselves, about the events in the country, Fulani herdsmen were rampaging, massacring and sacking whole communities of fellow Northerners in Benue state. There were no serious attempts to discuss and find solutions to the ongoing massacres and despoliation of communities in Benue and Plateau states. Interestingly, Chief Paul Unongo, a Tiv from Benue state, who was the coordinator of the conference that was taking place at the time when his state was under siege from the so-called Fulani herdsmen, did not seem bothered.
Is it not time that someone boldly asked the North why they always blame everybody else, but themselves, for their endless and self-inflicted problems. Again, is there still anything called ‘the North’? SAD INDEED!!!
Bros no mind those confused psychopaths .One even had the gouts to say that the oil wells belong 2 d north n so should be run by them.
even if the oil wells are willed to the north and the peanut pyramids that used to be plus the cattle willed to the south, Southerners will still become more positive, progressive and enterprising than the majority of the Northerners. Quote me.
Why wouldn't the north keep blaming Nigerians for their shameless sense of rascality and gross destruction of Nigeria when nobody is bold and patriotic enough to tell them their bearing. The entire political and economic quagmire in which we find ourselves today is completely caused by the north. In their desperate disposition to maintain a perpetual control of Nigeria's political leadership without any iota of consideration to other ethnic groups that make Nigeria, the north inflicted an irredeemable conflicts to themselves. They were callous even to their northern bothers from other ethnic minorities and religious belief. Basically speaking and categorically too, in today's Nigeria, there is nothing like 'one north, the north or the 19 states of the north'; it does not exist again! It is a public known reality that the north is today multiply divided and can never be united again! Let the Hausa/Fulani elites who destroyed Nigeria own to this verity of Nigeria troubling reality and blame themselves.
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