A former senate
president has said that the Arewa Consultative Forum (AFC), is a
minority that cannot speak for the whole of northern Nigeria because it
represents few of the 19 states that make up the region. Ameh Ebuteh of
the Congress for Equality and Change, said at a press briefing in Abuja
yesterday that the publication in some daily newspapers of Wednesday
January 26 allegedly authored by the ACF working committee captioned
“Arewa rejects Jonathan” does not reflect the views of the north.
Mr. Ebuteh
condemned the claims that the selection of President Goodluck Jonathan
by the PDP is “legally and morally wrong”. Furthermore, he said that a
progressive section of the north namely the entire North East, North
Central and significant section of the North West geopolitical zones
supported and endorsed the Goodluck Jonathan-Namadi Sambo joint ticket
on PDP platform for the 2011 polls.
“Patriotic Socio-Cultural groups in the north such as the Middle Belt Forum, Northern Patriotic Group,
the Northern Youth
coalition, and the Congress for Equality and Change (CEC) and the
silent majority of the Hausa/Fulani support the Jonathan – Sambo ticket
for the 2011 polls” he said.
According to him,
“in the PDP primaries of January 13, Mr. President won in 14 out of the
19 states in the north showing that the north clearly supports the
Jonathan – Sambo PDP ticket for 2011 polls. The choice of Jonathan at
the PDP National Convention is legally right as the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria is supreme to all other laws including the
PDP Constitution. “We applaud the courage of Ibrahim Haruna, the
chairman of the ACF who as a lawyer understands the supremacy of the
Constitution and indicated clearly that Mr. President can run for the
office and the ACF as a non political organisation should not delve
into highly political issues.
The threat to impeach him for his enlightened views is a clear
manifestation of a hidden agenda by the retrogressive minority elements
in the ACF,” said Mr Ebuteh.
