Apparently scared of falling out of favour with the presidency, the north’s apex socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), yesterday made a U-turn on its earlier stand. Its new position is that “Jonathan’s administration holds a credible potential to transform Nigeria in the years to come.”
The ACF had, at a media conference Thursday, through its spokesman Anthony Sani said, “Jonathan should not use the north as an excuse for any failure; if Jonathan is going to fail he should not blame the north; this is because he has chosen to fail.”
But, the ACF, in a statement signed by the same Anthony Sani entitled “ACF Wants Our President To Succeed” stated: “The attention of ACF has been drawn to certain sensational reports in some national dailies yesterday, Thursday, 1st December, 2011. The newspapers were reporting remarks made by my humble self during the press conference called to update the public on preparations for the Arewa Conference on Peace and Unity, coming up on Monday, 5th and Tuesday, 6th December, 2011.”
The statement reads “Many newspapers reported our statement fairly accurately but a few, in a desperate attempt to spice up their stories, managed to cast misleading headlines such as ‘Don’t blame the North for Jonathan’s failure – ACF.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the position of the ACF remains that the Goodluck Jonathan-Namadi Sambo government is democratically elected by a majority of the people of Nigeria. It is the duty and obligation of all Nigerian citizens to support and help Mr. President to succeed for good of our country.
“Any impression created by anyone or by any interest that the ACF or the North is not interested in the success of the Jonathan government is clearly uncharitable, mischievous, misleading and incorrect.”