The youth wing of the Arewa Consultative Forum has rejected the decision of Northern All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors to back the quest for a Southern Presidency.
The Northern governors, in a communique advised northern presidential aspirants to withdraw from the race, ahead of the party presidential primary fixed for the 6th of June.
In a statement signed by its National President, Yerima Shettima, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) accused the governors of trading off the Northern region’s right to participatory democracy.
The forum said the action of the governor has denied the people of the North the right to freely choose where the next president comes from.
The AYCF said the decision of the governors was undemocratic as it is the prerogative of voters to decide who to vote for regardless of the region.
The statement reads: “We have been following with keen interest the open disdain for the ethics of democracy by 11 Northern Governors (of APC) who, willy-nilly traded off our region’s right to participatory democracy by taking a stance on direct power shift to the South.
“We are deeply disturbed that in addition to their failure to save the north from massive poverty, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, they are turning around to deny us the right to freely choose where our people want the next president to come from.
“It is undemocratic to zone Nigeria’s presidency to the south in 2023 because it is the prerogative of voters to decide which candidate they would like to vote for, whether a northerner or a Southerner.”
The forum slammed the governors for failing to consult their people in the region before they endorsed a Southern presidential candidate.
The AYCF claimed that the real agenda of the governors is to deliberately blackmail Buhari into doing their bidding.
The statement added: “An important pillar of democracy, which in consultation with the masses, is out of the question because our governors would rather pretend that their wish is supreme,” the group said.
“It is now abundantly clear to innocent northern voters that their mind is being conditioned to accept a purely selfish and shameful political agenda of relinquishing power on a platter of gold like the military was doing in the past.
“The forum is deeply worried that the dream of having new faces at the helms of affairs of our democratic institutions has now been deliberately killed by self-serving governors of the north.
“The real agenda of the governors is to deliberately blackmail Buhari into doing their bidding.”
“The forum asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to succumb to the governors’ cheap blackmail of selling out our people’s right to vote the real candidate of their choice – whether a northerner or not.
“We also called on northerners to reject this wholesale disenfranchisement of innocent northern voters in broad daylight, by the governors.”
Read also:
Buhari Asks Southern Presidential Aspirants to Consult on Consensus Candidate
Arewa Youth Consultative Forum Slams Northern Governors for Backing