By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
A coalition of youth groups in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has berated 11 northern governors over their decision that the presidency should come from the south in 2023.
The groups who staged a peaceful protest on Sunday in Bauchi, under the umbrella of APC Progressives Youth Elements and North East Youth Forum of APC, carried placards with various inscriptions, demanding that power must remain in the north.
The youths who carried placards with various inscriptions like: “It’s North or Nothing”, “we are not in support of power shift to south”, ” we will not accept the decision of 11 governors”, “it’s their selfish interest”, among others, said the northern governors were selfish in their positions, insisting that the north is left behind in the scheme of things.
According to them, “if the APC wants to remain in power beyond 2023, it must allow a northern candidate to emerge in other to be able to match the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar”.
They called out the Northern Governors for not doing anything to develop their respective states but plunged the region into untold hardships particularly myriad of issues including banditry, kidnapping, robbery, poverty, unemployment and other social vices.
The Chairman of the APC Progressives Youth Elements, Al-Amin Mai’Auduga, who spoke to journalists during the protest, noted that the Northern Governors did not do wider consultation before reaching the decision they announced on Saturday, saying that it does not represent the entire Northern region.
He said: “We, the Northern youths do not think it is time for any southerner to assume the mantle of power. We are not in support of the decision (of the northern governors) because it is against our political wish for 2023. The Northern Governors just sat down and took the decision for the entire people of the North. They are on their own.”
He added that: “It is on their selfish interest, we the Northern youths who are about 70 percent of the total population of the country are saying no. We are calling on our able National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu to weigh into this and find lasting solution to this. We are not going to support any southern candidate.
“These eleven governors that made the decision are not the only people in the North. They are doing it on their own selfish interests.”
Also speaking, the leader of the APC Youth Forum, Ibrahim Abdullahi, alleged that the governors opted for such option to probably benefit from being appointed as Vice President.
He lamented that with the hunger, insecurity, poverty in the region, power needed to be retained for development. “We will not endorse any candidate from the South, except from the North. We are far left behind.”
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