A group of leaders in the North rose from a meeting
in Kaduna on Friday and passed a vote of no confidence in President
Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for its failure to effectively tackle
the prevailing security challenges in the country.
The group said the Federal Government had failed to
protect its citizens, adding that it would form a formidable force to
ensure that the presidency returned to the North in 2015.
In a communiqué, which was read out to journalists at
the end of the meeting by a leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria,
Dr. Usman Bugaje, the Northern leaders blamed the current security
crisis in the region on the government’s inability to provide basic
social services and to guarantee freedom and rights of the citizens.
The statement said the activities of the violent Islamic sect known as Boko Haram,
as well as other security challenges, had impacted negatively on the
socio-economic, political and religious life of the people of the
region.
“Economic growth and development, commerce and trade
in formal and informal sectors of the Northern states are being stifled
with multiplier effects on the larger national and African sub-regional
economies,” it said.
Regarding the 2015 presidential election, the
Northern leaders said they had resolved to bring individuals and groups
working in different directions under one umbrella in readiness for the
2015 presidential race.
“All the disparate groups working in different
directions, but all with the aim of promoting northern interests within a
greater Nigeria under one platform,” they said, pledging to create a
strong and united platform that would address the current security
crisis and the politics of the North.
The communiqué read in part, “The weakening nature
and perhaps the failure of the Nigerian State to protect lives and
property as well as its inability to provide basic social services and
guarantee freedom and rights of citizens cumulatively accounts for the
current state of siege in which the North now find itself.
“The systematic erosion of cherished values of
honesty, tolerance and integrity that were once the hallmark of public
service in the North have resulted in bad governance, disregard for the
rule of law and general decadence.
“Social indicators and statistics for all human
development perspectives show the dismal crises in education, health,
water and sanitation services thereby placing the region far below its
counterparts in the country
“The general conduct of the Joint Task Force and how
the fundamental rights of the citizens of the North are being violated
in clear breach of the rules of engagement. It is expected that the JTF
will strictly abide by the professional terms of engagement in the
interest of peace.”
A former Head of State, Gen. Abdulasalami Abubakar
(retd.), former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Governor Ibrahim
Shekarau of Kano State and Senator Adamu Aliero were in attendance at
the meeting.
THE PUNCH
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