Nigeria: Northern Leaders Are Responsible for Boko Haram – Arewa Youths

Daily Independent (Lagos)

Baba Negedu

14 July 2011

Kaduna — Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), the umbrella organisation of northern youths, has condemned the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for discouraging dialogue with the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, accusing it of being responsible for the uprising.

The youths, who are not happy with the romance between the northern elders with Aso Rock, said that ACF was not in the position to assist the federal government to solve the Boko Haram imbroglio and lambasted them for saying that the Islamic sect was a creation of political thuggery.

In a statement made available to Daily Independent in Kaduna, AYF explained that ACF did not possess monopoly of wisdom on how to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that “if Nigerian leadership acted well in running the Nigerian state and nation, many challenges threatening or undermining national security would have been overcome, which will have saved this country huge resources and innocent lives that are being wasted daily”.

The statement, signed by the National President of the forum, Gambo Gujungu, said that ACF could not assist the federal government and security agencies as far as Boko Haram issue was concerned and argued that ACF lacked moral standing to mediate on the issue because they have failed the North in all ramifications.

The youths were also not happy with the calibre of northerners in the cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan, saying, “In the history of the North since the return of democracy in 1999, this is the worst scenario going by the President’s choice of incompetent, mediocre and short-sighted northerners he is to partner with in moving Nigeria forward.

“Alas, we may add, had Nigerian security agencies and government been proactive, many lingering security challenges being experienced in the country would have been nipped in the bud right at infancy level”.

The statement said it was laughable that ACF could influence the 19 northern states to address critical issues of abject poverty, cancerous religious and ethnic crises, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, almajiri syndrome, illiteracy, unemployment and collapse of agriculture in the region, and wondered what they could do about Bko Haram.

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