{"id":9232,"date":"2011-12-09T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/we%e2%80%99re-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/"},"modified":"2011-12-09T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T01:00:08","slug":"were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Dapo Akinrefon & Charles Kumolu<\/p>\n

United Middle-Belt Youth Congress, UMYC, has demanded a separate identity for the people of the region to differentiate them from the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples of the far North.<\/p>\n

Leading a delegation of executive officers of the congress on a courtesy call to Vanguard\u2019s corporate office in Lagos, the group\u2019s President, Mr. Abuka Onalo, said the people of the Middle-Belt were now remorseful of their roles in past actions of spearhea-ding Northern interests that did not benefit their people.<\/p>\n

He particularly regretted the role of the Middle-Belt in the Nigerian civil war, saying the people of the region would not repeat the mistake.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe want the Middle-Belt people to be recognised and be referred to as Middle-Belt region. We want to be part of a new Nigeria where the Middle-Belt will be a federating unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe likened our argument to the issue of true federalism. Since the South-South has been officially re-grouped as the Niger Delta region, we from the Middle-Belt should be grouped as the Middle-Belt region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never been subdued. We contributed in establishing the Federal Republic of Nigeria; we know what we suffered after the Civil War. There should be no reason why the nation cannot give us our own identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In canvassing for identity, we are careful so that we do not destabilise what we helped in creating.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\nWe\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dapo Akinrefon & Charles Kumolu United Middle-Belt Youth Congress, UMYC, has demanded a separate identity for the people of the region to differentiate them from the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples of the far North. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nWe\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"We\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Dapo Akinrefon & Charles Kumolu United Middle-Belt Youth Congress, UMYC, has demanded a separate identity for the people of the region to differentiate them from the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples of the far North.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"We\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-09T01:00:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/\"},\"wordCount\":256,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths\/\",\"name\":\"We\u2019re not northerners- Middle-Belt youths - 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