The Arewa Youth Consultative
Forum has called on former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s to back off from State
of the nation.
The group speaking through its
president Yerima Shettima stated that Obasanjo was a product of calamity.
This is in reaction to Obasanjo’s
newly formed Coalition of Nigerian Movement, a third force against the Peoples
Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress.
Shettima, although not in
agreement with Obasanjo’s involvement in governance, agreed with his message
urging Buhari to resign as Nigeria does not need a leader between 70-80years.
Speaking with Vanguard, he said
“On Obasanjo’s letter, he is a product of same calamity that has befallen this
country and we hope that people like him should not advise us because when we
need advise on some areas, we will consult him. We don’t need his advise now. I
don’t care about the messenger but I care about the message and that is the
most important thing for now.
“The hope of Nigerians have been
dashed. We just came out of the PDP government with a change mantra campaign
with the hope that our problems would have been solved but we are worse off.
There is nothing wrong with having a third force. I am not talking about force
of an Obasanjo agenda. I am talking about a force that will come with an idea
that is different from the PDP and the APC that will bring about good
candidates and policies that will put smile on the face of Nigerians rather
than the people that will make Nigerians die from hunger. I think we should
encourage that.
“Look at the case of the former
Secretary to the government of the federation, the whole country was not happy
with the way the issue was handled. Yet it took former president Olusegun
Obasanjo’s letter for the government to act. Even at that he was kept in the
private guest house of the Economic and Financial Crimes commission and was
allowed to leave in the name of bail. I do not think that we will be patient
again with this government to take another long time to come up with another
team. If he brings in new people now, they will say they are studying the
situation which might take another one year.”
On Buhari’s performance and fight
against corruption, Shettima said the government had failed in both.
“Even before the former president
wrote that letter, we have always known and we have said so strongly that the
hope of Nigerians have been dashed. Government policies have not shown any sign
of bringing the country out of the wood. Rather than going forward, we are
retrogressing with the government blaming everybody except itself. It is
obvious that the last three years is nothing to write home about.
“The expectations of Nigerians
have not been met. With the look of things and the age of the present government,
it is clear that we do not see any positive thing coming up that will be better
than what we had in the past. As northerners, we feel disappointed because his
failure will be seen as the failure of the north.
“I had said it long time ago that
President Muhammadu Buhari has done his best. He is a man who actually means
well for this country but with the collection of people he has around him,
there is no proper coordination. It is clear that at the end of the day, we
might not get any good result.
“We will also not make the same
mistake of voting people in the age bracket of 70 to 80 years. Our target is to
seek opinion of Nigerians to build capacity, consult our southern counterparts
to ensure that we come up with a candidate that is younger than the age of
Buhari so that at the end of the day, with the support of the youths, I am sure
that at the end of the day, we will come to realize the Nigeria of our dream. I
took that position long before now.
“I do not think they are fighting
corruption in the right way. What is before the public, and every body knows
this, is that people who were accused of stealing public funds, decamp from the
People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress. That is why you have
a lot of these guys with skeleton today in the APC. They are not joining the
APC because they believe in the party but because they believe they will be
shielded. I think it is part of the agreement for them to come to the APC. This
is not the way to fight corruption,” Shettima added.
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