Governor, Kashim Shettima
* Vows to drag FG to ICJ over Baga massacre
By Michael Olugbode
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Tuesday said the North had decided not to play second fiddle in 2015 as the position of the president rightly belong to the region and the mistake of 2011 where the politicians were allowed to trade away the right of the zone would not be tolerated.
The elders also said the North should be counted out of any arrangement that wouldn’t delivery the presidential ticket to the region, insisting that they will not accept anything short of the position of president.
This is coming even as the region threatens to drag the federal government before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Baga the incident where 185 persons were reported killed during the confrontation between soldiers and the Boko Haram sect.
At a separate meeting between Borno State Elders Forum and the state Governor, Kashim Shettima, the NEF revealed that a team of Lawyers had been put in place to visit Baga town and come up with findings that would determine its decision, saying if any organ of government is found guilty, it will be dragged before the ICJ.
The forum said it was so much interested in the Baga massacre and anyone who found to have given the order which led to the killings would be take to the ICJ for genocide.
Speaking on behalf of the forum, Alhaji Ango Abdullahi who stood in for the Chairman of NEF, Alhaji Maitama Sule, said the killing of innocent civilians in Baga town was unacceptable pointing out that the necessary findings must be made to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Abdullahi, a former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the forum had already commenced mobilisation of all northerners to have a consensus candidate who would protect and project the interest of the North ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
"The NEF has no political party and no candidate, our party is the people of the North, so join us in this fight to take back power in 2015.
“We are not happy that the North is not playing active role in the present day. That is why we decided to bring together our surviving elders. We resolved that something must be done, that the North ought to do more than it is currently doing in the affairs of the country. You know the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is a socio-cultural group but in the current situation in this country, we need more than a socio-cultural group to address our challenges and that is why we came with the formation of the NEF. Our group believes that any discussion that will not bring back power to the North in 2015 is not in the interest of the north and its people," Abdullahi said.
He accused the northern governors and others political bigwigs from the region for voting massively for President Goodluck Jonathan, describing their actions as a "stupid mistake which should not be allowed to repeat itself in 2015.
"We now know where the lapses are and we are going to tackle the governors of the northern states. We have the population and all it takes to produce the next president of this country.”
He noted that the North was responsible for its present political and economic woes and that if urgent steps were not taking by all stakeholders from the region "to take over power in 2015, the north may never have the opportunity to be in power in Nigeria again.
"This crises is the fault of the northerners, with due respect, we derelict in so many ways, we allowed Obasanjo to come into power and he dealt with us severely, but we can still change things in 2015. It is better late than never. The North must rediscover itself as soon as possible.”
He said the North had the population to continuously dominate the politics of the country by producing the president and said it was unfortunate that the region can be push aside.
Abdullahi said should the North decide to be independent country with a population of 90 million, it will still be the largest country on Africa.
He equally said it was arrogant for a section of the country to refer to the North as beggars and not contributing any resources to the commonwealth of the nation, arguing that at a point in the past, it was the resources from the North that was spent on the eastern and western regions, and was used in exploring the nation's oil.
Meanwhile a member of the Borno Elders’ Forum, Alhaji Bulama Mali Gubio, had accused the North at the peak of the Boko Haram crisis for abandoning Borno State to its fate, saying it is unfair for NEF to come out now and start preaching the unity of the northern region after so many lives have been lost.
"At some point, I do not consider myself a northerner or even a Nigerian because of how we were so abandoned to our fate," he said.
Shettima had promised to work closely with the forum to further project the interest of the region pointing out that "the North has no business begging any one for power and even if the North which has 90 million population, it will still remain the largest in Africa."
He said with the North having two-third of the nation land resources, it should be at the fore front of everything “for land is wealth and the most valuable of all resources.”
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