DISCORDANT tunes may have began to echo in the North over the desirability or otherwise of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2015 Presidency, as members of the Arewa Patriotic Front (APPFRONT), Thursday said that the nation's leadership was not the birthright of the region.
According to the group, the North had its chances of ushering growth and development in Nigeria when their leaders occupied the helms of affairs in the country for almost 40 years, but said they filtered away the opportunity to write their names in gold.
At a press conference in Kaduna, addressed by the forum's National Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mordecai, he said that the Presidency should be opened to capable Nigerians from all the geopolitical zones, regardless of ethnic or religious inclination.
He lamented the poor leadership exhibited by Northern leaders when they were in authority in the country, but however, praised the contribution and visionary leadership of the late Sarduna Ahmadu Bello to national development.
He stressed: "They (leaders) have refused to learn and practice the transparent character of the late Sardauna. Instead, they became insensitive to the plight of the masses of the North, self-centred, egocentric, tribal champions who have finally graduated to religious bigots, thereby making adherents of Christianity and Islam enemies of one another. We never had the Maitatsines, Yan Kallaris and Boko Haram to mention few in the days of the late Premier."
On Prof. Ango Abdullahi led group's demand that power must return to the North in 2015, Mordecai queried: "But we want to know which of the North he is referring to. Not long ago, he was in this country when we were told of two Norths – the north and the core north. We have seen and are still seeing the effect of that balkanisation of the North. We also want to know whether there is any constitutional provision that prohibits Jonathan from having a second term in office."
He added: "To our mind, President Jonathan and his Vice, Alhaji Namadi Sambo are doing their very best to move the nation forward given the circumstances they find themselves while serving as leaders of this country. It will be uncharitable of anyone therefore to say that they are not or have not done anything good to better the lives of Nigerians and so they should vacate office in 2015.
"There is no individual, no matter the geopolitical zone the person may hail from, that can claim to have the magic wand to solve the problems of our nation, which were created over a period of years. Unfortunately, this decay and wanton destruction in the fabrics of our nation was wrought by our past leaders, including some of those presently calling for the return of power to the North in 2015."
The Guardian