A Youth Group, New Northern Initiative for Growth, has stated that the region had no preferred presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.
The group further accused the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, of being behind recent moves to get himself endorsed by some elements of the Arewa Consultative Forum and Northern Elders Forum.
They challenged the elders to explain to northerners where they derived their mandate to impose a single candidate on the entire region.
The National President of the group, Lawal Sahabi, stated these on behalf of the group at a press conference held on Tuesday, at the NUJ Secretariat in Bauchi State.
Represented by the Bauchi State Coordinator, Alkassim Abdulkadir, he said that by every reasonable assessment, “Atiku has never ever had any concern for the North beyond exploiting the region’s resources, its goodwill for his personal political capital.”
They warned that adopting Atiku as the sole candidate for the north based on sentiments will spell doom for the region politically and make it irrelevant.
“Atiku who has risen on the goodwill of the northerners can today not boast of any development project he has ever influenced personally or through the high offices he has held, courtesy the North.
“It is in his blind desperation to secure the presidency that Atiku is sponsoring capitalist northern leaders with no record of achieving anything for the region to manipulate the conscience of the northerner into believing that he is a true northerner with good intentions for the region whereas the opposite is the case.
“Supporting Atiku as the sole northern candidate on the basis of sentiments will put the region out of political circulation permanently which is what the so-called northern leaders out of desperate greed for self-perpetuation are opting for.
“The capital minded northern elders are so blinded by their acquisitive tendencies around ripping the nation with Atiku’s main agenda for privatizing major public assets,” they said.
Asked on who the preferred sole candidate for the north is, they said, “We don’t have a preferred candidate for now. There are many challenges in the north, so we want a candidate that has a track record that can address them and bring dividends of democracy to the region.”
