…Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, others back President
Foremost Northern group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has suspended its chairman, Mamman Osuman following widespread reactions across the country to the northern body’s claim that President Bola Tinubu’s policies had impoverished the North.
In the statement in question on Thursday, the ACF had stated that the interests of the North would be best represented by northerners.
This development triggered Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural body and other regional groups to back the President, insisting his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari laid the marker for the hardship in the country.
In a communiqué issued at the conclusion of the forum’s National Executive Council meeting in Kaduna on Wednesday, the ACF expressed dissatisfaction with the current economic policies, which, according to the forum, worsened conditions in Northern Nigeria.
The communiqué, signed by ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, also called on the President to review and reassess his administration’s economic policies to ensure they are more compassionate, considering the current hardships Nigerians are enduring.
Osuman stated, “I do admit that some policies of the current administration are repugnant and adverse to our interests as a region.
“A sizeable number of our brothers and sisters in the region have demonstrated proclivity towards politics and political offices come 2027. They are already focusing on the 2027 elections.”
However, the ACF in a shocking U-turn suspended Osuman in a letter signed by its Secretary-General, Murtala Aliyu.
The letter stated, “The attention of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has been drawn to widely reported statements credited to Mr. Mamman Mike Osuman, SAN, OFR, Chairman, ACF National Executive Committee, which were made during the meeting of the NEC, held on Wednesday, November, 2024, at ACF Headquarters, Kaduna.
“In particular, Mr. Osuman was quoted as saying that the North will back a northern candidate for the Presidency, come 2027. The statements were made by the NEC chairman without consulting or discussing with other leaders and members of the ACF and thus, reflected Mr. Osuman’s personal opinion only.
“ACF rejects Mr. Mamman Mike Osuman’s statements in their entirety. For this reason, the leadership of the ACF’s Board of Trustees (BOT) and that of its NEC has decided to place Mr. Mamman Mike Osuman on suspension with immediate effect.
“A committee has been constituted for further investigations.”
In a reaction, Daniel Bwala, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, said, “There is no need for the President to have a say because they (ACF) are calling for an Arewa person to run for President. That means the Arewa person can run from any political party.
“The simple answer is that we don’t want to heat up the polity. We have not gotten to the point where people will be talking about 2027. We are focused on providing good governance to Nigeria.”
The presidential spokesman said Tinubu was dedicated to tackling critical challenges currently facing the country, pointing to his recent participation in the G20 Summit in Brazil.
“The President is very much committed to ensuring we deal with hunger, extreme hunger and climate change problem. That is why he flew to Brazil to interface with the G20 dealing with global governance reform, and the global governance reform has now come up with a focus.
“The focus is on hunger, poverty, and climate change. That is what the President is focused on. The President is not focused on 2027.”
‘ACF not speaking for the North’
Meanwhile, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) criticized the ACF, stating that while the group has the right to express its opinion, it cannot claim to speak for the entire North.
The National Publicity Director of the APC, Bala Ibrahim, said, “This has always been the position of the ACF. They have always been advocating and clamouring for their own. The ACF is not a political party. It is an association. It is more like a sociocultural organization. But now that they have come out clearly to say they are not going to back a non-Northern candidate come 2027, so be it.
“But it is too early to talk about crossing the river when you have not gotten to the point of getting to the bridge. We agree that in politics or under democracy, people have the right to opinion. The position of the ACF is not against the provision of democracy or the constitution. They can clamour and ask for people to vote for their own. But the choice to do that rests on the people.
“As long as they are not going to insist on forcing people to choose who to vote for, we don’t have any quarrel with that. In any case, let them wait and see for the party to present a candidate.”
Governance not about region – LP
Also speaking, the National Publicity Secretary, Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, stated that if the ACF had truly been monitoring the political landscape over the past decade, it would recognize that the issue was not related to tribe or geopolitical zone.
“A northerner was in government for eight years and the North cried wolf. Nothing got better in the North. There was inflation in the North just as it was in the South. When Goodluck Jonathan, a southern President was there, he built schools and took care of the Almajiri but when a northern President came, all those things were set aside.
“There was hunger and inflation in the country. Another Southern president is in the saddle. However, I want to believe that after one year and six months or thereabouts that Tinubu has been in government, he ought to have started changing the narratives. Unfortunately, nothing good is coming out of it. What does that tell you?
“It simply tells you that it’s not about the person in government coming from North or South. It is not about the geographical location of the leader. It’s about the capacity of who you have entrusted the leadership of the country to. The Labour Party brought out the best candidate in 2023 and up to this moment, we still refer to him as the president Nigeria never had. But I’m sure Nigerians are now wiser.”
