JUST IN: Arewa group withdraws support for rotational presidency because of Tinubu

Speaking to reporters about the new initiative, Senator Ahmad Abubakar Moallayidi, the group’s president, claimed that despite Northern Nigeria’s numerical superiority, the Tinubu administration had undervalued the region’s ability to shape national policy and leadership.

Arewa New Agenda (ANA), a socio-political group, has surfaced intending to reestablish the North as Nigeria’s dominant power.

ANA announced its opposition to the rotating presidency on Thursday in Yola, the state capital of Adamawa. The statement referred to President Bola Tinubu’s “it is my turn” remark before the 2023 election.

Speaking to reporters about the new initiative, Senator Ahmad Abubakar Moallayidi, the group’s president, claimed that despite Northern Nigeria’s numerical power, the Tinubu administration had undervalued the region’s ability to shape political direction and leadership.

He said President Tinubu abandoned the North, which was why he received the majority of the votes necessary to win the presidency.

He also lamented that the area had been afflicted by the numerous problems of poverty, illiteracy, and instability despite its abundant natural and human resource endowment.

Moallayidi bragged that the ANA wants to mobilize the younger generation of northerners, to face the many issues facing the region and make amends for past wrongs.

He said, “Everybody knows that here in northern Nigeria we have a lot of problems. So our focus, even before the election was that what is in it for northern Nigeria?

“Of course, when the APC was formed everybody endorsed General Muhammadu Buhari from the North. The other part of the country, especially the southwest, which came to form the alliance, asked for a lot of things which were granted; one of which was power shift to the south.

“Now that the power is there, what is in it for the North? This is what I and my colleagues have been asking but we could not get an answer. So we decided we shouldn’t just sit back to continue in a turn-by-turn presidential system.

“Turn-by-turn doesn’t make sense! Turn-by-turn is not democracy, you know that; you’re just shifting the mantle of leadership, not that you’re doing democracy. And you also know that whatever form of government you have, you know that people must have dividends of that form of government.

“This is what Arewa New Agenda is trying to project; that in this government now what is in it for us in the North? But we were not given an answer! Of course, you know that the bulk of what forms any government in Nigeria, not just the APC, 70 per cent of it is from the North.”

Moallayidi claimed that the ANA was about to redefine the North’s role as the country’s dominant force by repositioning it.

“We have to take our own destiny in our own hands; we’ll not go begging. We’ll harness agricultural potentials, livestock and other natural resources found deposited in all the states of the North,” he added.

ANA was founded by notable Northerners, including technocrats and members of the political elite, like Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina and former Head of Service of the Federation Yayale Ahmed.

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