Breaking: ACF Blasts Northern Leaders, Backs State Police |The Source

By Fola James

The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF has accused Northern political leaders of not speaking up against the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The northern cultural and political group said this through its National Publicity Secretary, Hakee Baba Ahmed, who said on an AIT programme on Friday that, the leaders from the region should emulate the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III who has been trenchantly criticizing the administration over the spate of insecurity in the country.

“It’s good that the Sultan is speaking now,” he said, adding that the conspiracy of silence will not help the region which has been devastated by Boko Haram insurgency, arm banditry and kidnapping in the last few years.

Ahmed, who was a former Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC said the federal government should have a broad approach to addressing the problem of insecurity, including the adoption of state or regional police that have been clamoured by some political leaders in the country, particularly from the south.

He said the North will also be a major beneficiary of restructuring that most social and political bodies in the country have been clamouring for.

“We also want to control our own resources. We want a system that will allow the north benefit from its own resources,” the former INEC scribe said, explaining that it was wrong for some persons to believe that the region is against restructuring.

Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna state has recently disclosed that those averse to restructuring are individuals who do not have the good of the country at heart.

According to El-Rufai“We have the highest number of out-of-school children. We have the highest poverty rate. We have the lowest JAMB cut-off rate. So, what are the advantages in the North in the current situation?

“As the Governor of Kaduna State, I have had to look at these issues and try to see how I can get the people of my state up on the ladder. I think you need to differentiate the knowledge from a few and the voice of the silent majority.”

“If there are northern leaders today, by virtue of the fact that I am a governor, I must be there. So, who are these northerners against restructuring? Who are they? Who are they speaking for?

“Let us have a very honest, unemotional conversation without looking down on people or insulting them or framing them.”