Obi vs Kwakwanso: Northern Youths Berate Former Kano Gov

By Uche Mbah

A group, The Arewa Youths Progressive Alliance, has faulted former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s comment on Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP.

Kwakwanso, had while reacting to the failed alliance between LP and his party the NNPP, said northerners will not vote for Obi in next year’s presidential election.

Victor Umeh, a Senatorial candidate of the Labour party, said the alliance collapsed due to irreconcilable differences bothering on who will be the Vice presidential candidate within the alliance.

The Source magazine gathered that the ANPP had already made up their minds that Kwankwaso will not concede the presidential ticket to Obi.

At a point during the alliance talks, the NNPP candidate was said to have demanded from Obi a huge financial support, to which the former Anambra governor declined on the basis that the alliance has not materialised.

Reacting the Northern Youth body, said in a statement that the people of the region will not consider where a candidate came from before casting their votes.

They described Kwakwanso’s comment as xenophobic, adding that the region is not insulated from the problems affecting the country, promising to vote for a candidate who can turn the country around for better.

According to their spokesman, Sambo Galadima; “The North is neither anti-progress nor xenophobic against other Nigerians.”

The statement reads further: “Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso’s utterances portrays the North as retrogressive and the average Northern voter as insensitive and unconcerned about the sufferings of Nigerians and the high rate of insecurity and economic woes bedeviling Nigeria, and rather concerned about having “fellow Northerner and fellow Muslim” perpetuate themselves in power.

“Nothing can be farther from the truth. The Northerner experiences the same level of frustration with the state of governance in the country that the average Nigerian from any part of Nigeria experiences and wishes like every Nigerian that things improve for the better and that the most capable and most prepared individuals take charge of governance at different levels, including the presidency of the country, for the betterment of Nigeria.”

He said the North has suffered more while its leader hold sway in government.

“The former governor of Kano State insults the North by portraying us as some insensitive group of people without the capacity to think for ourselves. This is not true. He sends the impression out there, that our votes are owned by some elites and that it is these elites who will decide how we will vote in every election. If that was true in the past, that is set to change, because we are not slaves.

“We are capable of dreaming and holding strongly to our dreams. We are capable of working for and participating actively in political activities, independently and with the aim of bringing about the kind of government that shall serve the best interest of the average Nigerian.

“In the last seven years, more than 100,000 Northerners have been killed by bandits and terrorists, thousands of our daughters, wives, mother’s and sisters have either been raped, abducted or forcefully married out. Our farms are lying fallow and our harvests haven’t been poorer. Yet, a Northerner is the President.

“We voted for this Northerner, not because he is a Northerner, but because we believed he had the best of intentions and had the capacity to turn things around for good, for the benefit of all Nigerians. But, we are disappointed.”

According to him, this time the North shall vote in line with the best interest of Nigeria at heart.

“We want to assure fellow Nigerians that Northern Nigeria is not some kind of slave colony, where some elites drag us by the neck to vote on the basis of sectionalism or religion.

“We shall vote for the best candidates who hold the best promise to recharge Nigeria and get her working again, because, like every responsible citizen, we want the best interest of our country and we want a brighter future for our children,” the youth leader said.