Nigeria: Enough of Blackmail, North Not Afraid of Break-Up, ACF Tells Southern Leaders

Not comfortable with stereotypes and alleged blackmail anymore, a foremost umbrella body for the north, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Thursday, reacted to the ongoing controversy and constant bashing of the region over zoning within the two leading political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – and declared that the North would not allow itself to be blackmailed any more, neither was it afraid of the country’s break-up.

The forum, in a statement in Kaduna, warned that gone were the days, when Northerners felt blackmailed and intimidated by threats of re-structuring, secession, break up or break down of Nigeria.

According to the statement signed by the Secretary General of the forum, Murtala Aliyu, the North is not and had never been opposed to the election of any Nigerian from any part of the country as President, maintaining however, that anything that would be done to achieve that must be in accord with the law and democratic principles.

ACF said some Southern politicians were already “giving their Northern counterparts an ultimatum not to elect anyone from the North as president or we will break up the country!“
In the statement title, “Enough of the blackmail”, the ACF warned that gone were the days when Northerners felt blackmailed by certain narrative from the South, but that the times had changed.

The statement read: “A long running political riddle that has continued to frustrate all efforts at achieving ‘justice, equity and fair-play’ is this: anything and everything in which the North has superiority or advantage or strength is, in the opinion of many Southerners, fake or contrived or speculative and therefore unacceptable.

“These Southerners contest the facts that the North has 78% of the landmass of Nigeria. They refuse to accept that the North has over 55% of the population of Nigeria. They won’t concede that the voting population in the Northwest region of the North alone is bigger than those of the Southeast & South-south combined.

“They will never acknowledge the fact that all the beef, all the tomatoes, the onions, the beans, etc. consumed in the South, is produced in the North. They concede nothing. On the contrary, they say the North brings nothing to the table and is entitled to nothing. Not to an equitable share of national revenues, not to a fair share of employment in the public services or to admissions into public schools.

“If the law says, for example, that election outcomes must be based on one man one vote, they quickly dismiss it as an ‘imposition’ by Northerners. They contest every fact, every principle including those that formed the basis of our union such as our federation, our system of administration, our⁷ democracy, etc.

“And as we inch up towards the 2023 elections, it comes as no surprise that some Southern politicians are giving their Northern counterparts an ultimatum which roughly translates thus: elect no one from the North as President or we will break up the country!

But what are the facts?
“Nigeria’s Fourth Democratic Republic is about 22 years old. Of this, Northerners ruled for only ten years. But in-spite of this, some southern politicians are furious, issuing dare warnings against the election of any Northerner as president. It has to be stated clearly and for the avoidance of any doubt that the North is not and has never been opposed to the election of any Nigerian from any part of the country as President.

“Anything that will be done to achieve that, however, must accord with the law and democratic principles. Gone are the days when Northerners felt blackmailed and intimidated by threats of re-structuring, secession, break up or break down of Nigeria.

“The North does not seek to dominate any part of the country but will not submit itself to be relegated to serfdom. Those issuing ultimatums are to be pitied, knowing that they know not what they are doing. They own no patent nor monopoly of the art or science of ultimatums. Enough of the blackmail.”

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