ACF faults Adebanjo over comment on North

Chief Ayo Adebanjo

A northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, on Thursday , berated an elder statesman and chieftain of the Afenifere group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, over a statement credited to him about the region.

Adebanjo had said in an interview with one of the national dailies that northern interests would not allow President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the recommendations of the national conference conveyed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Afenifere chieftain had said, “My own view and the view of Afenifere is that a northerner will not be so disposed to changing the constitution because they are the beneficiary of what we are complaining about. Let them disprove that. About 500 distinguished Nigerians recommended a new constitution unanimously and nobody has come out to say what we did there was wrong.”

The group viewed this comment as offensive.

The National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Alhaji Muhamma Ibrahim, conveyed the message of the group in a statement in Kaduna on Thursday.

The group said the issues raised by Adebanjo needed to be put in a proper perspectives.

It said that although the region participated in the conference, “the national conference favoured the people of the South.”

Buttressing its point, the ACF faulted the selection of delegates by the former president to the conference.

The group noted that while the northern region has the greatest population in terms of people and land mass, the number of the delegates from the south who attended the conference was higher.

This, according to the group, was gross injustice to the region.

The ACF said, “ The selection process of delegates by the Jonathan government to the confab made the North that has a population of 75,268,686 people (NPC, 2006) with a landmass of 730,885 square km as a minority with 189 delegates, while the South with a population of 65,151,458 people (NPC 2006) with a land mass of 193,438 square km presented 303 delegates.

“Despite this glaring injustice, the North as a region did not only participate in the overall national interest of Nigeria but also contributed crucial issues of national unity. The 2014 confab was, therefore, not a platform for constitution making and did not unanimously recommend a new constitution for Nigeria as claimed by Chief Adebanjo.”