2007: You can’t betray the North, ACF scribe
warns Obasanjo
By
Femi Babafemi
Tuesday,
June 13, 2006
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•Col.
Hammed Ali
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Former military governor of Kaduna State and Arewa Consultative
Forum (ACF) General Secretary, Col. Hammed Ali, has warned
that President Olusegun Obasanjo should not attempt to betray
the North as the struggle for the 2007 presidential race hots
up.
Any move to deny the North opportunity of regaining power
in 2007, the ACF scribe stated, will be an open invitation
to chaos in the country.
According to him, the North had given President Obasanjo great
support at critical periods of need in the past and as such
could not afford to let the region down in its time of need.
"He (Obasanjo) should remember that the North brought
him out of prison, the same North installed him as President
and if he now decides to work against the North, then there
is a big problem," Ali stated.
The former military administrator also wants the president
to realise that a high level of awareness has already been
created among Nigerians during the failed third term controversy,
stressing that the fallout of the crisis is an indication
that the people are prepared to resist any unpopular decision.
He said the current war of words between the North and the
people of the South-South over which zone should produce President
Obasanjo’s successor would do no one any good, stressing
that some confusionists may use the opportunity to cause chaos
in the country.
The ACF scribe warned that no divide and rule strategy can
ever work in Nigeria again, adding: "Nigerians have come
to understand that together we stand, and divided we fall."
Instead of focussing on the North and South divide now, Ali
said what Nigeria needs at this period is "a credible
Nigerian, who has the fear of God, love of the people at heart
and enviable track records to take us from wherever President
Obasanjo stops in 2007."
Speaking on insinuations that the president may want to punish
the North for blocking his moves for tenure elongation by
working against the emergence of a Northern candidate as his
successor in 2007, Ali said, though such still remained at
the level of rumours, "it is uncalled for."
He said the President should not on the basis of third term
work against the interest of the North, adding that people
from other zones equally participated fully in the abortion
of the tenure elongation plot.
"The president should accept that the fight against third
term was not a Northern fight, it was democracy at work. The
key actors in the struggle were not Northerners, but all those
involved believed in the unity, peace and survival of democracy
and our nation."
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