• As northern leaders in South-East, South-South condemn quit notice to Igbo

From Fred Itua, Abuja And Okey Sampson, Aba

Some members of various State Houses of Assembly and Commissioners in All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled states have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convene a meeting with young people who are dissatisfied with the Nigerian project.

The Democratic Youth Congress (DYC), an APC youths organization, urged the president to listen to agitators and forge a way to regain their trust.

Chairman of the group and a member of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Kassim Mohammed Kassim, who spoke on behalf of others drawn from over 15 states, said only equity and justice can end the current nationwide tensions.

Kassim said: “In order to address the discordant tunes across the country, we call on President Buhari to convene a meeting with the young people who are dissatisfied with the Nigerian project.

“We urge him (Buhari) to listen to them and forge a way to regain their trust. The youths of this nation are the most important resource the country has.

“Moving forward, we call on the president to give balancing the Nigerian project a solid sense of equity and justice, and call on all those who are in the forefront of the fight for restructuring Nigeria to come up with proposals and blueprints on how to make things better.

“Under president Buhari, we want to see balanced seats in the House of Representatives to make it fair to all. We want to see the resources of this nation shared in such a way that those from the areas where the resources come from do not feel cheated by the rest. “We Nigerian youths want to see presidency rotated amongst the zones. We want the number of local governments in each zone to be fair so that allocations to each zone would not be lopsided.”

Meanwhile, Northern traditional rulers in the southeast and south-south regions of the country have condemned and disassociated themselves from the quit notice issued to the Igbo living in the North by the coalition of Arewa Youth Congress. 

Speaking to newsmen at the end of a crucial meeting in Umuahia, chairman of the Northern traditional rulers in the two regions, Sariki Alhaji Yaro Danladi, said they strongly believe in the unity of the country. 

Danladi said the peace and unity of Nigeria was not negotiable, stressing that the traditional rulers and their subjects would not be part of any call against the unity of the country. 

He said: “Some of us have mothers and wives who are from here. Likewise some of our brothers from southeast who are living in the North; most of them were born there and they also married to people from there. Some have stayed there for close to 60 years. Where will they go? Like me for instance, if you ask me to go, where do I go to? All my life I’ve lived here. We want this country to be united as it was before us. 

“I must not fail to say that the quit notice our brothers gave to Igbo in the North is wrong. We are totally condemning it and ask them to consider that they have people down here in the South east, too.”

“We also condemn the hate speeches from both sides and urge our traditional rulers here in southeast and south-south to always work with the government of their states to ensure peace. We are appealing to the 11 state governments of the Southeast and south-south to also work with their Sarikis because they are the leaders and representatives of our people here.”