Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has accused the 11 Northern governors of the APC of undermining the agenda of the Late Sardauna of Sokoto and the founding fathers of the region by their decision to cede the presidential ticket of their party to the South.
National President of the Forum (ACYF) Yerima Shetima, insisted in a statement made available to the media in Kano said that the governors had traded off the region’s right to participatory democracy for their personal gains.
They explained that, “In addition to their failure to save the North from massive poverty, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, they are turning around to deny us the right to freely choose where our people want the next president to come from”
They stressed that it was undemocratic to zone Nigeria’s Presidency to the South in 2023 as it is the prerogative of voters to decide which candidate they would like to vote for.
They also contended that the governors did not consult their people in the North before the endorsement while adding that , “It is now abundantly clear to innocent Northern voters that their mind was being conditioned to accept a purely selfish and shameful political agenda of relinquishing power on a platter of gold”
They claimed that the real agenda of these Northern governors was to deliberately blackmail President Mohammed Buhari into doing their bidding but appealed to Buhari never to succumb to their cheap blackmail.
“We call on all Northerners of good conscience to reject this wholesale disenfranchisement of innocent Northern voters in broad daylight, by State Chief Executives that are bound by the constitution and the Rule of Law to protect and promote our interests”
They urged the delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to disregard the stance of their governors to shift power to the South .