In a rare ceremony of colour and grandeur in Asaba, the Delta
State Capital, former Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu
Bafarawa, leads a 10,000 strong delegation of the over 10 million Arewas
in Southern Nigeria to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan’s candidacy
in the March 28, 2015 presidential election, writes Olaoluwakiitan
Babatunde
The ceremony was officially billed to hold from 12 pm on Saturday,
February 29, 2015, but from the early hours of Friday, February 27,
2015, Asaba, the Delta State Capital, scheduled to host the occasion was
already in frenzy. In the heavy down pour that prevailed much of the
day, People, particularly delegates of Arewas from each of the 17
Southern States of the federation under the umbrella of the Arewa
Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in Southern Nigeria, the Chairman
of the event and National Coordinator of the initiative, former Governor
of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, the coordinators in
each of the three geo-political zones of the south and PDP faithful and
stalwarts, including President Goodluck Jonathan streamed in. Business
went on the upbeat; hotels across Asaba were booked to capacity and by
night fall on Friday, it was clear that the city was set for an
impressive political event the next day.
Unlike the previous day when the rains hardly allowed for any measure
of activity in the city, the town woke up to a most scintillating
weather on Saturday and just after break fast, residents and the over
10,000 Arewas that had thronged the town from the previous day headed
for the Cenotaph, GRA, Asaba, venue of the solidarity and endorsement
rally for President Jonathan by the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful
Co-Existence in Southern Nigeria, with chants of Mainasara (Goodluck in
Hausa), renting the air. The Arewa delegates were at their best, putting
up all sorts of performances, ranging from dancing to singing as they
seemed to enjoy themselves to the full.
To compliment their joy, the Special Guest of Honour, President
Goodluck Jonathan, arrived on schedule. His long convoy of party
dignitaries, including Chief Host, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, Delta State
Governor, and Col. Ahmadu Ali, former National Chairman, PDP and
Director General, Goodluck Jonathan/ Sambo Campaign Organisation, among
many others stormed the venue amid tight security at about 12.15pm,
throwing the crowd into ecstasy and wide celebration.
Alhaji Musa Saidu, Zonal Coordinator, Arewa Initiative for Peaceful
Co-existence in Southern Nigeria (A.I.P.C.N), South South Zone, who
welcomed all to the ceremony before Alhaji Bafawara, Chairman of the
occasion, gave his keynote address, commended the former Sokoto State
governor, praising him as an outstanding pillar of support for all
Arewas, worldwide. While he thanked the President for honouring them
with his presence, he applauded Bafawara for the initiative, stating
that the move would give all Arewas a sense of belonging wherever they
may found themselves.
On his part, Bafawara said he was delighted at the rally, not because
the President was the epicenter but the fact that the occasion was
unique. He described the AIPCN as first of its kind in the country with
its objective and mandate very peculiar to it.
Declaring that he was instrumental to the initiative, the former Sokoto
State governor said: “It was borne out of a deeop and sober reflection
on some of the contradictions and drawbacks of the Nigerian condition.
Any patriotic Nigerian, who has spared a thought for our nationhood will
readily recognise the fact that citizenship and its adjunct, indigene
ship are some of the sore points of our federal arrangement. A situation
where a bonafide citizen of the country is discriminated against and
denied certain rights on account of indegeneship is worrisome, to say
the least. We have a country where children born and brought up outside
their ethnic origins are denied certain rights and treated as strangers
because they are seen as non-indegenes. This is apartheid of some sort.
But we have come to live with it for decades. This state of affairs has
had a lot of negative effect on Nigerians, who would, ordinarily, have
contributed very meaningfully to the growth and development of the
fatherland.
“As a career politician, who has interfaced with the citizenry over the
years, I feel a sense of repulsion each time I reflect on the damage
this discriminatory policy has inflicted and has continued to inflict on
our quest for a just and equitable Nigeria. To a very large extent, the
Nigerian born and bred outside his ethnic enclave is a dislocated
entity. He does not fit in very well into his place of abode because he
is seen, more or less as a stranger. He is also not very much at home
with his ancestral homeland because he is not in tune with its customs,
traditions and mores, having been brought up in a cultural setting that
is strictly not his. Yet, the land that nurtured and nourished him is
not prepared to accord him the rights and privileges he deserves. This
unpalatable condition constitutes a dilemma to the Nigerian so affected.
It makes him a Diaspora Nigeria in his own country”.
In the light of this ugly situation and the negative implication for
the country’s nationhood, Bafawara told the teeming crowd that he joined
hands with some other concerned northerners to come up with the
initiative under which they were gathered there. The idea, he said, is
to galvanise northerners, living in southern Nigeria into an organic
whole to have a voice in the affairs of their country.
In his words: “Since they have been operating like sheep without
shepherd, the initiative has taken it upon itself to manage and organise
them not just for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of the
country.
“Available records indicate that there are about 10 million northerners
living in southern Nigeria. Yet, this teeming population hardly plays
any significant role in the affairs of their fatherland owing to the
policy of discrimination that we have been talking about.
“Arewa communities in southern Nigeria are discriminated against. They
are not given equal opportunities in the political, economic and social
schemes of their places of abode. This is in spite of the fact that most
of them are born and bred in those communities.
“Arewa communities in the south are politically marginalised. They are
not allowed to contest for political offices both at the state and
federal levels. They are also not appointed into state or federal
administrations.
“Our people in the south operate under harsh and difficult business
environments. The traders and artisans among them enjoy no form of
business protection. They are subjected to multiple taxation and
extortion by their host governments. Sometimes the markets where they
ply their wares are raided, and closed down under whatever guise. In the
process, many of them lose their goods to Area Boys and other
miscreants. Arewa communities in the south do not enjoy educational
schemes such as scholarships and bursary awards. This is because they
are regarded as non-indigenes in their places of domicile. They are also
not admitted into state-owned educational institutions because they are
seen as strangers. Even after graduation, they are not given employment
in the civil service of the states where they were born and brought up.
This situation has not helped the development and upliftment of these
young Nigerians. The result is that some of them who cannot be gainfully
employed resort to hooliganism and criminality.
“There is a general lack of access to soft loans by Arewa communities
in the south. Schemes such as small and medium enterprises loans are
denied them. They are also not considered for poverty alleviation
programmes of their host states, among other discriminatory acts.
“We note also that security of their life and property is sometimes not
guaranteed owing to sporadic clashes that arise from grazing rights and
location of markets. In the process, lives and property are lost and
wantonly destroyed”.
He demanded that the issues were addressed and reversed as the Arewas
deserved to be integrated and accommodated in a fair deal from their
host communities.
“Today, we are taking the very first crucial step to ensure that our
brothers and sisters living in southern Nigeria are no longer left out
in the scheme of things. We want to ensure that they not only play their
civic roles, but do so to the benefit of the fatherland,” Bafarawa
further stressed. After some goodwill messages from some frontline
party members and other Arewa leaders present, including Ali, Uduaghan,
thanked Alhaji Bafawara for the initiative while urging the Arewas to go
for the collection of their PVCs and vote massively for President
Jonathan on March 28, 2015 to ensure that he was returned to office. He
said he had had a cordial relationship with the Arewas in Delta State
and as a testimony, he appointed one of them, Alhaji Awwalu Tukur, as
his Special Adviser. He implored them to vote for the PDP Governorship
candidate in the State, Senator Okowa, as he was confident that if
elected he would give them more recognition in his cabinet.
Alhaji Danlami Isah Ibadan, Zonal Coordinator, South West Zone of The
AIPCN, then moved the motion on behalf of the 10 million Arewas in
Southern Nigeria to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan as sole
candidate of the group in the forthcoming election on its adoption by
Alhaji Gidado Saddik.
An elated President Jonathan praised the spirit of the Arewa
initiative, enjoining Bafawara and all those in the effort with him not
to relent in forging ahead with it. He condemned any form of
discrimination against any Nigerian in whatever guise, assuring that
government will not condone it in any way.
According to him, when he first heard of reports of such
discriminations, he appointed a committee of seven state governors to
critically look into it and made recommendations to him on how it could
be stemmed but before they could come up with anything about it, the
crisis in the Governors’ Forum erupted and put paid to the work of the
committee.
President Jonathan assured the Arewas that if he was re-elected, he
would come up with a very strong law to prohibit any form of
discrimination against any Nigerian. He charged them to return to their
various states of abode and go about their lawful duties peacefully
while imploring them to turn out on Election Day to give meaning to his
endorsement and ensure his re-election to continue with the
transformation of the country.
Culled from Thisday
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