Apologize to Nigeria now, Arewa Youths, Elders Group urges Niger President
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
A coalition of youths and elders in Northern Nigeria, under the auspices of Arewa Youths Coalition for Peace and Political Development and Northern Elders Progressive Group on Wednesday urged the military junta in Niger Republic, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, to immediately apologize to Nigeria over what they called “unguarded comment”.
General Tchiani, recently accused the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, of conniving with France to destabilize his country.
A comment the Arewa group described as unguarded utterances, irresponsible, lacking decorum and unpresidential in a communique jointly signed by Hon. Yusuf Abubakar, the Convener, Alhaji Yasir Ramadan, for the Youths Group and Engr Mustafa Aliyu Dutsin-Ma for Northern Elders Progressive Group at the end of their 8th joint meeting held on Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
“We reject in totality, the recent allegations made by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, Military Head of Niger Republic against Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of conniving with France to destabilize his country.
“We see such unguarded utterances as irresponsible, lacking decorum and unpresidential. These are baseless allegations capable of overheating the polity in our country.
“Our stance on this saga is total support and endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, especially with his giant strides of positive development, ensuring political unity, security and restoration of peace in our troubled zone, ie North.
“We call on the President of Niger Republic to tender an immediate apology to Nigeria and stop creating the tension of disunity between the two-brotherly nations that have a common historical understanding, unity and regard for each other decades ago.
“We want to caution some groups hiding under ulterior motives to refrain from fanning embers of hatred, considering its consequences for our collective survival as a people and nation in general. We must be patriotic and responsible on issues affecting our national growth, unity and respect.” They said.
On insecurity, the group commended the efforts of the Federal government towards sustaining the fight against insecurity challenges bedevilling some parts of the northern region, particularly the North West zone, by mobilizing military and other security personnel under ‘Fansan Yamma’ to confront security threats and challenges.
“To us, it is time for our political leaders, elites and those in authority who are of the northern extraction to come together and bring lasting solutions to the numerous challenges facing the region.
“Unarguably, the development has retarded our collective progress, unity, cohesion and development; because unity, peace and development of our dear North must be non-negotiable and sacrosanct to ensure cohesion and political understanding amongst all Nigerians.
“There must be a way to bring all our political leaders together, united and committed to the development in a best possible way of going against hatred, mudslinging and mischief that’s destroying our collective interest of one nation, particularly the north that was becoming a theatre of disunity, insecurity and economic challenges; together we should set aside politics, religious and ethnic differences in matters affecting our region and country, so as to be prosperous and progressive for the future generations.” The Communique stated.
They fault some clerics in the region for the kind of messages they are preaching, saying “It is very painful that some of our clerics have discarded moral character of teaching, abandon exemplary wisdom of preaching the truth, by becoming more like entertainers in discussing matters affecting political unity, security and survival of the country without recourse to reality.
“We want to appeal to our revered clerics to stop creating unnecessary tension as a result of their unguarded utterances which are capable of inciting and destroying the peace of others. They should rather allow professionals to speak on issues they know little or nothing about just because they have the platform. We have keenly observed that the majority of them are becoming tools of propaganda and mischief, using vulgar language in their Sunday and Friday sermons.
“It is disheartening that many clerics who cannot afford to travel outside their domains, are becoming so desperate to circulate misinformation or lies against particular issues of security, politics and social life affecting others outside. They were intentionally misled or coerced into believing mischievous posts on social media aimed at destroying others intentionally with political motivation, without investigations or finding time to verified the authenticity or reality of the truths about them.”
They however thanked the National Security Adviser to President, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for his ceaseless efforts towards ensuring security and peace across the country, particularly in our region, through kinetic and non-kinetic approaches.
“These have led to improved stability and security in some of the deserted areas, due to constant attacks and insecurity challenges. However, we urge Mallam Ribadu to use his good office and bring an end to bandit kingpin Bello Turji’s nefarious reign of terror in Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states respectively. They added.
