Arewa youths : Public condemnation, private support

When a coalition of northern youths group
infamously issued three months quit notice to
Igbo leaving in the nineteen northern states of
the country to quit the region and go back to the
eastern part of the country, the initial reaction of
the government and people of Kaduna state was
that of outrage. Governor Nasir El Rufai who
blazed the trail in the gale of condemnation
through his senior special Assistant on media
and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan was
unmistakeable in his upbraid.
Addressing a press conference at the Nigerian
Union of Journalists office in Kaduna, Aruwan,
who was clear in his condemnation, said the
Kaduna state government which had passed a
law outlawing hate speech in the state would
not sit by and allow some people to use the
serenity of the state to cause havoc in the
country.
According to Aruwan, the state government did
not only condemn the quit notice issued by the
groups but has also directed relevant security
agencies in the state to hunt down the
signatories to the obnoxious statement and
bring them to account according to the relevant
sections of the law.
He said: “The Kaduna State Government
condemns in the strongest terms the press
statement by some self-appointed “northern
youths” that threatened the safety and property
of our citizens of Igbo extraction. Government
assures every resident of our state that their
constitutional and human rights to live
peacefully and own property wherever they
choose is sacrosanct.
Even people who may feel unhappy about
irresponsible comments or actions that have
taken place in other states must know that two
wrongs cannot make a right.
“The Kaduna State Government believes in and
will uphold the right of every Nigerian to live
safely and develop his/her full potentials within
its territory.
“Reckless disregard for the rights of other
citizens drips through the press statement by
these “northern youths” who have chosen to
use the discourse around restructuring to
promote their own agenda of hate, division and
incitement. This sort of opportunists cannot be
allowed to distort debate, or turn it into a pretext
for a barely-disguised agenda of displacement
and dispossession of some citizens.
“We will not tolerate such irresponsible
statements and conduct in our state. The
statement issued by the “northern youths”
violates the laws of Kaduna State. Therefore, the
Kaduna State Government has directed that its
Ministry of Justice should prepare charges and
prosecute the signatories and anyone complicit
in arranging this egregious assault on the rights
of fellow citizens.
“Preparatory to prosecution, the police have
been directed to immediately arrest, interrogate
the signatories to the statement and investigate
all the circumstances and persons that may be
implicated in the matter” he said.
Mallam El Rufai’s proactive condemnation of the
statement by the amorphous Northern youths
group in their so called Kaduna Declaration
opened a floodgate of condemnation from other
stakeholders in the northern part of the country
because of the manifest implication such a
brazen ultimatum to Igbos in the north could
pose not just in the northern part of the country
but also the country at large.
The governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima
who is also the chairman of the nineteen
northern governors’ forum followed suit in
condemning the declaration of the northern
youth’s coalition. In a statement he issued a
day after Governor El Rufai had directed security
agencies to arrest leaders of the group, the
Borno state governor in a statement distanced
the governors of the nineteen northern states
from the statement of the Youth coalition.
In a statement he issued, the governor noted
that the views of the so called northern youths
neither represented the views of the political
leadership in the north nor the generality of the
people of the region.
“On behalf of the Governors of the 19 Northern
states, we totally condemn such irresponsible
pronouncements by those groups. We condemn,
we disown, and we are totally distancing
ourselves from those faceless groups who don’t
have the mandate of the people of Northern
Nigeria to make such loud pronouncements.
Section 41, Subsection 1 of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria is very explicit in
safeguarding the rights of all Nigerians to reside
in any part of the country with no hindrance
whatsoever. But then, when you see a toad
dancing in broad daylight, the drummer is not
far off from the main road. We wish to call on
the security agencies to beam their lenses on
these groups, and unearth the faces behind the
mask.
“Some months back, there were cases of
importation of arms, illegal importation of arms
intercepted at the ports, and then we started
hearing rumours of a coup d’etat. Now, a
groups that do not have the mandate of the
people came up with remarks capable of
destabilizing the north and the country as a
whole. ‘We are one nation tied to a common
destiny, the governance of Northern Nigeria is
not in alignment with those pronouncements,
and we will take whatever measures that are
necessary to safeguard the lives and properties
of Nigerians living in any part of the North. I am
in contact with most of my colleagues, and they
are all talking to heads of security
establishments in their respective domains
because we cannot afford to take chances. We
cannot afford to toil with the destiny of this
country.
“The 19 Northern Governors wish to call on our
brothers of Igbo descent to remain calm and go
about their legitimate businesses. Nobody can
dare to intimidate, harass or dehumanize them
in any of the 19 northern states. Our governors
will not allow that.”
Several other voices of condemnation from
across the country have followed the high profile
ones as represented by governor Nasir El Rufai
and his Borno state counterpart, Kashim
Shettima.
But investigations by weekend Vanguard in
Kaduna has revealed that beyond the public
condemnation by political leaders of the quit
notice issued by the Arewa youths to Igbos in
the north, the move appears to enjoy the
support, and active sponsorship by conservative
northern oligarchs.
According to our investigations, although the
initial plan for the Kaduna Declaration was the
handiwork of the groups, who were signatories
to the declaration and have always been
available for any group to be used to advance
their political agenda during the sixteen years of
the Peoples democratic rule, the idea assumed a
life of its own when one of the signatories to the
declaration contacted a former northern
academic to intimate him of the plan.
“From the point the former academic was
contacted, the issue assumed a different
dimension, necessitating the shifting of the press
conference from Monday to Tuesday. It became
obvious that we were on the right path and we
seized on the opportunity to make a point that
at that point, we knew we had the backing of the
majority of the people of our region and
especially the leadership at the grass root” one
signatory to the Declaration who did not want to
have his name in print told Vanguard.
But while other northern leaders prefer to
operate from the shadows while giving moral
and financial support to members of the
northern youth coalition in their declaration,
Professor Ango Abdullahi, the former Vice
Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
and the modern face of northern irredentism did
not only openly declare his support for the
youths but also publicly condemned the Kaduna
state governor for ordering the arrest of the
youths. Abdu
Speaking to newsmen in Zaria, Professor Ango
Abdullahi who is a member of the Northern
Elders Forum maintained that it was hypocritical
for the Igbos to continue to live in other parts of
the country while agitating for Nigeria’s break
up.
Insisting that what the northern youth groups
did was not a sin, Abdullahi said whoever feels
Nigeria “is not conducive for him” should quit.
“I am disappointed in the decision taken by
Northern Governors’ Forum disowning and
condemning the agitation by this young agile
and progressive youth groups.
“Let me ask these Northern governors, whom
are they representing, are they representing
spirits, ghost or people of the north?
“Recently, people from eastern part of this
country, specifically Igbo, were busy calling for
the Sovereign State of Biafra and from all
indication their leaders including governors are
behind them. Nobody has come out to condemn
them. What are our people saying?” he queried.
But while the views expressed by Ango
Abdullahi may represent the extreme position,
very many Northern leaders feel that the
emergence of the youth group was a good
counter poise to what they feel is the relentless
denigration of the whole northern region by the
agitators for the so called state of Baifra.
According to a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello
University who spoke with Vanguard, ‘majority
of the northern elites feel that we should also
have our own ‘noise makers so that when the
chips are down, we will have a point to trade. It
is not as if people want Igbos to leave the north
as declared by the youth groups. Our support
for them stems from the fact that we cannot
afford to continue to portray a spirit of docility.
Majority of northern elites support these guys
because they are expendable and they are
saying the right thing that our people want to
hear. We know that when the chips are down,
the Igbos have greater things at stake. We want
them to know that we also know what to do
when push comes to shove.
The north did not set out to recruit those guys
but they filled a vacuum at the most appropriate
time. When El Rufai said he was aware that
some people were reluctant to carry out the
arrest directive given by his state government,
he knew exactly what he was talking about and
I can tell you that none of those guys can be
arrested in the north. We are behind them”
For now, while Nnamdi Kanu and his misguided
supporters in the east push for Biafra, they have
found an equally misguided ally in the north.
With the support that both groups enjoy from
some people in the zone, other Nigerians will
wait to see whether the will of a few misguided
youths and their sponsors will prevail or the
majority of Nigerians who are more interested in
the vicissitude of daily living will be giving an
opportunity to live their lives in peace.