Arewa Leaders Reveal Why North Will Vote For GEJ

 

The leaders of a northern socio-political group have revealed why northerners will show their support for President Goodluck Jonathan by voting for him at the March 28 presidential elections.

Last Saturday, as about 10,000 northerners congregated in Asaba, the Delta state capital, as representatives of about 10 million northerners living in the 17 states of Southern Nigeria, under the banner of the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in Southern Nigeria, the group gave reasons why they are in support of Jonathan.

Co-ordinated by Alhaji Musa Saidu, with Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto state, as grand patron, the northerners said they gathered in solidarity and endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Vanguard reports.

On why the Arewa Initiative endorsed President Jonathan, Bafarawa said: ‘’All the people saying Jonathan doesn’t have support in the north are not been fair to northerners. Most of you reside in Lagos and so you only read these from the papers. As we know, the APC are more in the papers than they are on ground. Go to the North and meet the average northerner on the streets to know their pulse about Jonathan.

“If you want to know whether Jonathan is actually on ground, go to the different northern states to do some personal assessments, not by reading newspapers. Go to the various states and see that Jonathan has the support of the people. In every northern state, there is no where he hasn’t contributed to the development of the state. So, what is the reason to say northerners don’t like Jonathan?’’

The co-ordinator of the initiative, Alhaji Musa Saidu shared Bafarawa’s views and listed the series of projects that president has undertaken in the north as the reason northerners will stand with him at the March 28 presidential poll.

Saidu said: ‘’If we say that northerners are happy with President Goodluck Jonathan, we are merely stating the obvious. We are happy that he has done for the North much more than any other president has done. From our findings, he has even executed for the North many more projects than he has done for his people in the South, especially the South-South. This is why we are mobilising our people across all parts of the North and all northerners resident in all parts of the South, to ensure that he secures a second term.

‘’The list of his achievements for the North looks endless. For instance, in education, the once abandoned Almajiri boys can now go to school as President Jonathan initiated and established the Almajiri System of Education, the first of its kind, with over 150 special schools already built across the northern states, while others are nearing completion. ‘

’Also, out of the 12 new universities established by President Jonathan, nine are located in the northern states thereby ensuring that all states of the region have a federal university. This is in addition to establishment of new secondary schools and training of teachers for better quality education in the North.

‘’Recognizing that agriculture is the mainstay of the northern economy, President Jonathan ensured that out of the 2.7 million direct farm jobs achieved by this administration, over two million are in the North. He also established the e-wallet system, which eliminated the corruption in the distribution of fertilizer and other farm inputs thereby making the products directly accessible to millions of farmers in the region and this has boosted their productivity.Today our silos are brimming and food pyramids are returning in the North.

‘’In the last four years, President Jonathan has committed enormous resources in tackling desertification in the region. This administration established more than 80 kilometre 15-row Green Belt in addition to the Presidential Initiative on Afforestation in Kano and 10 other northern states.

‘’The revitalization of the railways by the Jonathan administration has connected major cities in the North to the extent that very soon, it will become easy for Nigerians to live in states in the North and still work in Abuja as the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2015.

‘’Today, the Minna-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano narrow gauge has been rehabilitated. The Makurdi-Lafia-Kuru-Bauchi-Gombe-Ashaka-Maiduguri and the branch line from Kafanchan to Kaduna are at completion stages and will be operational soon.

‘’On roads, the decades long intractable Kano-Maiduguri highway that is the longest stretch in the country is being successfully tackled. The Abuja-Lokoja road, a huge death trap that has witnessed uncountable number of accidents is now a delight for road travellers…

‘’The fight against insurgency has been fought and is being won. Jonathan has shown that he is a friend to the North. All we can do is to support him to return to office and continue with the unusual transformation projects and programmes.’’

It will be recalled that members of the southern Arewa community alleged that former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and an aide to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state ran off with some of the funds President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly gave to them last week to secure their endorsement.