Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has listed the problems of disunity, distrust, indignity and others plaguing the North to the region’s 19 governors.
National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Prof Tukur Muhammed-Baba, disclosed this, yesterday, in a statement to the media.
According to a statement, the ACF National Executive Council (NEC), led by Mamman Osuman, had drawn the governors’ attention to those critical issues that constitute existential threats to the North.
Muhammed-Baba said the governors were told of the urgent need to confront the problems “such that the region will overcome them and regain its unity, dignity and trust as a vanguard of the viability of the Nigeria project.”
He remarked: “The Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), during its meeting on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at the Government House, Kaduna, granted audience to the leadership of ACF, during which critical issues of interest to the two bodies were deliberated on.”
The Northern socio-cultural group explained that the BOT Chairman, Bashir Dalhatu, briefed the governors on the ACF as a pan-Northern Nigerian pressure group and the present state of the organisation.
On his part, Osuman briefed the governors on the inauguration of new leadership for ACF and the resolve of the leadership to reinvigorate the organisation in outlook and impact, just as it desires to engage other stakeholders in Nigeria for robust national discourse on issues relevant to the North in particular and the nation in general.
Muhammed-Baba added: “In particular, Osuman listed the problems to include a dire state of insecurity, mistrust and mutual suspicion among Northern peoples, worsening existential (and especially economic) challenges and deficits in the provision of modern education.
“The chairman and other members of the NSGF expressed delight at the emergence of a reinvigorated ACF and urged the body to sustain the tempo, ensure adequate representation from and visibility in all states in the North, to make its presence known and felt at the same state levels.”