2015: Why North will vote for Jonathan - Bafarawa

LAST Saturday, about 10,000 northerners congregated at Asaba, the Delta State Capital as representatives of about 10 million northerners living in the 17 states of Southern Nigeria on the banner of the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in Southern Nigeria (AIPCN).

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). Held at the Cenotaph, GRA, Asaba, at the event were President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu (PDP national chairman), Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Senator Ahmadu Ali and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta PDP governorship candidate) among others.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Jonathan said if re-elected, he would implement policies that would end discrimination so that all Nigerians will be free to live in any part of the country in peace. He said that it is sad that many Nigerians who can afford it go to America to deliver their babies so that the child will be an American citizen, yet in Nigeria, we discriminate against ourselves.

Lamenting that some politicians whose children are abroad are trying ‘’to divide us with ethnicity and hatred and want to precipitate crisis so that our children will die,’’ he urged Nigerians to support whoever is leading the country ‘’because there is no president that can rule this country without the support of all Nigerians or you won’t enjoy the office. If we compartmentalise Nigeria, then we have destroyed what God has given to us.’’

 Why I founded AIPCN –Bafarawa Asked why he is mobilising northerners living in southern Nigeria, Bafarawa said he is not happy with the way non-indigenes are denied certain rights in the country. AIPCN is important because of the way and manner our people in the South find themselves. Also southerners in the North find themselves in the same problem. We have almost 10 million northerners residing in the17 southern states. Some of them were born here and even their parents were born here. They were brought up here. They cannot go back to the North because this is their home base

. ‘’Unfortunately, they have no place they can call their own. They are always non-indigenes. They are not benefiting anything from their indigenous state and here people see them as non-indigenes. As far as these people are concerned, they don’t have anywhere in the North to stay. Some of them who were born in the South-West speak Yoruba language such that you cannot differentiate them from the Yoruba. So also some who were born in the South-East speak Igbo.

Unfortunately, getting admission into government schools is difficult. They have to go to private schools. They are not getting any patronage from the states they are residing and they are Nigerians. If they come together, at least if there is any problem you can talk to the leadership.

 During election period you see people being killed in the North and in the South because there is no leadership. That was the reason we decided to come up with this initiative for peace, development and sensitisation of our people so that they can fight and get their rights.’’

 North will re-elect Jonathan On why the Arewa Initiative endorsed President Jonathan, he 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 AIPCN, Alhaji Musa Saidu shared Bafarawa’s views and listed the series of projects that president has done in the North as the reason northerners will stand with him at the March 28 presidential polls. 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.’’