Posted by Segun Olatunji, Abuja on
The Arewa Consultative Forum on Wednesday advised all elected office holders against nursing a third term mandate.
The Arewa Consultative Forum on Wednesday advised all elected office holders against nursing a third term mandate.
Rising from a meeting with Northern delegates to the recent National Political Reform Conference in Kaduna, the ACF said political officers, including the President, were bound by the constitution to quit in 2007.
'The constitution is very clear about two terms for the President," the socio-political organisation stated.
The ACF gave the advice against the backdrop of the rising insinuations that President Olusegun Obasanjo and some other elected public officers were interested in extending their tenure.
The body also insisted on the 17 per cent derivation formula okayed by the NPRC
ACF's Deputy Chairman, Lt.-Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd) who spoke with newsmen at the end of the meeting, said that the North had not and would not shift its position on the contentious issue of resource control.
He said the ACF resolved that the 17 per cent prescribed by the NPRC should be retained by the Federal Government and the National Assembly.
He said, 'The 17 per cent as recommended by the majority of members, as far as we are concerned, is our position. And that remains, no matter what anyone says."
The 17 per cent derivation formula generated heated controversy which precipitated a hasty end of the conference.
The Chairman of the ACF Board of Trustees, Alhaji Magaji Dambata, had in his opening address, commended some unnamed federal officials from the North for making the delegates from the region to forge a common front on all issues discussed at the NPRC.
Dambata said,'Some leaders of the North in government had the foresight to bring the leaders of the 19 states' delegations together at the initial stage to discuss what the conference was all about because some of them had the inside story of what was in the offing.
'Together, we were able to map out a programme of action on how to approach the issues to be raised at the conference. The first and most important decision we took was to move quickly to bring the Northern delegates under one umbrella so that we can collectively dialogue on our common problem so as to come out with a common position as much as possible at the conference."
Prominent Northerners who attended the meeting were Brig-Gen. Halilu Akilu (rtd); Gen. Mohammadu Magoro (rtd); Alhaji Aliko Mohammed; Brig-Gen. Lawal Jaafaru Isa(rtd); Admiral Murtala Nyako; and Alhaji Leman Jibril.
The ACF Chairman, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, and other prominent chieftains of the organisation were however absent.
A communique on the meeting was as at 8:30pm being awaited.
The PUNCH, Thursday, August 11, 2005