Posted by By Femi Babafemi on
Former military governor of Kaduna State and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) General Secretary, Col. Hammed Ali, has warned that President Olusegun Obasanjo should not attempt to betray the North as the struggle for the 2007 presidential race hots up.
Former military governor of Kaduna State and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) General Secretary, Col. Hammed Ali, has warned that President Olusegun Obasanjo should not attempt to betray the North as the struggle for the 2007 presidential race hots up.
Any move to deny the North opportunity of regaining power in 2007, the ACF scribe stated, will be an open invitation to chaos in the country.
According to him, the North had given President Obasanjo great support at critical periods of need in the past and as such could not afford to let the region down in its time of need.
"He (Obasanjo) should remember that the North brought him out of prison, the same North installed him as President and if he now decides to work against the North, then there is a big problem," Ali stated.
The former military administrator also wants the president to realise that a high level of awareness has already been created among Nigerians during the failed third term controversy, stressing that the fallout of the crisis is an indication that the people are prepared to resist any unpopular decision.
He said the current war of words between the North and the people of the South-South over which zone should produce President Obasanjo's successor would do no one any good, stressing that some confusionists may use the opportunity to cause chaos in the country.
The ACF scribe warned that no divide and rule strategy can ever work in Nigeria again, adding: "Nigerians have come to understand that together we stand, and divided we fall."
Instead of focussing on the North and South divide now, Ali said what Nigeria needs at this period is "a credible Nigerian, who has the fear of God, love of the people at heart and enviable track records to take us from wherever President Obasanjo stops in 2007."
Speaking on insinuations that the president may want to punish the North for blocking his moves for tenure elongation by working against the emergence of a Northern candidate as his successor in 2007, Ali said, though such still remained at the level of rumours, "it is uncalled for."
He said the President should not on the basis of third term work against the interest of the North, adding that people from other zones equally participated fully in the abortion of the tenure elongation plot.
"The president should accept that the fight against third term was not a Northern fight, it was democracy at work. The key actors in the struggle were not Northerners, but all those involved believed in the unity, peace and survival of democracy and our nation."