The Coalition of Northern Groups has said that the Northern region made a mistake in the 2015 general elections as the people it trusted with power had inadvertently isolated the region politically, economically and socially.
The spokesperson of the group, Abdul-Azeez Sulieman, stated this at the sensitisation and awareness conference organised by CNG on Wednesday in Kaduna State, making an implied reference to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, Daily Trust reports.
Sulieman said, “The North has been abandoned to a critical security situation with its widowed women, children orphaned, youths maimed and killed and people displaced by the thousands. Politicians and leaders we have elected have prospered, but the bulk of us are left jobless, homeless, helpless and hopeless.
“The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. And while these elites celebrate with their families in world capitals, there has been nothing to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
“Indeed, the north made a mistake in 2015 so that the deliberate commission or omission of the people we trusted with power has inadvertently isolated the region politically, economically and socially as a result of which, the once portent and progressive region is today begging not only for food but for a place in the nation’s future political arrangement.”
He added, “If the price of voting along religious, ethnic and sectional sentiments is to become the most wretched, the most distressed, derided and most deprived, the north must therefore sincerely begin to ask itself if that price is worth paying.”
The National Coordinator of the group, Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi lamented that instead of addressing the challenges as they emerge, successive leaderships found it expedient to use them for either political gains, or to serve their selfish interest of polarizing the region along ethnoreligious, and socio-cultural divides.
