For two days this week, power brokers in the North brainstormed on how to re-invent the region. Chief Correspondent, Muhammed Saliu, who was at the conference, in this report, went beyond what was reported on camera, revealing the real motive behind the conference.It was more like a meeting oforphaned children doing anappraisal of how far they had gone in life since the exit of an over- pampering father. The North had a father in Sir Ahmadu Bello, GCON,MBE, Sardauna of Sokoto, premier of the old Northern region, who ruled his people from 1954-1966. The Sadauna tended the North of Nigeria to see itself and make itself always number one in power relations in Nigeria. Instructively, since the death of the Sadauna in 1966, every generation of Northerners that had risen to political relevance had made the North the centre point of its politics. However, the advent of the fourth republic brought untold woes for the geographical North. And as if giving voice to the misfortune that had befallen that region over the years, Senate President, David Mark at the just concluded Conference on Peace and Unity organised by the Arewa Consultaive Forum (ACF) held at Umaru Yaradua Indoor hall, Murtala Mohammed square, Kaduna, said the late sardauna saw the north as his pet and successfully laid down his vision by embarking on radical reforms so that the region would march up with other regions. Unfortunately, the Senate President averred, the lion of the region had degenerated to a sleeping dog. He told the participants that if the Sardauna should know what was happening in the north today, he would shed tears.The truth of the matter is that the meeting was more than what the agenda contained. It was a meeting designed to forge and reinvent a united, strong and politically relevant North that could snatch power back from a stubborn and cunning south. Findings by The Friday Edition revealed that a day before the conference, prominent northerners held a closed door meeting in the house of a prominent politician in Kaduna where far reaching decisions were taken on how to make the political objectives of the region realisable. The meeting attracted key people from politics, business, academia, religion as well as key youth and women from all the 19 northern states. The meeting according to sources, discussed how the region would ' put its acts together and produce an acceptable presidential candidate in 2015.'The strategy meeting, so described by a source, went beyond rhetoric. It painstakingly looked at why and how the North found itself outside power in Nigeria and what could be done to reverse the situation within the shortest time permitted by law. Several speakers at the meeting were reported to have blamed the failure of the north to get the presidency on the refusal of the region to present candidates acceptable to other parts of the country. The person of General Muhammadu Buhari was also said to have been discussed especially his recent body language which suggested he could be considering contesting the Presidency again in 2015. Attendees at the meeting were said to have strongly canvassed a generationally change in the political leadership of the region. Such persons wondered whether the case would not have been different if the heavy weights in the North had all rallied round a young Northerner in the last election instead of having the embarrassment of a 70 year old Buhari contesting against a Goodluck Jonathan who just completed his youth service when Buhari was the Head of State in 1983. A source at the pre-conference strategy meeting further informed The Friday Edition that a powerful delegation would be sent to General Buhari to persuade him not to vie for the exalted office of President in 2015. 'This is necessary to the northern interest as the region needs a young and dynamic leader to carry its burden,' the source said.Beyond persuading Buhari not to contest, the source added that the meeting proceeded to make a short list of possible candidates to promote and back in the next contest for the number one position. Among those said to be on the list are incumbent Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Mallam Nasir EL-Rufai. Alhaji Muazu Babangida Aliyu, alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, Alhaji Umar Ghali Naaba. Professor Jerry Gana, Senator Danjuma Goje, Senator Ahmed Sani,and Senator Ahmed Makarfi. Others are Senator Abba Ibrahim and Alhaji Ibrahim Shema. While activities of those shortlisted will be closely monitored as time goes on, the source added that emissaries would be sent to Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Chief Solomon Lar as well as some key traditional rulers to help in the project.Those at that meeting must have felt quite little when the following day President Goodluck Jonathan asked the region why it found itself so pitifully out of political reckoning in Nigeria. Declaring the conference open, the President who was represented by the vice president lamented how a people who only a few decades ago would proudly proclaim their unity now see themselves separately'He reminded participants at the conference that before, the country had always been guided by compromises and agreements usually arrived at during meetings of elders and community leaders, saying 'ours was a nation of talk shops and not gunshots.' He implored the north not to allow the physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the region as a result of the recurring religious, ethnic and political conflicts that ravaged it; (including the socio-economic depressions in recent years, that run deep and inflicted untold hardship to many) to discourage it from taking positive steps that would bring progress and development in the region.'The president maintained that though there was a strong evidence that the current elders of the North 'are as keen and as dedicated to maintaining the bonds of brotherhood and unity among each other in the same way as (the) founding fathers did in the past. He took a look at 'the huge number of men, women and the young who turned up for the conference, the multitudes that were outside the hall, including the millions watching the conference on television or listening through the radio,' and noted cryptically that that was ' a clear indication that the North is more than ever before determined to reverse the negative trends of the pervasive insecurity in the region.'Although at the end of the conference, a communiqu was issued which among other issues called on the National Assembly to remove the issue of citizenship from the exclusive to the concurrent list in the constitution, consider the creation of states and local governments, sources said the real issues were deliberately kept out of public view. 'The peace conference as it appeared was intended to bring all the stakeholders in the north to a round table conference with the sole aim of seeing the north producing the next president in 2015,' said a participant who added that 'the region is so desperate to capture power. We want to first of all heal the wounds that were inflicted on us as a result of so many ethno-religious crises bedeviling the region. The fact of the matter is, we are polarised along ethnic groups, along religious groups and along tribal groups. So if we must get the Presidency, we must be ready to come under one umbrella to talk because we used to be one north, one people.'Mark got it right when during his speech he queried 'can the north be quiet and pretend that all is well'' just as he asked participants to proffer answer to the question: where did the north derail' Indeed, from the feelings emanating from the conference, it was clear that the region knew it had not just lost control of the centre but it as well is buffeted by so many problems. 'The region has to start searching for its soul by identifying those areas that are militating against its progress and development,' said another participant.If anyone is in doubt about the seriousness of the meeting, the who is who there was enough proof. Check it out: Vice president, Namadi Sambo, Senate President, David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, former Head of state General Yakubu Gowon, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, all the governors in the region except the governors of Kogi, Kwara and Plateau states, Ibrahim Idris , Abdulfatah Ahmed, and Jonah Jang respectively. Others at the meeting include politicians like Alhaji Umaru Dikkoand Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as well as elder statesmen like Tanko Yakassai, Bamanga Tukur ,Umaru Shinkafi, Magaji Danbatta, Wakilin Adamawa , and Umaru Mutallab.Traditional rulers in the region from the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Muhammad Bashar, Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garbai El-Kanemi, Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris were also in attendance. The conference also attracted religious leaders like Bishop of Sokoto diocese, Father Hassan Matthew Kukah, Pastor Saidu Dogo, Sheikh Muhammad Ashafa and Sheikh Sambo Rigachiku among several others .Former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, first executive President , Alhaji Shehu Shagari,former Head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari as well as General Abdulsalami Abubakar.As the conference wound up, the statement of the ACF chairman ,Lieutenant General J.T. Useni continued to resonate across the hall. He had earlier informed participants that: ' During the tour of Northern states by the leadership of the ACF, many state governors, traditional rulers and eminent political leaders made passionate pleas on the forum to bring all northerners to a round table and discuss and come out with some solutions.' That solution might have been found in the renewed unity of the region. Indeed, the roll call of participants is enough strong message to other power blocs in the country that the old North is back. Whether this is true or not, events as from now on in the political space of Nigeria will show.
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