One North: Arewa Finally Reacts To North-Central Leaving Group

The pan-northern socio-political organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum, on Thursday said its membership was not by force.

The ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, said this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja, while reacting to the emergence of a breakaway group in the pan-northern organisation.

Yawe said the ACF said was not worried about the emergence of the North-Central Peoples Forum.

News Flash: North-Central Breaks Away From ACF

On Wednesday, prominent leaders from the North-Central announced their exit from the ACF, citing the worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria.

The NCPF, which has as its interim Chairman, a former Minister of Health, Gabriel Aduku, said it would fight insecurity in the North-Central.

Commenting on the emergence of the new group, Yawe said the ACF was a big family that accommodated diverse interests in the region.

Yawe added that the ACF would not expel the NCPF member, neither was the northern body angry over the development.

Nigeria Facing Serious Hardship, Insecurity – ACF Admits

The forum’s spokesman said, “We are not worried at the ACF at all. The north is a very big region of this country. Niger State alone is three times bigger than the entire South-East geopolitical zone. So, we are not worried when such a thing happens because when you are so big and you accommodate people of such diverse backgrounds, a lot of things are bound to develop.

‘We cannot force everybody to belong to the ACF, but we accept every northerner as member of ACF.

“We have a vision of what we want the North to be. We want the North to catch up and maybe overtake the South in terms of development in education, industry, agriculture and everything. So, any group that says it has broken away from the ACF, if really they have broken away, if they have the same vision with us, they are welcome.”