President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima, recently took a swipe on all former heads of state from the North when he accused them of contributing to the backwardness of the region.
The youth leader also blamed some delegates at the ongoing national conference who kicked against establishing a special fund to rehabilitate the North-East.
Shettima told newsmen that all northern leaders who had ruled the country as well as other northern elites failed to lift the region when they had the opportunity to do so.
According to him, they have plunged northerners into poverty.
The AYC leader said, “What they have been able to bequeath to the region is backwardness, illiteracy, poverty and lack of employment. There’s poverty all over the northern region as a result of their bad stewardship; lack of accountability and transparency.
“For more than two decades of their being in power in Nigeria since independence and having the opportunities to transform the North, they failed to lift up the region. That’s why today the northerners receive all types of insults from their southern counterparts.
“None of the leaders -name any of them -has been exceptional. They have not done anything.
But on the contrary, the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Alhaji Mohammed flayed Shettima for apportioning blame on Northern leaders.
According to him, many of the northern former heads of state are men who want the best not only for northerners but for the whole nation.
The ACF chieftain said, “We are worried about Nigeria. It’s not really time to apportion blame. It’s true northerners had ruled the country more than any other regions. Nonetheless, I will tell you these leaders are good men. They are not the cause of the North’s problems.
“I won’t say they’re the cause of our woes. What he (Shettima) said is grandstanding; he’s only doing political grandstanding. Young people like him like to make all the noise. They’re not aware of the tricks and intrigues of politics,” he added.