*Says North will not fail in keeping their promise by voting APC massively
By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
A convener and a leader of a pro All Progressives Congress (APC) group known as Arewa New Agenda (ANA) Senator Ahmad Abubakar MoAllahyidi has said that Northerners are covenant keepers.
ANA in an effort to reply Chief Ayo Adebanjo (aka Pa Ayo) a factional leader of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group who in Abeokuta said that the Northern extraction will not vote for the Presidential candidate of the APC, Chief Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the forthcoming 2023 Presidential election, expressed this at a pres briefing.
ANA maintained that Pa Adebanjo does not speak for the North, dispelled his position by saying that North will massively vote for Tinubu.
“We wish to state that our organization respects elderly persons but, in this case, we disagree with the position taken by Pa Ayo more so as he does not speak for the North and has no such mandate. For his information, the North has never failed to keep to its promise; when the North makes a covenant, the North keeps to it.
“The North is the strongest ally of APC in the contest for the 2023 primaries in the same manner that the South West was ally for the victory of the APC in the last two election cycles.
“Northern governors of APC extraction led the charge for power shift from the North to the South; something the likes of Pa Adebanjo were unable to do simply because to make a covenant, he is not a Northerner, and we cannot remember when we Northerners appointed him to convey a message to any one. Therefore, his assertion as widely reported is not only false, but unfounded and can be better seen as the action of a meddlesome interloper or on a lighter scale, the antics of a busy body,” Ahmad said.
MoAllahyidi while reading the text of the briefing to journalists in Abuja, said ANA is a forum of concerned Northerners, comprising of academics, serving and former legislators, diplomats, technocrats, development practitioners, women, youth leaders, politicians, artisans, traders and farmers, is positioned to set an agenda for protection of the interest of the North.
By this, MoAllahyidi told Adebanjo that Northern leaders of thought yes is yes, and the integrity of ANA as respected individuals cannot be bought over.
He went down memory lane and reminded Ayo and Nigerians that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo became the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and won the 1999 and 2003 presidential elections, mainly because of the backing he received from the North.
“In the APC Presidential primaries of 2022, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu scored 1,271votes more than half of the total votes cast in the convention to win the primaries, majority of these votes come from the North, the same North that Pa Adebanjo said will not support Tinubu.
“Given what is unfolding in the South West today, Pa Adebanjo’s attempt to justify his position by saying that his submission is based on fairness, justice and equity is indeed laughable, because it was said that whoever is coming to equity, must come with clean hands. Records have shown that every presidential candidate that Pa Adebanjo opposes, ended up winning the election. Asiwajus’s case will not be different.
Just because Pa Adebanjo has some differences with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, does not in any way mean that the Yoruba race think the same, as we have our doubts that he has the mandate to speak for the Yorubas.
“We warn that this is the time for high wired political activities that usually culminate into tension and suspicion. We call for restraint in all utterances. From our research, Pa Adebanjo’s statement was not driven by any nationalist instinct or principle; it is just a personal vendetta against the personality of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We advise Pa Adebanjo to stop taking advantage of African culture of respect for the old, to pursue a very myopic, narrow minded and selfish political vendetta, this is a pure act of mischief and malice.
“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has visited many states in the North, made policy statements and made a committal promises to us. If God Almighty gives him the opportunity to serve as our next
president, we the Northerners, will hold him accountable to that.
“Based on the past excellent record of performance and antecedents of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his various callings, the North is comfortable with him. He supported Northern presidential candidates in the past; the North has reciprocated this gesture on every occasion; the present situation is no different, as the North will repeat the performance by overwhelmingly supporting Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.”
