The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), has denied having plans to endorse one of the presidential candidates in the country ahead of the 2023 general election.
President of the group, Yerima Shettima made the denial during an interview with Television Continental (TVC), monitored by TNC.
Shettima was reacting to an allegation that the forum was biased and has concluded plans to endorse one of the presidential candidates, with its recently hosted Arewa Joint Committee’s interactive sessions for the candidates.
While also debunking the allegation that one of the presidential candidates was behind funding the programme, he said the whole idea of hosting the public forum was to bring presidential candidates to an interface, listen to them and what exactly their plans for the country are.
According to him, after the interface, the forum will then go on wide consultation with the public to get the public opinion of what they think about each of the presidential candidates.
“Well, not to my knowledge, because I was part and parcel of all arrangement, I do not also remember there was any attempt by anybody to think otherwise, that certain candidates funded the whole processes and believing that after all said and done, is likely to be endorsed by the group,” Shettima said.
“Certainly I do not think it is part of that, it’s not part of the whole thing. The whole idea was to listen to every candidate and at the end of the day, go on wide consultations, maybe they’re likely going to come up again to sit down with some of these candidates later, and maybe in the future, we are likely to have a collective position on the northern part of this country. That’s exactly the whole thing, but this particular programme has nothing to do with endorsing anybody and in all fairness, nobody funded it, not to my knowledge, honestly.”
He continued, “The whole idea has to do with paving way for the candidates, to come to the fore to highlight some of those issues as regards what they think, what they feel about the interest, and what exactly they intend to bring to the fore.
“What do they exactly want to bring to the table so that at the end of the day, every one of them can come up with his programme, so that we can listen attentively and at the same time, most likely, we ask some questions, and also the audience as well will have opportunity to interface with the candidates so that we can discuss and discuss.
“At the end of the day, we intend to also consult widely beyond the interface, to seek the public opinions and what our people think about every one of the candidates. And that’s the essence of the whole gathering for us to interface, to hear what they have for the country and also specifically to the north so that we also can come up with what we think this is exactly what we felt anybody who emerges among them will know what exactly we need, what we want and what we expect of him.”
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum president also dismissed the notion that ethnicity would play out, particularly for northern voters in next year’s poll.
“Well, to the best of my knowledge and to some of us, who strongly believe in the country, I do not think such a thing can come to the fore for us to even be part of that process.
“There’s nothing like that and I do not also think that ethnicity or religion issue will be a yardstick to the sympathy anybody can get from the North. Certainly, it has nothing to do with religion or tribal issues. Certainly not. We are looking forward to seeing a more prepared candidate, not only more prepared, we’re looking forward to seeing somebody who we can judge from his antecedents, somebody who has the experience, somebody who also can carry the country along because don’t forget that the country is in dire need of somebody who will unite us at the moment and certainly this is our position.
“It has something to do with whether you come from the northern or southern part of the country. We will go on wide consultation across the board in other parts of the country. Then also, in the future, probably we might have to extend a hand of friendship to our counterparts in southern parts so that collectively, we can come up with a particular thing in our mind so that we can all go for it.”
