Speaking in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, Useni said the ACF had on several occasions, tried to provide a platform to foster northern unity and seek solutions to its problems, but with little cooperation from those with political authority.
The media aide to the vice president, Umar Sani, however, said that his principal was very capable and able to lead to the north politically or otherwise but every action of his must be seen to be patriotic and not regional in nature.
Sani said, “The vice president is not only a northern leader. His duties are guided by the constitution and the constitution gives powers to the president and it is what Mr President tells him to do that he will do. What clout is he talking about if he has no constitutional powers?”
He continued, “The vice president is guided by the overall national interest. He must subordinate himself to Mr President and deliver on their electoral promises.”
Useni also chided northern elder Mallam Adamu Ciroma for only having political interests while blaming former president Olusegun Obasanjo for using regional groups like the Middle Belt Forum to divide the north.
Speaking on the north’s unity, he said, “Take Sardauna for instance, he was a rallying point for both Muslims and Christians. He was a leader, but today so many leaders have emerged from the north. In fact, we have no leader, who can rally the north?
“We have senior officers from the north, the vice president is the most senior government official from the north today, but can he rally the whole north? That is why I said we have leaders but I don’t think we have a leader now who would make a clarion call and everybody would follow like during the Sardauna period.”
Speaking on the lack of development, poverty and insecurity in the north, he said, “These are things that unless we sit down and do something about, it will be too bad for us. We at the ACF are doing our best to ensure that things don’t get out of hand.
“We organised a conference in December last year and we invited all the governors. The vice president who represented the President came and most of the governors came but they left almost immediately without listening to the issues raised and possible solutions.”
Only the host governor, Useni said, stayed to the end. “So, are we at the ACF going to implement anything? We are not the executive body, not the judiciary and we don’t have the finance to tackle these problems. How do you think we can make a headway with this?”
On leaders who only speak for political interests, Useni said: “But some people, for reasons best known to them, maybe they have not been heard for a long time and they want to be heard now or they want you to know that they are doing something, will start segmenting the north, which is very unfortunate.
“There is the issue of Mallam Adamu Ciroma coming out to say that a particular candidate is the northern candidate for the recent presidential election. That is for a party. After that, did you hear anything from them again? The committee members are alive but did you hear anything from them about the north again?”
He said, “Look at the Middle Belt Forum, which I don’t belong to anyway, because Obasanjo was using them to kill the north. They say they are different from the ‘core north’. Which one is ‘core north’? Why am I chairman of ACF Board of Trustees? If they are ‘core north’, I am from Plateau State.
“So after Obasanjo left, did you hear anything? Even that time they had no office. I used to challenge them to show me their office. You can go to ACF and see the office. All these are for selfish interests.”
Leadership
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