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By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA—The Coalition of Northern Groups CNG weekend accused southerners of taking over jobs traditionally meant for northerners, saying it was the reason why scores of young men from Jigawa had moved to Lagos last week in search of greener pastures, only to be arrested by law enforcement agents.

While the coalition vowed to ensure that all northern states and local governments as well as companies operating in the region comply with the provisions of local content regulations, CNG accused northern leaders of sacrificing the interest of the region on the altar of selfish political aspirations.

The CNG in a statement by its spokesman, Abdul-azeez Sulaiman said it took its time to review the state of the nation before arriving at its decisions.

Part of the statement reads; “We observe that northerners face all sorts of humiliation and rejection like the latest incident in Lagos, because they are forced to seek alternative opportunities by the following realities: The bulk of opportunities meant for northerners in the North has been inadvertently taken up by people from the South.

“While northerners are denied the opportunity of employment to even the most menial of jobs in the South, all vacant positions available in the North as guaranteed by the local content clause of the federal character provision have been surrendered to southerners.

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“Whereas the local content clause stipulates that all levels 01 to 06 positions in every private establishments must go to indigenes of the host communities, in the North the reverse is the case. Thus almost every position in almost all the various banking and financial institutions, insurance houses, telecom agencies, educational institutions and other private concerns spread all over the North are taken over by southerners at the expense of indigenous communities.”

“Sadly, even vacancies in public institutions and all government agencies and parastatals including several state and local government establishments in the North are occupied mainly by people of other regions. We observe that except for a few northern political leaders like Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, all federal and state authorities, the entire political, religious and cultural establishments in the North were silent on the Rivers and Lagos affairs.

Vanguard