By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

The Coalition of Nigeria Youth Organisation for Peace and Stability has endorsed the former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa as the leader of Arewa, insisting that he has the wisdom and knowledge on how peace would be restored in the troubled North.

Speaking in an interview after their conference in Kaduna weekend ,Dr. Suleiman Shuaibu Shinkafi, Executive Secretary General of  the Coalition, said

the people coming out to clamour for a new leadership for the North were from their organisation which is a coalition of youths organisations with representatives across board.

“There was the last Arewa Consultative Forum’s meeting which we are not satisfied with what they said so far.If you listened to the former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa on RFI Radio, he said a lot , that Arewa lacks leadership but we have leader,” he said.

According to Shinkafi , “Our nomination ,our respect and loyalty, the whole youths in Nigeria, not even in Arewa,our loyalty goes direct to Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa .We had a meeting in Arewa House, we did not only called Northerners, we had representatives from orher states mostly the 19 Northern states,our loyalty and respect go to Bafarawa because we believe he is a leader, a respectable elder statesman who can be relied upon with confidence. We know he has Arewa and Nigeria in his heart, he is not happy about what is happening to the North and we have to back him.”

“We nominated him as the respectable leader who we would follow and listen to, in the North.What ever we are doing, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa should feel free to come out and ask us to stop, we would stop. Apart from him, nobody will come and raise any finger on us because they are not with us.They only know their children,their families.What ever happens to the youth in the North; they don’t care. If they see North catching fire they would run to other countries to hide.”

“But Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa is the only person that bluntly cane out to protect the integrity of Arewa, the Northern states and the people of Arewa. He has them at heart .If you look at their tenure, Bafarawa of Sokoto, Adamu Mu’azu of Bauchi, Donald Duke of Cross Rivers,Danjuma Goje of Gombe,Makarfi of Kaduna, name them.They worked very tirelessly and  elevated their states.This pedigree is still following them.”

“But now the Bafarawa pedigree is to the extent we can no longer close our eyes and say their is no elder statesman in the North capable of providing the needed leadership. Bafarawa is there, we nominated him, endorsed him  to be the most important, diligent and respectable elder statesman.”

“About 22 years ago, Bafarawa wrote a book on the way forward. That  things happening then,people should come and join hands to stop it otherwise we would reach a time criminals would visit all of us in our houses.A criminal would knock your door and kill you, and it is happening now. They didn’t do anything about it.”

“When he was in ACF, there was a conference in Kaduna where he mentioned it and wrote this book which he published. He documented it and I have the book.Till now, whatever Bafarawa mentioned 22 years ago,it’s happening now.It’s very sad because they did not care to take the measures to stop it and it’s happening now.He foresaw it right from that time.”

“Bafarawa is a man that will use his resources to accommodate. I was DG of the Attahiru Bafarawa Foundation, I know what he has spent on refugees, IDPs.He was always spending a lot of money, he built schools , there were so many things he did which people may not know. But I knew .That’s why in this conference I told people  Bafarawa is our nominee and they all accepted it. Can you imagine even Igbo people that were with us accepted Bafarawa. The Ijaw and Yoruba accepted him.”

‘He is not vying for anything, Governor, Minister, President or anything. Even if President Tinubu we call him for ministerial appointment, I believe Bafarawa will not take it because he is not for that. His own is to see how are they going to stop these killings, how Arewa is going to be settled. How peace would be restored in the North, that’s his problem.”

“So we’ve today, unanimously endorsed Bafarawa to be an elder statesman as he is and a leader who we in the North and in Nigeria respect and someone that even if we do something,he is the only person that can tell us No, don’t do it.We would listen to him. That’s why we had this conference today,” he said