By Emeka Mamah

KADUNA — The raging controversy over the 2011 presidential election continued yesterday with the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, insisting that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has a moral obligation to respect its zoning policy, describing it as a gentleman’s agreement.

However, the group said it would soon take a final position on the issue of whether the President should contest the 2011 presidential election after its on-going consultations across the north.

The ACF spoke through its National Publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, at a press conference.
 His words: “There is a gentleman agreement existing in that party (PDP) and people are supposed to respect agreement because trust and confidence are all the ingredients of communal living.

“An agreement is a matter of trust and confidence and it governs our ways of life. In fact, you find that those countries with high moral values do not even have a constitution.

“They go by their own moral value like the British people who operate an unwritten constitution. The constitution of America is only two pages.

“So, because the level of love is high, so is the level of understanding. For those of us who come from the village, there is the contribution that is done and given to one person. After collecting, will you say that the next person should not collect his own when it gets to his turn? That is not fair. Morally, it is not fair.

“You remember the problem during the June 12; people were talking that the country will collapse, but we ended up agreeing, that is why PDP fielded Obasanjo. For PDP, that was a way of solving the crisis.
“The ACF does not want to preside over a divided north and that is why we have to collate different views and agree on a common position.

“That is why we set up a committee to study the situation. Definitely, we will call everybody that matters politically, and then we will sit and take a position. What is engaging the attention of the country now is the politics of power shift and rotation. When it comes to candidates, ACF has its own criteria for good leadership.”