Youths Fault Northern Elders For Appeal To Cancel Emergency Rule

A Niger Delta youth group, Volunteer for Good Governance (VGG), faulted the call by Northern elders, led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, against alleged attempt by the Federal Government to extend emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

VGG revealed its position in a statement signed on April 2, 2014, Wednesday, by its National Coordinator, Chief Denis Otuaro.

The group argued that both Boko Haram sect members and the majority of the people being killed in the North are youths, and, therefore, urged the Federal Government to ignore the position of the elders and extend the emergency rule.

"These elders cannot speak for Nigerian youths anymore...

"These elders that are speaking today were at the helm of affairs in the last 50 years and they refused to give us development, education rather they gave us religious politics, ethnic politics and poverty, which is tearing the country apart today.

"That is what they gave us all these years," VGG stated.

The group suggested that the Federal Government should re-strategise and extend the state of emergency in these states.

"With this, we are even suspicious about the role of the elders in the carnage in the North. We cannot abandon a part of this country and turn it to Afghanistan, no section of this country will be turned to Pakistan.

"The Nigerian military, the National Assembly and the Presidency must make sure that they put in place better strategies that will end this war," it concluded.

It would be recalled that the current term of emergency rule in the three troubled north-eastern states expires on April 19, 2014. The Federal Government is yet to make up its mind on this issue.

Via: Vanguard / Naij