Chairman of Northern Elders Council (NEC) and veteran politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, yesterday in Kaduna said northerners irrespective of their religions and ethnicities were one.
Yakasai also said that his council would oppose any move to use religion and ethnicity to brew sentiment of all kinds in the North and the country at large.
Speaking at the inauguration of the council’s Board of Trustees (BoT) which took place at Arewa House Kaduna, Yakasai who was optimistic of achieving maximum unity said: “The people of what is now known as Northern Nigeria, from Otukpo to Maiduguri, from Sokoto to Ilorin have for centuries co-existed in harmony with each other irrespective of ethnic or religious background.
“They are a people who are endowed with abundant natural resources who all along engaged in trade and commerce with people from other parts of Nigeria to forge a common destiny since time immemorial. But today, these communities are facing multiple challenges whose scope and magnitude threaten their peaceful coexistence.”
He vowed that the council would resist all forms of disunity, saying: “The council is totally opposed to the use of reckless and inflammatory statements and utterances which may tend to overheat the polity and undermine the efforts of patriotic Nigerians who are focused on building a virile and prosperous nation.”
In his acceptance speech, the chairman of the BoT and former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo Jimeta, said the country was facing enormous challenges that could be contained.
He said: “We are aware of the many challenges facing the nation including the problems of poverty, ethnicity, poor infrastructure, alienation and other social malaise. We cannot pretend that things are all rosy in our country today but we also know that the situation is by no means insurmountable.”
Some members of the trustee included former governors of Sokoto, Nasarawa and Kogi states, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma and Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, respectively, Professors Jerry Gana and Monday Mangvwat as well as General Zamani Lekwot (rtd).
