Arewa coalition group, under the aegis of the Arewa Forum of Conscience, has distanced itself from plans for northern endorsement of a single presidential candidate ahead of the February 2023 presidential election.

According to a signed by the Chairman, Coordinating Committee of the group, Musa Salihu Getso, the hatchet job was meant to produce a predetermined presidential candidate.

The statement reads:

We have watched keenly and with concern, the discreet moves by a particular presidential candidate to sponsor a contrapted northern endorsement for him.

We are aware that the move has led to a meeting called by the Arewa Consultative Forum, a section of the Northern Elders Forum and other peripheral associations in Kaduna on Saturday, October 15, 2022.

We are also aware that the invitation extended to other political parties candidates was a mere smokescreen as all clandestine arrangements have been concluded for the groups to announce the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar as sole northern consensus candidate.

We feel obligated to respond to this unwholesome, destabilizing move by a people who are so desperate as not to mind the consequences of further causing general disaffection by exploiting the nation’s regional, religious and tribal diversity.

Let it be known from the outset that it is not in the character of the North to engage in counterproductive sectional politics as contemplated by Atiku and his payed groups of people who call themselves elders and leaders of Northern Nigeria.

We hereby on behalf of the larger majority of northern population call on the Nigerian public to disregard any pronouncement suggesting that any candidate, not the least Atiku Abubakar has been endorsed as sole northern candidate.

We tell the world that any such pronouncement from anybody or group is not made on behalf of the people of northern Nigeria who have been known for playing cosmopolitan and pan-Nigerian politics.

We warn the North to be vigilant against the machinations of paid groups presenting self-serving positions as the position of the people of the North.

We recall that most of the people behind the groups are people who have held influential positions in Nigeria and faile to record any meaningful progress for the North beyond causing dangerous divisions among the people.

We categorically state that any pronouncement by the frustrated and discredited individuals in the ACF and NEF or other group drafted and paid to deceive the North and further a dubious political agenda should not be seen as representing the interest of the North.

We warn that by announcing a sole candidate for the North, the region would only be isolating itself and would seal its political relevance pamernently.