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A Northern youth group under the aegies of the Arewa Youths Progressive Alliance (AYPA), has lampooned former Kano State Governor and presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, over his recent comments that Northerners would not vote for the presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi, in the 2023 election.

Kwankwaso had, in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, said voters from the North would not vote for the former Anambra State Governor or any candidate from the South-East but rather settle for presidential candidates from the Northern region.

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However, while reacting to the comments credited to Kwankwaso, the youth group’s spokesman, Alhaji Sambo Galadima, in a statement issued in Kaduna on Friday, distanced itself from the former Minister of Defence, saying it condemned the comments in very strong terms as the the North was neither anti-progress nor xenophobic against other Nigerians.

In the statement made available to Ripples Nigeria, Galadima said Kwankwaso who was a former Governor of a cosmopolitan state like Kano not only showed disrespect to the Northern region but also misrepresented the true characters of an average northern voter while portraying the North as retrogressive.

“Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s utterances portray the North as retrogressive and the average Northern voter as insensitive and unconcerned about the sufferings of Nigerians and the high rate of insecurity and economic woes bedevilling Nigeria, and rather concerned about having ‘fellow northerner and fellow Muslim’ perpetuate themselves in power,” the statement said.

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“Nothing can be farther from the truth. The northerner experiences the same level of frustration with the state of governance in the country that the average Nigerian from any part of Nigeria experiences and wishes like every Nigerian that things improve for the better and that the most capable and most prepared individuals take charge of governance at different levels, including the presidency of the country, for the betterment of Nigeria.

“The North has not fared any better in infrastructure or living standards merely because a Northerner or a Muslim is the President of the country.

“The former governor of Kano State insults the North by portraying us as some insensitive group of people without the capacity to think for ourselves.

“This is not true. He sends the impression out there that our votes are owned by some elites and that these elites will decide how we will vote in every election.

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“If that was true in the past, that is set to change, because we are not slaves. We are capable of dreaming and holding strongly to our dreams.

“We are capable of working for and participating actively in political activities, independently and with the aim of bringing about the kind of government that shall serve the best interest of the average Nigerian.

“In the last seven years, more than 100,000 Northerners have been killed by bandits and terrorists, and thousands of our daughters, wives, mothers and sisters have either been raped, abducted or forcefully married out.

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“Our farms are lying fallow and our harvests haven’t been poorer. Yet, a Northerner is the President. We voted for this Northerner, not because he is a Northerner, but because we believed he had the best of intentions and had the capacity to turn things around for good, for the benefit of all Nigerians. But we are disappointed.

“We want to assure fellow Nigerians that Northern Nigeria is not some kind of slave colony where some elites drag us by the neck to vote on the basis of sectionalism or religion.

“We shall vote for the best candidates who hold the best promise to recharge Nigeria and get her working again, because, like every responsible citizen, we want the best interest of our country and we want a brighter future for our children,” the group added.

(Ripples)