The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum has berated President Buhari’s Media Adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina on what it terms his “unguarded utterances” against the Northern Elders Forum (NEF)and its Chairman, Professor Ango Abdullahi. This was the crux of a Press Statement released yesterday and signed on behalf of AYCF by its National President, Alhaji Ahmed Yerima.
The Forum specifically mentioned Adesina’s reaction in behalf of the Presidency to a recent statement by NEF on the state of insecurity in the country, especially in the northern part.
The youth body contends that the Presidential spokesman’s reaction was an “insult” to the north. Below is the entire text of the AYCF Press Release obtained by The Lagosian.
“MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE AREWA YOUTH CONSULTATIVE FORUM (AYCF) ON THE UNGUARDED UTTERANCE OF PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN, FEMI ADESINA AGAINST PROFESSOR ANGO ABDULLAHI AND THE NORTHERN ELDERS FORUM*
Our attention has been drawn to the use of highly-disrespectful words by President Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina against our respected elder – Professor Ango Abdullahi for conveying the true feelings of millions of Northerners.
For the widely-publicised unguarded outbursts of Femi Adesina, we as youth from the North would like to declare as follows:
- That Femi Adesina has insulted the North and we take exception to his choice of words, which we believe he would never use against elders from Yoruba land for whatever reason. We demand the withdrawal of the abusive language he deployed against Professor Ango Abdullahi and other respected elders in NEF.
- We cannot fathom why telling truth to power over the increasing killings in the North by Prof Ango warrants the use of derogatory language against our elders by Femi Adeshina
- We find it even scandalous that a Presidential Spokesman lacks the right choice of words to use in dodging the reality of today’s Nigeria, in which the North is worse off.
- We would like to make it abundantly clear that we not condone the deployment of foul language against our elders any more. This is not the first time Mr. Adesina would be spewing foul language against elders of our region but we hope it will be the last.
- We would like to let Adesina know that no one has the monopoly of derogatory words and the insults against the North must be stopped at once.
Conclusion
While we stress that we would not take this kind of infantile attack on our elders, we wish to call in all Northerners of good conscience to ignore Adesina’s unguarded outburst against Prof Ango and NEF. Enough of this nonsense please.
Signed
Alhaji Yerima Shettima
National President
On behalf of the AYCF.”
