Aliyu urges North to navigate back to mainstream politics

BY TAYE OBATERU
Jos— Apparently unhappy over the way the north lost the presidency, Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Niger State, Dr Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu has urged the people of the area to find a way of negotiating themselves back into political reckoning in the years ahead.

Speaking yesterday at the close of a retreat for members-elect into state Houses of Assembly from states in the North-Central zone, he said the North must learn appropriate lessons from the last election and work itself back into the mainstream.

“As Northern states, we have to negotiate ourselves back to the mainstream. That is what we have to do. We must reclaim our position in this nation. We must ensure that anybody who wants to discriminate on religion or sow the seed of discord fails,” he said.

Governor Aliyu also expressed delight that former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the last election did not win the presidential election as the bandwagon effect would have seen many of them out of office.

He said Nigerians and especially the people of Niger State should thank God for this as the control of PDP in many states including Niger would have been history.

According to him,  “the hurricane of CPC was feasible in Niger state. In the presidential election, the party won 20 of the 25 local governments in the state. People came to me saying PDP will not have problem in the gubernatorial election, but I told them they don’t know politics.”
“We thank God that Buhari did not win the presidential election in the country. We would have been goners by now.”
Also speaking, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State stressed the need for cooperation among the three arms of government for good governance and service delivery to the people irrespective of party affiliations.

He such tendencies were responsible to executive-legislative rift in some state which is always works against delivering democratic dividends to the people.