By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A member of the House of Representatives, Garba Datti, has been identified as one of the northern leaders clogging the progress of the region.
The verdict was passed by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum(AYCF) in a statement signed by its president, Yerima Shettima, and made available to the TheNiche on December 12.
The group said the charge against Datti included downplaying the problem of the north, sycophancy and disparaging honest leaders who say the truth.
AYCF said the recent disparaging comments against the Northern Elders Forum(NEF) and its leader, Professor Ango Abdullahi, by Datti, shows the level the man was willing to go to please Aso Villa at the expense of the north.
The Arewa Youths say they are seriously upset because of the disrespectful manner iDatti attacked the personality of Professor Ango and NEF, whom they say is the most respected group of prominent Northerners telling truth to power.
They wondered how Datti would accuse Professor Ango Abdullah of seeking relevance in the government of Buhari, a man they said had his vehicle once decorated with bullets for standing with and struggling to have Buhari at the top, escaping death by the whiskers.
The statement reads in part.: “Hon Datti was reported to have said that Professor Ango and other eminent Northerners inside NEF were in disagreement with President Buhari because he (Buhari) didn’t give them job, a statement that infuriated prominent Northerners, including the executives of the AYCF.
“it was infantile of Hon Datti, as a Northerner and lawmaker of the Federal Republic to stoop so low by indulging in cheap campaign of calumny against both the NEF and Professor Ango Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of ABU, a Democrat and close associate of late MKO Abiola”.
“The likes of Hon Datti are the ones responsible for the current backwardness of the North by deliberately hiding the truth about our troubles, in the desperation to get into the good books of the executive arm of government.
“By the way, how many motions has he ever raised since his inauguration as Rep member? How many Bills has he ever initiated as a lawmaker?
“Given the way and manner that Hon Datti is overlooking the dire situation that the North is currently facing, he may not even be a Nigerian in reality, but we are doing our checks and soon we will intimate Nigerians on who he is in actual fact.
” By the way when has Hon Datti become the spokesman of the Buhari Presidency? Why is he even trying to veer into an area he has no business with?
“We have not seen such a sychopant and reactionary posturing against those telling truth to power and wonder what has come over this lawmaker.
“Most importantly, how many times has Hon Datti rose on the floor of the lower chamber to make a case for the North? Is his selfish attack on Professor Ango and NEF not an indication that he has no idea what contribution to make in the media for getting the North out of the woods? What was the harm in NEF and Professor Ango openly drawing the attention of those responsible for the North’s safety to the region’s daily bleeding, kidnapping and killings that have become the order of the day?
“He would stop such unguarded statement against leaders of the region and stop bringing the image of the House of Reps to ridicule by being openly and unjustifiably sycophantic. This is the of kind of bringandage you get from a lawmaker, who is constitutionally empowered to check the excesses of the executive arm but is now turning against the interest of his constituents, by making pretenses that all is well with the North and that the call for action by NEF was unnecessary.”
