By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, has accused the Lagos State government of excluding northerners from the distribution of its COVID-19 palliatives.
In a statement sent to our correspondent electronically, Shettima said the palliative was not a gift but a right for all the people living in the state regardless of which part of Nigeria they come from.
“The Covid-19 is a global problem and anywhere there is lockdown the authorities come forward with food and other essentials for the people of the communities where pandemic is infecting and killing people.
“We are appalled that the Lagos State Government has neither offered the palliative to the Arewa community nor make any official announcement about its plans for the Arewa community.
“We wish to remind the Lagos State Government that it would be doing no special favour to the Arewa community by giving them what rightly belongs to them. All relevant laws are here to confirm the difference between pandemic palliatives and favours by a government.
“It is uncivilised, unthinkable and unacceptable for the Lagos State Government to abandon the Arewa community in this crucial hour of need. There is now a pandemic and there’s the attendant lockdown for which no reasonable government will fold its arms and watch citizens go through avoidable suffering.
“We, at the AYCF say no to this open selective patronage in One Nigeria. A skewed process that takes the suffering of a section of its citizens as less important than that of other citizens stands condemnable by all Nigerian men and women of conscience.
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed, ” Shettima said.
