2015:Power shift to North not negotiable—Northern leaders

Northern Elders are not prepared to back down
on the North’s demand for the presidency in
2015,spokesman for the group, Professor Ango
Abdullahi has said.
“There is no going back on the presidency
returning to the North in 2015, and that has
remained our position,” he told The Nation on
the outcome of the last weekend meeting of the
Northern Elders Forum.
Professor Abdullahi accused the President of
playing politics with the proposed national
conference.
“As far as we are concerned, all this talk about
national conference is political and geared
towards 2015. It is also becoming clear that
the only card on the table of Mr. President is
ethnicity or religion. We are waiting to see how
this will work in his favour,” he said.
But he explained that the North is not in any
way against the conference.
His words: “The Northern Elders’ Forum met
last weekend and we generally agreed with the
direction of the North on the National
Conference. And we said why not? The point we
tried to make is what kind of conference?
“This is because we have had all sorts of
conferences in the past from 1914 to date. All
the reports of these conferences are there in the
Government House. The Northern Elders’ Forum
wondered what kind of conversation, dialogue,
or conference that would be different from the
ones we have had before.
“We agreed that the only thing that will make
the proposed conference significantly different
is when it is sovereign. What needs to be done
is to suspend the current 1999 Constitution by
the National Assembly to pave the way for a
peoples’ conference. The National Assembly
should vacate itself to enable the sovereign
conference to take place.
“I am particularly surprised that those who
have always wanted a sovereign conference
are now backing out and for whatever reason, I
cannot say. While the Northern Elders’ Forum
may be at home with the proposed conference,
as we have always maintained that we are
ready for any kind of conference, I still maintain
that we either have a sovereign conference or
nothing else. Without that, we had better
manage the system as it is. Otherwise, the
proposed conference will be a mere talk shop
and a jamboree.”