A second Republic politician and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Dakum Shown has taken a swipe at the Northern Governors Forum for its failure to keep the northern region together adding that the forum was full of religious bigots that have no positive impact on the north.
He stated this in an interview with SUN.
Excerpt:
Don’t you think the north will suffer if the country breaks up?
What is north? Where is the geographical location of the north, it lost it values long time ago when states were created. The north is just an imagination of your brain, there are so many things that the North East and the North West don’t agree on, and the North Central too disagree with the North East on so many things, so what is this idea of the North? For example, a Plateau person will trust an Igbo more than a Hausa man, so where is the North? I laugh when I hear people talk about the North.
Are you saying that there is nothing that binds the entire north together?
There is nothing that binds the north together or do you know of any?
We have the Northern Governors’ Forum, the Arewa Consultative Forum; don’t you think those organisations are working towards one north?
What is the interest of that North that they are protecting? We used to have northern banks, are they functioning now? What is the link between Katsina and Plateau State? Some years ago, there was a link between Benue/Plateau and South-South, students were exchanged among the states, there was peace but there has never been any history of Benue/Plateau exchanging students with North West, or North East.
Should there be forceful restructuring; will the North Central prefer to go with the South-South?
No, the North Central can be a country on its own, we have everything to exist as a country, but no country exists in isolation.
Are you saying that the Northern Governors Forum has not done well in keeping the entire north together?
They have done nothing, it is just a tea taking forum, tell me one thing that they have done in the interest of the north. If I am a Governor of Plateau state, I will never attend Northern Governors’ Forum, what will I do there? They had Unity Bank which has been taken over, how many people from the North Central got loan? What is the essence of saying you are going to Northern Governors Forum and you have nothing to bring home for your people.
Are you saying the Forum has failed?
It has failed completely, it failed long time ago. There was too much sentiment in the Northern Governors’ Forum and I don’t think it has achieved anything, it was nepotism that killed it and we must avoid nepotism in the north.
