Buhari made us withdraw quit notice – Arewa youths

While explaining why Arewa youths withdrew their quit notice to Igbo resident in the North, yesterday, a top member of the coalition that issued the notice, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said it was in deference to President Buhari.  

Yerima, who is also the National President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), however, said the goal of the quit notice was largely achieved as Igbo leaders distanced themselves from the pro-Biafra agitation led by Kanu and his group, IPoB.

Asked what informed the decision by the northern youths to withdraw the quit notice to Igbo, Shettima told  Sunday  Vanguard in an interview: “In the first place, we considered the fact that we are not agents of destruction. We are agents of building a progressive Nigeria.   You will also recall that the reason we went to the extreme of doing what we did was as a result of the  mad  agitation coming from the South East.

No tribe or people will allow anyone to abuse the sensibility of their leaders and get away with it without any caution. So, we felt that the silence of the leaders and traditional rulers of the South East is a conspiracy of silence to allow Nnamdi Kanu to continue with his quest, we felt there was need at that time to do what we did. “Unfortunately, time has over taken a lot of things but we have seen that political leaders and leaders from the South East have come out to condemn the activities of the young man. The leaders are also coming out to say that they don’t believe in Biafra but in one Nigeria, it is commendable.  

There was also pressure and intervention from our leaders, they spoke to us to withdraw the notice and we listened to their counsel. You will also recall that the Sultan of Sokoto called us to intervene, the northern leaders also spoke to us followed by other prominent northern leaders as well as other stakeholders”. Even before the president’s return, we had written to the Acting President of our plans to withdraw the quit notice on a particular date.

We are not ready to join issues. Anyway, there is nothing bad if we honor our president, Mohammadu Buhari.   He says he does not want anything that will divide the country. We have obeyed him.   If we do that, there is nothing wrong in that . We are proudly Nigerians and he is the President of Nigeria we are looking for ways to build the nation and not destroy the nation”.