The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said the development of the country would remain dismal until the local governments are made functional.
The ACF said the only way democracy can be sustained is to ensure the proper working of the local government administrations.
The Forum said this in a communique issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting in Kaduna on Wednesday.
“The ACF observed that except the Local Governments are made to be functional our development outcome will remain dismal. Youth and able-bodied men and women migrate from Local Government Areas to the cities due to lack of functional local government administrations escalating insecurity such as kidnapping, armed robbery, and the like.
“ACF calls on the political leadership of the country to ensure that the LGA administrations work. This is the only way democracy can be sustained,” it stated.
Speaking on the 2023 general election, the ACF urged candidates vying for various elective positions to engage in issue-based campaigns while selling their candidacy to the electorate.
The Forum further enjoined politicians to guard their utterances during campaigns, adding that divisive issues must be avoided to discourage rational voters from exercising their civic rights.
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It said: “ACF advises politicians to play politics by the rule. They must guard their utterances and everything possible to avoid heating up the polity. Campaigns should be issue-based. It has been observed that there is already voter apathy.
“Sectarian and divisive issues must be avoided at all cost in order to further discourage rational voters from exercising their civic rights. Nigeria must be safe and stable for any meaningful progress to be achieved and for the winner, whoever he may be to give leadership.
“It is in this regard that the ACF together with other Northern groups arrange to meet with various presidential candidates to know their policies towards uniting and developing the entire country.”
The ACF, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct “proper and transparent elections by maintaining and even surpassing their current records”, noting that the government alongside other development partners must provide adequate and timely resources to conduct credible elections in 2023.
On insecurity, the Forum, while commending the federal and states governments and the security agencies for scaling down the level of insecurity in most parts of the country, especially in the North where insecurity was alarming, said attacks on villages and highways and kidnappings in North-West, North-East, and parts of North-Central are still happening, describing the incidents as worrisome.
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“We call on the security agencies to revisit their strategy to root out these insurgents and terrorists to ensure and restore permanent peace to the land. The appeal also goes to the members of the media to be mindful of the information they dish out to the public,” it added.
Speaking on flooding which has affected parts of the North and the country at large, the Forum described the situation as disturbing, calling on governments at all levels to come to the aid of those affected “immediately and substantially”.
“Global warming, which is the major course of the unprecedented flooding has caused devastating effects to our food security as a nation. Federal and states government should put in place the mechanism and appropriate infrastructure to control further damages and destruction of property and provide adequate relief to the victims,” the ACF noted.
The ACF further expressed displeasure over the protracted dispute between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government.
The Forum said to resolve the dispute, the parties (Federal Government and ASUU) must have “the interest of education and the future of our children and the nation at heart”.
“ACF advises the government to shift ground while emphatically asking the ASUU members to show sympathy for the future of the students and consider offers made by government and respect the rule of law,” it stated.
It, however, commended the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for the recent arrest of leading drug traffickers in the country, urging the anti-drug agency not to relent in its efforts.
“We wish to remind similar law enforcement agencies to emulate this performance,” the ACF said.
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