ACF Won’t Support Any Northerner To Be V/President

By Lawal A. Dogara,Kaduna
The Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum(ACF),Col.John Paul Ubah (rtd) has said that ACF won’t support any Northerner to be Vice President and debunked the notion that ACF was not only for the Hausa and other core Northerners as he insisted even smaller tribes like the Idoma had a strong representation in the association.
According to him,the idea was that “ACF is apolitical; we don’t want to be partisan. Anybody who joins the ACF thinking that he can use it as a platform to gain a ticket to become a governor or to become a Vice President, they will be disappointed.”
Uba spoke today (Tuesday) when the leadership of the Idoma Unity Forum paid him a courtesy call at the National Secretariat of the ACF in Kaduna,saying ACF was formed in the year 2000 to speak for the whole North on social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the people of the Region.
“As much as we encourage political parties or people in power to do things that will cater for the wellbeing of the North and Northerners without coming out to say we support PDP or whatever party. That is ACF. You can see that the position I am occupying is not a political appointment like a minister. So with this, don’t expect much from me. At the same time the position is so crucial, so you have a duty to pray for me so that during my time ACF work hard towards achieving the vision of the founding fathers,”he said.
Uba,also an Idoma man from Benue state and was military administrator of Kebbi state,said that the public should be wary of organizations that dropped the name of ACF to get money from groups or individuals.
“We don’t have youth wing or women wing in ACF constitution, we encourage everyone to come and team up with us here, and see how we will get to the government at the State level, and the federal level to make it look better, to make sure that the States do not suffer, to make sure we have good health facilities. So don’t go about, gathering yourselves and spoiling our names. That is ACF,”he said.
Earlier,President, Idoma National Forum, Engineer Okopi Momoh,said the contribution of Idoma people towards the development of Nigeria was enormous but they were now,marginalized especially in the education and other sectors of Benue state.
He said “you will attest to the role that Idoma people have played in the development of this country. During the civil war, our men played a very significant role to keep the country one. The survival of the Nigeria people of today, the integration of the Nigeria of people today, the coming out clean of the Nigeria people of today is centred on that war which its success was largely attributed to the predominant role Idoma men and women played. And we not stopped to keeping this country as one because we have our sons in government.”
“The current Senate President, Senator David Mark was a military Administrator. Our men played very well in military era, they are also playing very well in this democratic period. What David Mark has done as Senate President in Nigeria today is steadfast, throughout the eight years of democratic dispensation in Nigeria, thereis no Senate President who had toed the line of politics in the country like Senator Mark.”
“The first Northerner, an Idoma, to get a master degree was a permanent representative in the United Nations. So Idoma people have done very well for this country. But we are wondering why have the people who have helped Nigeria to stabilize so much have been marginalized in Benue State.”