Don’t Welcome Jonathan To Yobe-Borno, Arewa Citizens Action For Change Tells Youths Posted: March 7, 2013 - 01:54 President Goodluck Jonathan By SaharaReporters, New York Youths of the North-East geopolitical zone have been urged to shun President Goodluck Jonathan’s scheduled visit to the region, describing it as belated and face-saving. A statement signed by Mallam Nastura Ashhir Sherriff, on behalf of a coalition of Northern Youth Groups under the banner of Arewa Citizens Action for Change, said President Jonathan and his administration have nothing to offer the zone at this point of its isolation and devastation. "This visit is merely calculated to serve his already troubled 2015 continuity drive by an embarrassing desperation to ward off the widespread humiliation handed him by opposition progressive governors who recently dared all the deliberately created odds to present themselves at the heart of the Boko Haram conflict in Maiduguri," Sherrif said. He warned concerned citizens of the zone not to fall into the Jonathan’s trap by coming out in large numbers to welcome and cheer his entourage. "What it takes to be reliable leader is primarily the ability to have the courage to dare all odds for the sake of the people he leads just the way the progressive governors did and came out unscathed. "We must not forget that fellow unfortunate Nigerians were abandoned by Jonathan while his troops and the insurgents massacred them mercilessly particularly the youth, old people, women and children.” The statement said that while all that was going on, Jonathan stubbornly turned down all reasonable suggestions by concerned elders of the zone and people of the Northern region to halt the violence by merely visiting Yobe and Borno states in the manner of his late predecessor, Umaru Yar'Adua, who despite his failing health visited Jonathan's troubled creeks. "Jonathan deliberately ignored all calls for him to make even a meaningful pronouncement or merely visit the tensed areas, or simply agree to meaningful moves for dialogue. His arrogant denial was to the point of sacking his then security chief, Andrew Azazi for simply daring to tell the public part of the Boko Haram conspiracy. Sad still, he ignored calls for him to get his fellow South-South brothers variously arrested in connection with destructions of places of worship in North, presumably to heighten the flaring violence, manslaughter and general confusion," Sherrif said. Mr. Jonathan has been widely criticized for failing to find the courage to visit the zone while Boko Haram ruled the area with extreme violence. Critics believe his apparent change of heart, under the heaviest security blanket, is on account of the 2015 elections and the strong likelihood the president could find disastrous electoral returns in the area.