Vice Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) Board of Trustees (BOT), Ambassador Ladan Shuni has said that the communiqué issued during their last meeting rejecting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the PDP was not the true position of the forum.
The forum had in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting last Tuesday, rejected President Jonathan as the PDP presidential candidate. They said it was legally and morally wrong because it was a violation of the party’s constitution which clearly requires that under the zoning/rotation formula, a northerner be returned as candidate in the 2011 election.

However, members of the forum have been lamenting that the communiqué was doctored and that it does not reflect the views of the forum. It started with a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC), Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed and now Ambassador Shuni.

Speaking to newsmen in Kaduna, Ambassador Shuni said the position taken in the communiqué did not reflect the position of the forum but that of few members of the forum.

‘’ The communiqué is not a true position of the ACF. An ACF communiqué can only be released after the relevant committee has investigated and the report brought before the joint session, the NEC and BOT. it is after deliberation by this joint session that a communiqué can be issued,’’ he said.

He said the chairman of the forum was not also informed that a communiqué was going to be issued because he only constituted a committee to review party primaries and submit report.

‘’I want you to understand that ACF is not a political organization. It is a socio-cultural organization that takes care of the interest of the north. If there is any contentious issue, the ACF can only sit and give advice to the relevant authorities. Our decisions are advisory because we are not partisan; we do not reflect the interest of any particular political party and we cannot condemn any political parties for their decisions.

“We have over 50 political parties in the country and they all have presence I the north. The political parties have the right to field their candidates. The political committee has been mandated to review the primary elections of these political parties and see whether they abided by the relevant constitutions after which the ACF would sit down and advice the political parties. That has not happened before the communiqué was issued,’’ he said.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the forum, Mr. Anthony Sani, said it was the chairman of the forum, retired General IBM Haruna that set up a seven man committee including the deputy chairman of NEC, the chairman of the political committee and publicity secretary to collate the resolution and come up with a communiqué. ‘’That was precisely what was done. In any case, the chairman of the political committee participated in collating the resolution of the NEC meeting. It is important for the media to note that all the deliberative institutions like ACF often have majority and minority views. But it is the majority views that always prevail and not matter of who is right and who is wrong,’’ he added.

According to him, ‘’ it is unhelpful to go public with any minority views for the purpose of inspiring divisive tendencies within the organization. It is worse when the media throw its social responsibility away and decide to promote undemocratic attitude,’’. He however reaffirmed the position of the forum rejecting the emergence of President Jonathan as the PDP candidate.



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