An attack on Southern and Middle Belt leaders at the weekend, by the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF), Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, has elicited a prompt rebuke from the leaders.
Shettima, who led a delegation of some northern governors to Benue State over recent killings by Fulani herdsmen in the state, described Southern and Middle Belt leaders as “political dinosaurs” with nothing more to contribute to national development.
The leaders, in their response, described the statement as rude and uncouth, saying “no well raised” person would address elderly persons as the northern governors did.
Leaders of the pan-Yoruba political organisation, Afenifere, Ohanaeze and Middle Belt Forum, had, last Wednesday visited the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, to commiserate with him over the recent killings and mass burial of 73 people in the state. They called for a restructuring of the country.
But on Friday, leading Governors Simon Lalong (Plateau), Malam el-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Mohammad Abubakar (Jigawa), Shettima described the southern leaders as old men who were living in the past with “nothing to give Nigeria again.”
The deputy governor of Osun State, Chief (Mrs) Titilayo Tomori, also joined the team to represent her governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola.
The governor, who used the visit to lash at leaders of the Joint South and Middle Belt Forum, expressed disgust that people were trying to make politics out of the crisis, stating that “none of those people could say they know problems of this state than the governor.”
Shettima, who refused to condemn the activities of the herdsmen throughout his speech and during interaction with newsmen, said problems were created by men and only men could find solution to the problems.
According to him, “sensationalism cannot advance the cause of the issue. We should have generosity of spirit to embrace each other.”
While saying, unlike the old generations of southern leaders that do not have anything to give to Nigeria again, the governor said, “we are the new generation of Nigerian leaders, not for some political dinosaurs from Abuja or any other part of the country to cause unnecessary issues.
“All of us here are members of this generation. The future belongs to us,” he said, while adding that leaders born a few years after the amalgamation of Nigeria are “living in the past and are political dinosaurs.”
Reacting, however, the joint secretary of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said the statement by Governor Shettima was a clear manifestation of somebody who lacked good moral standing and manners, but gained prominence in a country like Nigeria which he said had lost its soul.