Aliyu backs formation of North Central Consultative Assembly

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

Niger state governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has expressed support for the formation of the new North central Consultative Assembly, a pressure group for states the geo-political zone.

According to him, the assembly will serve as the true voice of people in the zone.

Before the formation of the North Central Consultative Assembly, the Middle Belt forum was the rallying force for people in the zone.

The New North Central Consultative Assembly is being led by Senator Ibrahim Mantu with other members drawn from states in the North Central zone cutting across religious and political bias.

Aliyu while announcing his support for the group which called on him at the Government House in Minna on Wednesday challenged the leadership not to make the same mistakes made by similar groups in the past.

Aliyu, who is also the Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum, promised to introduce the new group to other governors in the region.

He said at the forum that he and some governors in the zone were not consulted before delegates to the forth coming national conference from the region were picked.

‘Nobody consulted me before any nomination was made I learnt that one governor was invited to the meeting; the governor did not know what was to be discussed, somebody hijacked the whole process sat down and made the nomination. This issue will be tabled before the governors of the North Central geo- political zones, we have taken things for granted for too long.”

The governor described the North Central geo- political zone as the nucleus of the nations politics advised that the new forum should establish and make its presence felt in all the states in the zone promising to give it a befitting office in Minna, the Niger state capital.

Earlier the Chairman of the Assembly, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, had told the governor that the forum was established to serve as a catalyst for the zone to take its rightful position in the political and economic development of the country.