The National Consultative Front (NCF) is a democratic alternative out to salvage Nigeria, address poor governance, insecurity, poverty and other economic malaise facing the country, labour leader, Comrade Issa Aremu has said.
Addressing the media on Sunday in Kaduna alongside first executive Governor of old Kaduna state, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, and a Northern youth leader, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, at Balarabe Musa’s home in Kaduna, the trio lamented that Nigeria was in governance crisis, despite having a president, vice president, 36 governors, 36 deputy governors and thousands of lawmakers.
Going down memory lane, Balarabe Musa said the Front was a continuation of a process they started in the second republic, when 12 governors started the process of addressing the negative state of the nation. He said the then pressure group started with 12 out of the 19 governors from different political parties, before NPP governors left the group to align with NPN, adding that, he and Chief Jim Nwobodo are the surviving members of that group.
According the elder statesman, “This NCF is a continuation of what we started during the second republic. We have problems which we are all aware of, we support the group and we will help the group to grow up to achieve what we tried to achieve then. The group will learn from our mistakes”.
Comrade Aremu said Nigeria is suffering crisis of governances among myriads of other challenges, including insecurity, lack of electricity, death of industries, war of attrition within the ruling party, poverty across the country, disunity and economic challenges.
Aremu, who was the Kwara state Labour Party governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections, said the ultimate goal of the NCF was political, but its membership were drawn from diverse political parties and interests.
He noted that the establishment of the Front connects to the daily struggles of Nigerians against crisis of governance, noting that any crisis within a ruling party has adverse implications for good governance.
“A ruling party in crisis means actually a nation in ‘governance hemorrhage’. There is no doubt that National Consultative Front (NCF) is an idea whose time has come. Things are fast falling apart in Nigeria beyond what the late literary, Chinua Achebe documented about colonial Nigeria in the classic African story: ‘Things Fall Apart’ and and post colonial Nigeria’s ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’.
“It is a new political paradigm to get things done in a new way to deliver the much needed public good to Nigerians. Therefore the facilitating secretariat of the National Consultative Front must intensify consultation with all to retain confidence. In the new political normal, we should not take each other for granted just as Nigerians have been taken for a ride since 1999.
“A list of the conveners and many others show that we are virtually products of functional independent Nigeria. There was a democratic country with focused political class. Despite their legitimate disagreements they found a common ground to resist British imperialism together with mass of people, students organized labour, peasants and women.
“here was once a country of inclusion, manufacturing value addition, beneficiation and prosperity. It’s time to give back to a country that has invested in our education and wellbeing. We must pass on to our children a country that works just as our parents out of nothing gave all to make us what we are. Godliness is in the details.” Aremu said.
President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, also lamented poor state of the country.
He said Nigeria was sick and required urgent redemption.
According to him, “It is not news that things are bad, that the unity of this country is being threatened.
“We therefore need an alternative to checkmate the excesses of government. This platform does not have to do with formation of a new political party, rather, it is a platform to look at issues, debate, agree and disagree before coming up with resolutions.”
