{"id":9188,"date":"2018-05-23T18:54:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9188"},"modified":"2018-05-23T18:54:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:54:13","slug":"we-did-not-ask-buhari-atiku-not-to-contest-says-northern-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9188","title":{"rendered":"We did not ask Buhari, Atiku not to contest, says northern coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By www.nan.ng<\/strong>
\nContrary to reports, northern groups have denied asking President Muhammadu Buhari against seeking a re-election in 2019.
\nThe Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) on Wednesday also denied asking former Vice President Atiku Abubakar not to contest presidential election.
\nThe group described the report as misrepresentation.
\nMr Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesman of CNG, said in a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday that the CNG did not discuss individual aspiration at its two-day summit in Kaduna as reported in the media.
\nAccording to him, the communiqu\u00e9 only highlighted its support for structural reforms with condition that only youths between ages 18 and 60 should represent the North.
\n\u201cThe attention of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has been drawn to certain misrepresentations of parts of its communiqu\u00e9 of May 21, 2018 by a section of the media.
\n\u201cWhile we do not want to believe that the misrepresentations, though very fundamental, were maliciously made, we nevertheless owe the public a duty to straighten the records.
\n\u201cAt the end of our two-day summit at Arewa House, Kaduna, a five-page communiqu\u00e9 was read by our spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in which we categorically stated that the North fully supports the restructuring of the country and shall be prepared to represent itself in any debate thereon.
\n\u201cOur coalition said the North supported structural reforms, with certain conditions,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nAccording to him, one of the terms is that those who will carry the banner to any future discussion with regards to Nigerian federal arrangement should be within the 18 to 60 years bracket.
\n\u201cWe said this out of a patriotic conviction that the older men who have been speaking and running the country since independence should cease to take the front seats at such national discourses.
\n\u201cThe coalition was, however, quite surprised by some reports by a section of the media, tending to suggest that we have asked certain aspirants to the 2019 presidency to shelve their ambition.
\n\u201cWe wish to respond here that at no time did the individual aspiration of any politician ever came up at our two-day summit nor was it mentioned anywhere in the communiqu\u00e9 we read.
\n\u201cOur summit and subsequent communiqu\u00e9 essentially concentrated on the issue of restructuring. Nowhere, and at no time, did we discuss such matters as the 2019 presidency,\u2019\u2019 Suleiman said.
\nHe said that the summit was sequel to calls from several quarters in the last six months asking for our position on the issue of restructuring.
\nSuleiman said the group answered those calls by mandating a committee to sample the pulse of Northern Nigeria in that respect.
\nHe said that the committee, after contacting stakeholders across all shades of interest in the region, reported that the North favoured restructuring of the country.
\n\u201cConsequently, we called for the summit at which participants unanimously confirmed North\u2019s support for total and holistic structural reform.
\n\u201cA communiqu\u00e9 was issued to that effect, devoid of the slightest hint at partisanship or 2019 elections, nor did we discuss the individual aspiration of any politician,\u2019\u2019 he added.
\nHe advised media practitioners in the country to stick to their professional ethics of accurate reporting of events and avoid unnecessary sensational \u201coverkill.\u2019\u2019
\nNAN reports that a section of the media on Monday reported that CNG asked Buhari and Abubakar not to contest for president in 2019.
\nCNG\u2019s position was reported to be contained in a communiqu\u00e9 issued after at the end of its two-day summit in Kaduna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By www.nan.ng Contrary to reports, northern groups have denied asking President Muhammadu Buhari against seeking a re-election in 2019. The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) on Wednesday also denied asking former Vice President Atiku Abubakar not to contest presidential election. The group described the report as misrepresentation. Mr Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesman of CNG, said in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}