Community leaders in the Northern region of Borno State have expressed their determination to back the candidacy of Southern Borno as governor of the State in the February 2019 general election.
To make good their determination, the Northern Borno community and political leaders purchased and presented the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) Nomination and Expression of Interest forms to Mamman Idris, a governorship aspirant from Southern Borno.
Speaking during the presentation of form at the Abuja Headquarters of APC on Friday, the leader of the Northern Elders Forum, Senator Umar Karatu Lawan explained that opinion and political leaders from the north of Borno have agreed on the need to advocate for and support an all-inclusive government from the South in the next dispensation.
Lawan noted that Southern Borno has not produced a governor for the State since the inception of democracy in 1999, and as such justice and fairness dictates that the southern region is given the opportunity to showcase its potentials on the governance landscape of the State.
He said: “Southern and Northern senatorial districts of Borno State buried their political differences.
“Our people have contributed and they want to deepen the process of democracy. We have bought form and we are presenting it to Idris Mamman.
“There have been lots of complaints that the people of Southern Borno are marginalized, but that is not true, nobody is marginalized. This is because no one from the South has come out to say he wants to contest for governorship till today
“So it is a matter of reaching to the people, power is never served a la carte, you have to look for it, you have to earn it.
“Now that the intention has been shown, we felt duty-bound to support their aspiration for the betterment of our State”.
While receiving the form on behalf of the aspirant, Chairman, Movement of Southern Borno Rotation of Power, Engr. Ibrahim Usman said the gesture from the Northern elders was not only epoch but a dream come true for the people of southern Borno.
He said:“Honestly, I feel like weeping out of happiness. I have said it before when we had this Southern Borno Movement for Power Shift, we said it all, just like Alhaji Lawan has mentioned, power is never served on a platter of gold. We have never come out to say we wanted it.
“Now, we said we wanted it and we are glad that it is our own brothers from Northern Borno, who contributed money to buy this form. We are extremely grateful.
“As I said earlier, honestly, we are extremely grateful. By the time we get Idris Mamman into office, everybody is going to say there is a big change in Borno. He will carry everybody along.
“It is of major significance. You cannot win election and not carry everybody along. And this time around its our brothers from the north, who even contributed money to buy the form. That is brotherhood.
“There is nothing better than that. We have said it, we are all brothers and sisters whether you are from Borno Central, Borno North or Borno South. We have lived as brothers and sisters for long and we have been contributed each other. We have a lot of intermarriages, so we are one.
On the capacity of the aspirant to steer the ship of the State for good governance, Usman said the aspirant is a tested professional and a technocrat.
“We in the Movement for Southern Borno, we are not particular that it must be APC, PDP or whatever party; our party is Southern Borno and as luck would have it, we have this gentle man, he has all the experience you can think of. He is chartered accountant and he has risen up to the position of a director in the federal ministry.
“Therefore he is somebody that is highly qualified, and he is also somebody who has carried everybody along. All the people who have related with him in any way they will tell you he is a gentle man to the core and he is a professional. And in fact, he will deliver the goods”.
