A new pan Northern group, Arewa Movement for Good Governance (AM2G) was inaugurated on Thursday in Kaduna to unite and seek political direction for the region.
Thr Chairman of the group, Dr Usman Bugaje, said the AM2G platform would also focus on strengthening unity among Muslims and Christians, to enable the region demand for good governance.
He added that their target was also to push for fair and just leadership that has kept the country together since independence.
Bugaje explained that the charter for good governance drawn by the group was informed by the issue of insecurity and collapse of the region’s economy.
“We also want to unite Muslims and Christians in the North to agree on a regional renewal programme by harvesting the talents and human resources at home and diaspora and promoting entrepreneurship and skills acquisition.
“We want to strengthen and sustain Northern unity and deploy it to find for the North a political direction that will eventually secure its corporate interest and promote its development,” Bugaje added.
He appealed to Northerners to use their instinct of patriotism and survival to mobilize the people to build a critical mass of citizens capable of driving real and effective social, economic and political transformation.
Also, Rev. John Wuye, said the group would prevail on religious leaders in the region to preach unity and compassion for one another irrespective of any affiliation.
He said leadership was about faith, and without faith there would be no future for any nation, and added that the Holy Books contained principles of leadership that should guide all leaders.
“The Bible said you should not elect, select or crown a king over you that has many horses, chariots and stables, a leader should be the one loving the people and not opposite,” he said.
He explained that the principle of leadership include accountability, transparency and honesty, which the North must upheld with high esteem in electing leaders at all levels.
Wuye stressed that the North has numerous challenges which would only be surmounted through unity and sense of responsibility.
He therefore said the region must elect leader that are credible and have religious leaders that will work with them and not for them.
Also, an Imam, Malam Nura Ashafa, said Northerners must work together to overcome all the challenges in the region.
He also said they must create avenues and programmes of dialogue, reconciliation and healing, in order to face the real challenges confronting the region.
“That we focus on the North does not mean we don’t care about Nigeria, indeed it is precisely because we care.
“It is well acknowledged that the North has certain level of commonality that once strengthened can be a national asset for development,” Ashafa said.
Some of the core values in the AM2G charter included ethics and probity in leadership, knowledge and competence, patriotism and selflessness in service.
There was a presentation on the “Principles of leadership snippets from Islam and Christianity”.
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