The National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima has said that the North is not prepared to release political power in 2023 to the South.

Shettima, in an interview with newsmen was reacting to a statement by the former governor of Kaduna State, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, that the North should relinquish power in 2023 to focus on economic power to empower its people.

The president of Arewa youth stressed that former President Goodluck Jonathan breached the zoning agreement by contesting and winning the 2011 presidential election.

Shettima stated that Yero does not speak for the North, noting that his status as former governor of Kaduna State does not confer on him the leader of the North.

He said: “Nobody should think that the North will just sit and handover power to the South on a kangaroo arrangement that is unconstitutional, those days are over since 2011.

Jonathan jettisoned the previous arrangement by refusing to step down and allowed a Northern candidate through consensus to come on board. The North has only ruled for nine years as against the years the South has ruled since 1999. Why is it that when Northern people speak, because they don’t believe in propaganda, people blackmail them? We are not going to break the country because of this, but we are just asking others to see reasons with us.”