Coalition of Northern Groups, a Northern Nigeria pressure group, has expressed grief over the decision of Northern governors and other stakeholders to regulate social media.
The group disclosed on Thursday that they were taken aback by the discussion on social media regulation in the Northern Governors Forum stating that important issues in the northern region were being ignored to deliberate on the nonessentials.
Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the spokesman of the group, revealed in a statement that the group did not agree with the decision of the Northern Governors’ Forum and other stakeholders.
He further stated that such gatherings which comprised of influential personalities ought to have deliberated on pressing issues such as poverty, unemployment, insecurity, youth restiveness and so much more.
The group also expressed disappointment that the governor’s forum is yet to reach a decision that would be of benefit to the entirety of the masses.
The statement reads in part: ‘We are disappointed that such a meeting should lack the courage to make clear pronouncements on the unprovoked attacks on northerners and their properties at a time when their southern counterparts are proposing claims of trillions of Naira in compensation for their people.’
The statement expressed disappointment disclosing that the meeting ‘lacked the requisite statesmanship to define the northern position with regards to the falsified reports around the fictitious attacks on Lekki protesters that is causing the nation international worries.’
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‘It is disappointing that the meeting failed to see as a priority the need to send a delegation to ascertain the extent of damage and to console the affected northerners in the southern states,’ it added.
The statement also hoped that the northern governors and other stakeholders would one day accommodate civil society and patriotic Nigerian youths that would consider major issues with respect to Nigerian’s plight.
Peace Omenka