DON'T CAUSE CONFUSION WITH ZONING, GROUP TELLS NORTHERN LEADERS

Following last Thursday's decision by the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to throw open the 2011 presidential race, the Arewa Youths for Goodluck has told their northern elders to stop using zoning to further cause confusion within he polity.

The group said what should be the focus of all ambitious politicians within the party was to emphasize the strong points of their candidates and not to attack personalities. National Co-ordinator of the Arewa Youths for Goodluck, Mr. Kevin Chrisanthus Tizhe, said it was unfortunate that some northern political leaders were still busy attacking President Goodluck Jonathan and advancing reasons why he would not win, even after the zoning matter had been settled.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the youths told the politicians and their presidential aspirants to go and sell themselves to the electorate if they think they are marketable, 'we have watched with utter dismay how some politicians from parts of the North who are hell bent to cause confusion in the name of zoning and their hatred for the president of the federal republic under the guise of support for zoning.

He pointed out specifically an interview allegedly granted by a veteran politician to a weekend paper in which the politician stated that if the president should contest under the PDP, they will make sure he did not win.

The Arewa Youths for Goodluck described the outburst as laughable because 'the politician in question cannot even win a councillorship election in his ward.

'It is so annoying that we have reduced Nigerian politics to childish talk in that we no longer talk about issues but where a candidate comes from,' he stated.