- The Joint Northern Youth Forum (JNYF) noted that Dangote deserves respect for rebuilding the lives of many young Northerners through his chain of businesses
- The group chastised the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) for acting out of character, by insulting a respectable northerner elder
- According to the JNYF, by insulting Dangote, the Arewa youths insulted all those Nigerians who have escaped poverty and hardship courtesy of the billionaires investments and Corporate Social Responsibility projects
Arewa group, the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) has been strongly condemned by the Joint Northern Youth Forum (JNYF), over the disrespectful manner in which the former responded to an unconfirmed remark wrongly attributed to billionaire investor Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
The JNYF stated its strong displeasure in a statement signed by Ashiru Abdullahi, the group’s director of Media and Publicity on Sunday, July 2, Leadership reports.
The CNY attacked Alhaji Dangote based on reports that the billionaire had described as reckless and a manifestation of frustration and joblessness, the ultimatum issued by Arewa youths to Igbos to vacate the North.
NAIJ.com notes that Abdullahi expressed disgust that a prominent northerner had been insulted by a group that professes to be promoting northern interest.
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The JNYF expressed surprised that Dangote would be linked with politics.
The statement read in part: “It has never happened and anyone who knows Dangote would readily admit that he has been a hardworking investor for decades and not a politician.
“The Coalition’s bedtime story about Obasanjo asking Dangote to run for the nation’s presidency is also laughable indeed.
“The Coalition claimed that Dangote “can never be” among genuine Northern patriots. This can never be true, given the hundreds of thousands of Northerners earning a livelihood through his vast array of investments in the North.
“And for whatever it is worth, Dangote deserves respect for rebuilding the lives of many young Northerners through his chain of businesses.
“If we cannot celebrate his efforts to give meaning to the lives of many northerners in particular and Nigerians in general, we should also not cast aspersions on him.
“When the so-called Coalition said its members are not involved with “drug peddling and currency counterfeiting”, what are they insinuating? What business has the respected African entrepreneur got to do with it?
“It is not in the character of northerners to be involved with insulting elders, especially elders that are enterprising and economically productive.”
The statement further read: “The insinuation that Dangote group of companies is a “financial destination for every corrupt government official” is simply ridiculous because his chain of investments have never been associated with the trial of corrupt public officials by agencies like the EFCC or ICPC.
“In accusing Dangote and others of bringing economic hardship to Nigeria “for the past 25 years” the Coalition has not only ridiculed itself but insulted all those Nigerians who have escaped poverty and hardship courtesy of Dangote’s investments and Corporate Social Responsibility projects.
“It is also a blatant lie to say Dangote’s investments in the North are “negligible” or that the entrepreneur hates the North; it makes no sense at all.”
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Recall that NAIJ.com previously reported that the chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, faulted the quit notice issued by Arewa youths to Igbos residing in the north.
Dangote speaking at a meeting with a team of business executives from the Lagos Business School on Saturday, June 24, described those who issued the quit noticed to the Igbos as persons with no relevance and values.
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