By John Shiklam in Kaduna
A coalition of youths in the 19 Northern states under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) at the weekend issued a seven-day ultimatum to the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) revise the purported suspension of the acting Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Timi Frank, or risk the withdrawal of its support.
The coalition in a statement after its meeting in Kaduna, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the matter, which according to them is capable of causing disharmony in the APC.
The group resolved to send a powerful delegation to Buhari to wade into crisis brewing crisis.
A statement signed by the Chairman of the CYN, Ibrahim Gambo and the Secretary, Mustafa Aliyu, said: “The coalition believes the best time for President Buhari to intervene is now as the crisis has all it takes to derail his administration and any gain the APC as a party might have made since its victory at the polls.”
The CYN maintained that the suspension is not welcome at this critical moment that President Buhari need the support of all stakeholders to achieved his agenda for the country in the face of the prevailing economic crunch being experienced by Nigerians.
“This is also as the youths believe that the treatment of Timi Frank shows that they are not wanted in the party.
“The chairman of the party, instead of a bridge- builder, has become the main problem of the party, causing division instead of using his experience and fatherly disposition to bring members together.
“It is also pertinent to note that the leadership of the party has not been fair to Timi Frank who should by virtue of his position and the constitution be the National Publicity Secretary after Lai Mohammad was appointed a minister.
“Instead there were subtle move to sideline the young man and bring another person in his place a development we the youths, as stakeholders in the party are not comfortable with,” the statement said.
The statement further maintained that “From all indications, we are of the firm believe that the treatment being meted out to Frank is because he is a young man among elders like Oyegun. This is why we are saying that he must be protected by youths except if the elders are saying the party belongs to elders only.
“We are calling on the chairman to immediately come out and tell Nigerians why the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) did not assign Frank his legitimate office since the office became vacant,” the statement said.
