IYC to Arewa youths: We won’t take your threat with a pinch of salt

Foremost Ijaw youth organization, the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, on Thursday declared that it will not take the alleged threat by the Arewa Youth Development Foundation that non-northerners should leave the North within two weeks with a pinch of salt.
The now Ijaw youth organization, which made world headlines in 2005 with its foremost “Kaiama Declaration”, said it had already put Niger Deltans on red alert over the declaration by the Northern youths group.
It said the outburst could may the mindset of all Northerners.
The Northern youths under the auspices of Arewa Youth Council had on Wednesday during a courtesy visit on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, called for the peaceful dissolution of the country.
It directed southerners in the North, in a statement read and jointly signed by the group’s National President, Aliyu Usman, and Secretary, Comrade Alfred Solomon, to start relocating from the North to create room for Northerners who will be leaving the South in the coming days.
Reacting to the development, the IYC in a statement signed by its spokesman, Eric Omare said: “The IYC thank the Arewa Youths for realising that Nigeria cannot remain one though it is coming late.
“To the IYC, this call by Northern Youths which reflects the mindset of the average Northerner has vindicated our age long position that the only thing holding Nigeria together is the petrol-dollars from the Niger-Delta.
“By this call, it is now crystal clear that the moment the oil wells in the Niger-Delta dry up, Nigeria would cease to exist.
“Furthermore, we also welcome Northern Youth’s call for Northerners in the South to return home within two weeks and in the same vain the IYC call on Niger-Deltans and Southerners in the North to return home before they are unjustly killed in the North.
“The IYC wish to strongly call and warn Niger-Deltans and Southerners in the North to take this call very serious as the history of Nigeria’s recent past shows that Northern Youths have the propensity to kill innocent Southerners for no reason as demonstrated in the post 2011 elections.
“The seriousness of the Northern Youths demand is underpinned by the fact that the call was made in the Palace of a leading Northern Traditional Ruler, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi 11.
“Therefore, the IYC is more than convinced that the Northern Youths is a clear demonstration of the mindset of the entire North.
“The lessons of the Boko Haram needless killings with Northerners being unwilling to initiate or compliment government efforts like the Niger Delta Leaders did shows that this threat must not be taken with a pinch of salt.
“The IYC call on Niger-Delta Governors and other Southern state to accommodate and take care of southerners that would be returning home, while calling on Niger-Deltans to be vigilant in the coming days.”