From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Southern and Middle Belt leaders, have rejected the proposal by Arewa leaders to include the Middle Belt in the geopolitical configuration of the North.
The African Socio-cultural Harmony and Enlightenment (ASHE) Foundation, which made this known in a statement, said that the continued classification of the Middle Belt as part of Arewa amounts to an endorsement of undue politics.
In the statement signed on behalf of Southern leaders by the Foundation’s President, Prince Justice Faloye, the group stressed that lumping the Middle Belt with the North constitutes ongoing marginalization of the region.
It added that, the Middle Belt is historically composed of tribes from the defunct Kwararafa Kingdom as well as various Bantu ethnic nationalities, making its identity distinct from that of the Arewa North.
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While reacting to the recent 25th anniversary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ASHE Foundation argued that the forum’s identity represents the historical continuation of the Sokoto and Bornu empires, whose “Afro-Arabian imperialistic agenda” sought political domination and cultural erasure of both the South and the Middle Belt.
