The northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), yesterday elected new officials that will lead the affairs of the region, as former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, becomes the National Chairman of the forum.

Among others elected to also paddle the affairs of the group is the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Ambassador Shehu Malami; former Minister of State for Power, Murtala Aliyu; National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuele Yahweh; Legal Adviser, Shaibu Shehu and the Financial Secretary, Ibrahim Moriki.

The out-going Secretary-General, Elder Anthony Sani, who gave the progress report and shortcomings of ACF, said: “As you are quite aware, the ACF is not only a pressure organisation but also intervention and reconciliatory body.

“It is the usual practice of the forum to visit and intercede between feuding communities, even if at a reduced frequency as occasioned by the circumstance of the situation such as that of Benue State and many others.”

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“The leaders of this forum have had cause to visit some of the governors of the 19 northern states, and indeed, quite recently, it paid courtesy call on President Muhammadu Buhari where several expectations of the North were brought up for realistic appreciation that can impel progress.”

Sani, however, lamented that “as a result of paucity of fund needed for management of the forum for optimal performance, we have not been able to achieve all we planned for, and as a
result, we had to embark on some austerity measures ostensibly to keep the forum alive and functional, however minimal.”

“We had to take bitter lines of action by limiting activities to existential ones by reducing the frequency meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Council (NEC) from monthly to bi-monthly, the number of meetings of standing and ad-hoc committees as well as those of sub-committees,” he added.

Sani also lamented the refusal of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register ACF as a corporate entity, saying: “It is pertinent for me to inform you that the forum applied for registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which was declined because of some misinformation arising from mistaken identity.”