The apex pan-northern organization, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has warned people of the South-East against maltreating the Hausa living in the region under the pretext of fighting the Boko Haram sect.
The ACF said maltreating the Hausa could spell doom for Igbo people’s investments, which it said amounted to over N45tn in just three northern states.
The ACF Deputy National Secretary, Abubakar Umar, while receiving the South-South/South-East Arewa Coalition, who paid a courtesy call on the Forum in Kaduna on Friday, said the warning became necessary in view of the ongoing profiling and intimidation of the Hausa in the South-East.
In particular reference to the registration and issuance of Identification cards to the Hausa trading in the South-East by some governments in the region, Umar said that it should be done in good faith.
The ACF deputy scribe, however, expressed fears that if the North should retaliate by embarking on such measures, the investments of the Igbo resident in the region could be jeopardized.
He said the development could also cause crisis that might lead to undeserved division of Nigerians on ethnic or religious considerations.
Cautioning the South-East governments against engaging in what he termed “forceful” registration of the Hausa, the ACF chieftain said, “What is wrong in the exercise was that a segment of a community was the target”.
According to him, statistics available to the Forum indicated that Igbo’s investments in Kaduna, Kano and Jos alone amounted to N45tn, claiming that with such huge investments in just three states, the South-East governments had no reason to maltreat the Hausa doing businesses in the region.
Umar said, “If the table turns round, it could be disastrous as these investments may suffer, but we are praying for understanding among the entire Nigerians to accept themselves wherever they live to earn legitimate means of livelihood”.
Umar recalled that in the aftermath of the 2011 post-election violence in the North, Yoruba and Igbo people in Jos lost N480bn and N410bn investments respectively, while the South-South also lost N970bn in the same crisis.
He added, “We know these statistics; we have these statistics, so we expect the Igbo to treat our kinsmen, our brothers and sisters in the East as kings and queens in view of the fact that the Igbos have more investments in the North than in the East”.
