Dear Arewa Youth: Your Support and Loyalty to El-Rufai Must Go Beyond Sympathy, Deliver Atiku Abubakar and Isa Ashiru Kudan
By Ibrahim Modibbo Sanusi
25/9/2026
Across Kaduna State and the wider expanse of Northern Nigeria, a profound, historic awakening is taking root. For decades, Arewa served as the unquestioned political anchor and economic breadbasket of the nation. Today, our region confronts an existential reckoning: severe economic contraction, political leadership collapse, human capital erosion, agrarian collapse, and a political climate that treats the North not as an equal partner, but as a territory to be subdued and politically neutralized.
Northern Nigeria has experienced disproportionate hardship under recent policy directions. Instead of inclusive economic growth, policies stifle our farmers, hollow out regional commerce, and marginalize critical northern infrastructure. Even more insidious is the political strategy deployed to keep our region compliant: a transactional system that buys the silence of elites, dispenses token patronage, and isolates every principled northern voice with the courage to resist.
In this moment of profound uncertainty following widespread disillusionment with regional political miscalculations, Northern Nigeria requires clarity, not concession. At the epicenter of this struggle stands Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai.
El-Rufai has emerged as the definitive pathfinder and political compass for the North. He demonstrated what governance looks like when anchored in institutional discipline, meritocracy, urban modernization, and unbending courage. When he built Kaduna, he proved that public service is about systemic transformation, not self-enrichment. When powers demanded unconditional submission, he chose principle over political convenience. The subsequent actions against him are not signs of his weakness; they are proof that a compromised establishment fears leaders who cannot be bought.
Yet, to the youth of Kaduna and Arewa: El-Rufai does not need your pity. Sympathy builds no schools, revives no farms, and dislodges no party. Pity is passive. Conviction is transformative. If you believe in the standard of excellence El-Rufai set, do not demonstrate loyalty through grievances on social media. Translate that energy into disciplined political action.
The mandate before us is unambiguous: channel that political fire into delivering Atiku Abubakar to Aso Rock and electing Rt. Hon. Isa Ashiru Kudan to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.
At the national level, Nigeria urgently requires the economic foresight and broad-based consensus-building that Atiku Abubakar embodies. Atiku offers a pragmatic framework for fiscal decentralization, agricultural rejuvenation, and true national stability. Aligning behind him is a calculated regional consensus to reclaim our dignity.
At the sub-national level, Kaduna State cannot afford its current trajectory. Rt. Hon. Isa Ashiru Kudan offers the compassionate, steady, and unifying leadership Kaduna desperately requires. Supporting Ashiru is an organized reclamation of governance focused on social cohesion, security, and public infrastructure.
We must break free from the cycle where the North merely provides millions of votes on election day, only to receive insecurity, neglect, and patronizing handouts in return. We are not a demographic bargaining chip. We are the architects of the future.
Organize at the grassroots: shift from online commentary to ward-level voter mobilization. Stand unflinchingly behind leaders who confront injustice. Arise, youth of Arewa. Organize, mobilize, and reclaim our future.