The Arewa Consultative Forum is a political and cultural association of leaders in Northern Nigeria formed in 2000 which has considerable influence in the political scene. The forum is a successor to the Northern People's Congress, which collapsed after the coup of 1966. The ACF has been associated with the Arewa People's Congress, a militant group set up to protect the interests of the Hausa-Fulani people in the north. However, the forum is committed to democratic processes within the Federal constitution.
On 8 August 2001, the ACF announced that it was forming three teams to visit the 19 states of the North and Abuja, to be led by All People's Party leader Olusola Saraki, ACF Chairman M.D. Yusufu and Lt. Gen Jeremiah Useni. The goal was to meet and discuss common goals with state governors and other leaders. The group met a cool reception in Jos, Plateau State from members of the Middle Belt Forum, who felt that they would be marginalized in a forum dominated by northerners. In August 2001, the forum recommended that former Heads of State, Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar defend themselves against allegations made against them at the Human Rights Investigations Commission, sitting in Abuja, and said the ACF was conducting an independent investigation. In December 2003, the new ACF chairman, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, said the forum would try to persuade Buhari, Babangida and Vice PresidentAtiku Abubakar to resolve their differences for the sake of greater unity of northern leaders. In March 2009, the ACF expressed concern over deteriorating liquidity in the banking industry and demanded that the Central Bank of Nigeria provide information on the size and origins of the problem.
Crisis over Yar'Adua illness
In late 2009, the illness of President Umaru Yar'Adua, the first Northern President in the Nigerian Fourth Republic, and the possibility of his vice-president Goodluck Jonathanfrom the South assuming power became a contentious issue in the forum. On 16 December 2009, the forum issued a communiqué calling for further information on the health of the President, and saying that if a succession issue arose it should be resolved according to the constitution. Later that month, the ACF called on the President, then hospitalized in Saudi Arabia, to formally release a letter that would authorize the Vice President to act in his absence. In January 2010, the former secretary of the ACF, retired colonel Umaru Ali, asked the president to resign so that his deputy could take over. In February 2010, the ACF said unequivocally that Yar'Adua should transfer power to Jonathan. Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, former Liaison Officer to President Shehu Shagari and a founding member, quit the ACF due to the forum's statement. Alhaji Tanko Yakassai has since returned to the ACF as a member of its Board of Trustees and is playing active roles in the organisation.
2010 onwards
In March 2010, the ACF rejected a statement by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who had recommended a break-up of Nigeria along religious lines, saying he was ignorant of the diverse religious make-up of the country. The ACF condemned the recent killings in Plateau State, which had triggered Gaddafi's remarks, describing them as "senseless". That month the ACF formed a Political Committee headed by former Minister of State for Power and Steel, Mohammed Ahmed Gusau. The committee's goal was to set the ACF agenda ahead of the 2011 elections.
