- Insist Nigeria needs detribalised, inspirational leader
- Declares region supports restructuring, electronic voting
- Maintains south must consult, not threaten north over 2023
By Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Emmanuel Addeh
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF), a body that claims to defend the interests of the North, yesterday, attacked President Muhammadu Buhari over the state of the nation and expressed dissatisfaction over his administration’s handling of almost every facet of the country’s national life.
Spokesman of the group, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who appeared on the Arise News Television, urged the president to deal with the sentiments fuelling secessionist agitations across the country before confronting those, who may still be irretrievably bent on dividing Nigeria.
The NEF henchman explained that even die-hard supporters of the president have become frustrated by his actions and inactions, insisting that having pushed former President Goodluck Jonathan out of power, a lot was expected from the current administration, which he said has not delivered on its promises.
The northern elders rated Buhari low on security, the economy as well as the anti-corruption fight, maintaining that the country should begin the search for a leader, who sees the entire nation as his constituency, inspire people and has problem-solving skills in 2023.
“Well, absolutely, I mean, is there any Nigerian who’s not disappointed in President Buhari, including diehard All Progressives Congress (APC) members? Is there anybody, who will not tell you they wish President Buhari had done much better?
“We raised huge expectations. We, the people, got rid of Jonathan, put Buhari there to fix corruption, fix insecurity, fix the economy but look at where we are now. How can anybody say they are happy with the record. Even the people very close to him, will tell you that they wish he had done much better, and he could have done much better, and he hasn’t,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
He said what Nigerians needed to do now was to get ready to elect another president, who would go in the opposite direction of the current one, one which has a vision and a clear idea of what governance involves, rather than just being president for the sake of it.
“So, I’m disappointed. And that’s why today, I’m actively involved in it, to strive to see that a new leadership emerges, that will give Nigeria a new lease of life
“We want a president that has no liabilities in terms of who he represents, other than Nigerians, that’s what we’re looking for. There are very good people. I am part of groups and organisations that have excellent Nigerians, with very deep commitment to Nigeria.
“And there are people I believe, who can lead this country away from these serious problems that we are confronted with and dealing with, and they can begin the process of national reconstruction, but the politicians are not giving it a chance,” he argued.
According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party (PD), just like the APC was interested in taking over and retaining power at all costs, without recourse to what Nigerians really wanted, stressing that unless there’s a massive transformation of the parties, they did not have answers to the country’s problems.
He argued that the next Nigerian president must be detribalised, not the product of a region or an ethnic expression and must not be the product of frustration or resentment.
“I would like to see someone, who feels comfortable in Gombe and in Osun, and in Ebonyi and I would like to see a Nigerian, who inspires change. I would like to see a Nigerian that can tell the Nigerian youth there is a future for you.
And I’d like to see a Nigerian who’s not corrupt, who will not tolerate nepotism, or run an administration based purely on the way he thinks things should be done. I would like to see a Nigerian, who will build institutions or rebuild institutions,” he added.
He was of the view that the next Nigerian leader must recognise the fact that the problems in any part of the country affected every other part and fight banditry, secessionists and kidnappers.
Baba-Ahmed held the view that the north supported restructuring, including electronic voting and a reworking of how resources were made and shared, lamenting that the electoral process was currently heavily monetised.
He posited that by allowing electronic voting as well as introducing direct primaries, a large portion of rigging that existed would be eliminated.
“We need to eliminate the delegates system, where rich people go and buy off a handful of Nigerians and they become candidates, and nothing has prepared them to lead this country.
“And you can see that now. You have governors that don’t have any idea about governance. You have a president, who is sitting there thinking, Nigeria should be grateful that he’s president, that that’s enough. He doesn’t need to do anything beyond that. This country is in serious trouble,” he lamented.
He argued that electing a southern president would not stop all the agitations, insisting that the south must allow the electoral process take its course, rather than allegedly threatening the north to relinquish power.
“You can have a Yoruba president, and you can still have massive problems in the south-east, because the Igbo will say, oh we are marginalised. We have five states, we have never had a president from that part and therefore, we will continue.
“IPOB does not just exist in a vacuum, IPOB represents a large part of mainstream Igbo politics. So, you need a president, who can find a way around this. Deal with the frustrations that create some of these irredentist movements, deal with grievances that that keep feeding this tendency and deal with these opportunists, who feel the only solution is to leave this country,” he stated.
However, to achieve this, he said Nigeria needed good leaders that would deliberately create an inclusive administration, and go out of their way to study what makes IPOB so appealing to some people in the South-east.
“The next president must recognise the fact that he needs to recreate a Nigeria, he must allow bridges to be built. We need to talk to each other,” he said.
He also accused the Southern governors of doublespeak and engaging in lazy politics rather than exploring avenues for discussion and negotiations with their counterparts from the northern region.
“One of the key parts of their point that is wrong is speaking from both sides of the mouth, which the Southern governors are doing and some organised groups in the south are doing. Even as we speak, the same southern governors that are saying we must do this, you must do that, these guys are negotiating and jostling for positions for 2023; they know all the options available and they actually involved in these negotiations.
“They discuss with fellow politicians, including the northern politicians. But they can’t come out here and be creating a bi-partisan policy and start making demands that they know are inconsistent with democratic practice. That should stop, because it is not helping them, it is not helping the country. The best thing to do is that they are politicians, they know how things are done, they have political parties, they have fellow governors and they have other very powerful people.
“All they should do is to sit down with each other and say, look we have done this before, we have rotated power in 2007 and we had dealt with major developments that have reinforced the democratic process. They should recognise the fact that it’s important for inclusiveness, for justice and fairness that the presidency moves to the South East, South West, South-South or somewhere else and let them sort things out.
“Because we have a say in this, we are not just going to be rendered into observers or voters on the election day, no. Those basic things in politics, discussions, negotiations and concessions are being done,” he said.
Asked under what circumstances a southern president should emerge, he said, “There is no such special circumstances under which a southern president should emerge. What we are saying is, allow a democratic process to decide, who becomes the next president,” he said.
When flipped and asked some of the expectations and conditions under which the NEF believed the North would support a southern president, he said, “Please in the name of God, pick somebody that can do better than President Muhammadu Buhari. He should be a Nigerian first, with unquestionable commitment to Nigeria.
“He should be competent, he should recognise the fact that there are various regions and various challenges facing the country. If he is southerner and somebody can convince us that the person from the south is the best candidate of all the other parties including the ones that emerged from the northern part of the country, I assure you that we will vote for the person,” Ahmed said.
He said that it was on record that the north had supported candidates from the south before, noting that the north voted overwhelmingly for the late M.K.O Abiola against a candidate from Kano State in the presidential election.
“We voted for President Goodluck Jonathan against Buhari. This is not the first time the north has voted for a president from the south and it can be done but it should not be done in a manner that does suggest that it is a product of threat and intimidation, that is what were are against,” he said.
