2019: Why we won’t support Buhari’s re-election –Northern Elders

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has resolved not to back the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari on account of poor performance characterised by slow pace in decision making, poor judgement and refusal to heed wise counsel.

The Forum, an influential political pressure group, said that whereas it worked for the election of Buhari in 2015 and ensured the defeat of the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan at the polls, it was poised to show Buhari the exit door because he had performed below expectation and had become a political liability.

Convener of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi said the Forum has at the beginning of Buhari’s current tenure sent him a memo, intimating him of the enormity of his assignment and the expectations of Nigerians, particularly, those in the North, but lamented that nearly four years after Buhari had neither acknowledged receipt of the memo nor given a response to it.

Abdullahi, who spoke during a special media chat to mark his 80th birthday anniversary in Zaria, said the people of the North will not vote on sentiments but on the record of performance during the forthcoming General Elections.

“I was at the fore front in getting Buhari elected. Everybody knows the roles I played some of which got me some bad names across the country. I was called a parochial, sectional and tribalist, but since I know my own history it never bothered me because I don’t think there is anybody among my peers that has more national credentials than I have given my antecedents, where I worked and what I have done politically.

“When we fought against Jonathan’s re-election in 2015, we did it on two basic reasons. The first reason was reneging on an agreement that the South will run for the Presidency for eight years (which Obasanjo did) and the North will take over for an equivalent period of time.

“After that, Obasanjo tried to do some wuru-wuru – the third term agenda and we fought against it. When he failed to achieve it, he single handedly picked Umar Musa Yar’Adua. We almost resisted but Sardauna Kekere (Sunday Awoniyi) prevailed on us not to protest but to help him Yar’Aduato succeed. Unfortunately, Umar Yar’Adua died three years in office.

“The Constitution says that when such a thing happens his deputy takes over. We had no quarrel with that. But at the end of that term and based on an agreement of eight years, the North was still being owed at least four years. The PDP needed not to debate, they only needed to say: North, who is the candidate lets agree because it is not a northern candidate but a Nigerian President. But they said no; that was the first reason of quarrel.

“The second anger was he (Jonathan) himself said he was not aware of power shift and people should show him the paper which he signed for power shift. So we took it that the man has taken us for stupid people.

“So at the end of the day, were we not vindicated? The PDP itself said that they lost the election because they reneged on the power rotation agreement. This is why as early as possible they announced that their candidate this time will come from the North,” he said.

Abdullahi added that as soon as Jonathan lost power, the Northern Elders Forum rationalized its action by clarifying that Jonathan was not defeated because he was an Ijaw and a Christian from Southern Nigeria but because of a breach of the power rotation agreement. According to him, the forum equally told Buhari that it expected a certain level of performance while on the saddle to earn their continued support.

“We said his re-election will not be based on sentiments or his being a northerner; his re-election will be based on performance. If he is not performing, we should be able to first of all tell him. It was from here that a memo was sent to him with an advice. The memo was delivered by the late Maitama Sule. He ignored it. We reminded him, he ignored it.

“Assuming things were working we need not worry. But things were not working. This man took six months to constitute a cabinet and when he eventually did, by our own estimation, it was full of riff -raffs. Some were good but … thank God that even his wife has vindicated us that the people running the government are either people that even he didn’t know or people who have no political value addition to governance,” he said.

Abdullahi, who is also the Chairman of the Political Committee of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), said the NEF had been inundated with complaints from Nigerians on the alleged poor performance of the Buhari administration in the last three and half years. The complaints, he said, prompted him to convene a meeting of 18 Pan- Northern groups to converge at Arewa House on March 24, 2018 to sit and evaluate the progress that has been made by the Buhari administration. According to him, the verdict from that meeting was that the Buhari administration had ubder- performed and there was need to search for its replacement.

Sonce then, he disclosed, the head-hunt for Buhari’s replacement had been on and NEF had worked closely with the socio -cultural and political pressure groups such as the Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Pan-Niger Delta Forum and Middle Belt Forum.

Abdullah said that given the importance these groups attached to the future of Nigeria and the need to enthrone good leadership, they had taken more than a casual interest in the current electioneering process.

He said that Northern Elders Forum had remained neutral in their activities but would declare their stand at the right time.

“What has not been done is for the NEF to openly endorse anyone. We have a little escape route here. There are 72 presidential candidates but we know the reality on ground; it’s either the one on seat or Atiku. There’s no question about it.

“The reason we don’t believe Buhari should continue given all the things that had happened or had not happened is that we don’t think this country will be helped by his re-election going by even what his wife has said about this government.

I don’t hate him and I don’t believe his wife hates him but she has said that there are some people who have held back his government. Whose fault is it? It is his fault because if some people are holding you back from doing your job, you should take responsibility for it. So it is futile for anybody to come and blame other people, “he said.