Rejects aged aspirants
As a build-up to the 2023 fresh elections, Northern leaders and youths have warned that any political party that fields an aged, incompetent, or incapable candidate should forget the regions votes.
Spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who made this known at the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organised by the Students Wing of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) Borno State chapter, on Thursday, warned that the North will turn its back on any party that deliberately and specifically tilts advantages to candidates from particular regions.
The next President, according to the NEF spokesperson, should emerge from a credible election from any part of the country, but he or she must be first and foremost a Nigerian President and those Northerners with the ambition to run for the office should know that Northern Elders Forum, CNG and many others are not merely supporting the emergence of a Northerner to succeed President Buhari.
He reminded that the North does not need to flash its scorecard on a commitment to national unity and the democratic process and that it has paid a huge price for the unity and survival of this country, for which it has no regrets.
The North, according to him, has never been a parasite in Nigeria, and that while the region believes that it serves all interests to stay as one united country, it will however be difficult for us to continue to defend our co-existence if it can only be achieved at our permanent expense.
He said those who should question their own commitments are people who threaten to leave the country or make it ungovernable if the next President does not bear all the hallmarks of their preferences.
The rest of Nigeria has a legitimate cause of concern when sections of the country that have become virtual hostages of irredentists, suggest that only when they have the Presidency will the country eliminate organised violence that has made massive inroads into lives of Nigerian citizens living there”.
Taking a swipe at President Muhammadu Buharis administration, he said it has dropped the ball in the manner it had allowed insecurity, irredentism, corruption, poverty, national cohesion, unemployment of the young and faith in the democratic process to become a way of life in Nigeria today.
He noted that with the unglorifying record of performance of the Buhari administration, which many mischievously see as solely a Northern creation, Northerners are also deeply skeptical that being Northern alone is not enough to make a good leader.
Therefore, he said, the state of the North today represents the best caution that what you see as yours is not necessarily the best where you have a choice, and every Nigerian must have a choice.
Backing this position, another speaker at the event, Hajiya Naja’atu Mohammed charged the youth to rise and confront the challenges of regaining control of their destiny, urging them not to rely anymore on the shaky path being laid by those who pose as Nigerian leaders today.
She lamented that those in positions of leadership are people who are ill-equipped and ill-prepared to lead but for their personal political ambitions and quest for criminal acquisition of wealth.
Similarly, Professor Usman Yusuf, former Executive Secretary of the NHIS, impressed the urgency for the youth to register massively as their only sure way to flush out those he called, bandits in government.
Prof. Yusuf said those occupying positions of leadership today are worse than bandits as they breed banditry and nurture the ground for all forms of criminality by entrenching corruption, impunity, official lawlessness and excessive greed.
In response, the Board of Trustees Chairman of the CNG, Nastura Ashir Shariff, warned the youth against risking their collective future in the hands of any of the major political parties in the country presently.
He categorically warned that any of the major parties that field incompetent, weak and aged candidates would be roundly rejected by the North and charged the youth to remain vigilant with regards to the direction the parties are conducting their affairs.
