Says “We’ll vote for a ‘competent’ Nigerian president in 2023”
The Northern Elders Forum, (NEF), has said President Muhammadu Buhari is a disappointment to not just the North, but the entire country, adding that they wont repeat the mistake of voting for just any candidate based on sentiment as they did during the last election.
This was disclosed yesterday, by the NEFs Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, during an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the meeting of Northern Leaders of Thought and groups, which was held at the Arewa House, Kaduna.
In a keynote address, titled: Rebuilding the North, the NEF’s Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said that both northerners and southerners have equal rights to contest for the presidency in the 2023 presidential race and as such, the Northern region will only vote for a competent president regardless of where he or she comes from.
Baba-Ahmed also warned that no northern presidential candidate should take the region for granted in the 2023 race, as that was how the region ended up with what he described as the Buhari mistake.
According to the NEFs spokesman, We are looking for a Nigerian President. If it comes from the North, fine; but he must be voted for by Nigerians; he must be good and he must be better than all the others. Thats what we are looking for.
He scored the Buhari-led administration low in all aspects, ranging from the worsening security, corruption to the sorry state of the nations economy and summed him up as a disappointment.
Our leaders, the NEF warned, should avoid the temptation of coming up with policies that would raise the emotions of the poor, saying, Millions of northerners are angry and frustrated that their level of living is worse than how it was in 2015.
The NEF leaders, who were made up of Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed and others, further warned that the overwhelming majority of politicians warming up to take over power in 2023 and continue the ‘business as usual’, should be rejected.
Democracy, they said, was essentially the freedom to choose a good leader and therefore, everybody should be allowed to choose the candidate of their choice.
