…. Says Buhari was a mistake to the North
By Our Reporter
Kaduna – The Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) on Saturday said the region would only vote for a competent candidate in the 2023 presidential election regardless of where he comes from in the country.
It said it would not repeat the same mistake of voting for just any candidate as was done for the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) based on sentiment in 2015.
The NEF’s Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, stated this in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the meeting of northern leaders of thought and groups held at the Arewa House, Kaduna on Saturday.
Baba-Ahmed, however, noted that no northern presidential candidate should take the region for granted in the 2023 race, pointing out that the region had ended up with what he described as the “Buhari mistake”.
He said the North was deceived into voting for Buhari believing that the country would be better, but lamented that the reverse had been the case as the situation in the North and the entire country had been worse than when Buhari took over in 2015.
Baba-Ahmed, a former secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, said “A northerner and a southerner have equal rights to contest but northerners should be very careful of who they vote for in 2023. No northerner should take us for granted.
“That’s how we ended up with President Buhari. We don’t want to repeat the same mistake. It’s not enough to be a northerner; you have to be the best. You have to be the best for the North and you have to be the best for the rest of Nigeria.”
When asked further why Buhari was a mistake to the North, the spokesperson for the forum who scored the Buhari regime low in all aspects, said, “Why are you asking me why Buhari is a mistake? The evidence is all around you. How did you get here? I don’t know if you live in Kaduna or not but if you came from somewhere, you must have looked across your shoulders, maybe, more than 20 times because to leave your house and get back home is a miracle these days in this country. We were not like this.
“This is not the Nigeria that voted for President Buhari. So, he is a disappointment. And that’s why we are saying to Nigerians and particularly to northerners to be very careful and not repeat the same mistake.”
