Ahead of the 2023 general election, Northern Nigerian leaders and youth have warned that any political party that fields an aged, incompetent, or incapable candidate should forget the region’s votes.
According to a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, after the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organized by the Students Wing of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Borno State Chapter, spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, warned that the North would turn its back on any party that deliberately and specifically tilts advantages to candidates from particular regions.
He said: “The next President 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 ambition to run for the office should know that Northern Elders Forum, Coalition of Northern Groups and many others are not merely supporting the emergence of a Northerner to succeed President Buhari.The North does not need to flash its scorecard on 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 has never been a parasite in Nigeria, and while the North 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.
Taking a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari’s 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.
He however, 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.
According to him: “If a Northerner is to become the next President with our votes in the North, then he has to be the best among all others. He has to convince us in the North that he understands our problems, and has the capacity to solve them. He must have the disposition, energy, health and intelligence to heal the breached pluralism of the North and build bridges across the entire nation.
“He has to be able to lead a country that is failing in a number of significant areas. A personal ambition to be President will not be enough, and we will scrutinize and advise those who will listen, to avoid the temptation to put in place persons who just want power, but not responsibility.
“A president from the North must have the exposure and network to reintegrate all parts of Nigeria into one country and one vision. He must have the courage to eliminate threats of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, irredentists, impunity, the drugs pandemic and corruption.
“He must lead with a sense of mission and urgency; the wisdom to negotiate where necessary and the clout to hit hard where he needs to; and a clear understanding of the sources and nature of our threats and their solutions.
“The point must be made again that every Nigerian, irrespective of his political party or identity must be free to contest within his or her party to be fielded as a Presidential candidate, and we should reject any party that specifically and deliberately excludes any Nigerian from exercising the same right other Nigerians have,” he said.
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