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…but we don’t want these crop of leaders again
…insist present leaders ran Nig aground
…we’re worst hit security and economic wise
…all we want is that the Electoral process should be followed
…we are supporting the South this time and wait for our turn – Middlebelt Forum
The Northern Elders Forum has said it has no opposition to the emergence of a southern president in 2023, insisting that this kind of leadership that has ran Nigeria aground is what it’s against.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the position of the Forum based on a monitored television program featuring The Director, Publicly and Advocacy, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, alongside Yakubu Pam Gam of the Middlebelt Forum on Friday.
Hakeem Baba Ahmed in the chat insisted that the Forum has nothing against the South but working against the possibility of a situation that will encourage the emergence of the present crop of leaders that ran Nigeria into political oblivion.
“We in the north are worst hit because the security situation and the state of the economy is affecting the north more because of this crop of leadership.
“But if they are using the word must then we do have the vote to decide who should emerge, the forum wants the proper electoral process followed allowing the parties to pick their leaders across board.
But the Middlebelt Forum Chairman, Abuja Chapter, Yakubu Pam Gam simply reiterated the position of his Forum declaring that”we will support the South and patiently wait for our turn because we want the progress of Nigeria.
Read below part of the chat:
Hakeem Baba Ahmed:”Fairness, equity and justice must apply in whatever democracy. They are the pillars of democratic system. In the interest of equity, justice and fairness Nigerian citizens must be allowed the freedom to choose who should govern them.
When the seventeen governors elected, they know the value of allowing the democratic process to work. There are ways in which candidates emerge on party platforms, there are rules within the party platforms, party decides who to field for a particular office and then Nigerian citizens choose who to vote.
Words like we must, words like should or giving ultimatums or threats completely negates the fundamentals of a democratic process.
The Northern Elders Forum never said it is against rotation or power shifting, what we always insisted on is the respect for the fact that we are operating a constitutional system.
Our constitutional system states that irrespective of what the party decides, the Nigerian citizens eventually has to go, line up and cast their vote and choose their leaders.
And it is wrong and counterproductive for southern governors to take the position that suggests that presidency must move to the south, this is dangerous, it is heavy politics and it is not going to persuade northern governors or northern voters to vote for a southern candidate simply because somebody sits in Lagos says bring the presidency here.
Politicians has to do the responsible thing that politicians must do, canvass, negotiate, work hard to convince every Nigerian, not just the northern governors to vote for a southern candidate.
Northerners are not opposed to voting for a southern candidate; what we are opposed to is being compelled or threatened to vote for a southern candidate simply because a few politicians are too lazy to do the hard work, which is to work to other politicians within their parties on the basis of fairness, equity and justice to allow citizens to vote, that is the position of the northern elders forum.
Pam Gam: “You will recall that in the history of Nigeria, the middle belt has been a region that has kept Nigeria together over time, various examples abound both during the military and in the democratic setting.
The middle belt people believe in equity, fairness and justice and that is why because of the Nigerian setting where there are two major divides in the structure, the north and the south, the middle belt is at the centre trying to balance the two sides.
On the issue of 2023, the middle belt with all honesty is in tandem with the position of the southern governors that 2023 presidency should go to the south. There is an informal understanding that power should rotate between the two major parts of this country.
And based on that, the north is going to have it for 8years now, naturally the south should have it in 2023.
Now looking at the way the southern governors presented it, that could be another thing but the true position of the middle belt is that power should shift to the south and after 8years it will also come to the north.
And the middle belt believes that every segment of the country should test this power so that everybody will feel belong, so that everybody will now be rest assured that he is now a part and parcel of this system. That is the position of the middle belt.
Hakeem Baba Ahmed: Reaction on Ango Abdullahi’s comment in 1998: “The law maker should operate at a higher level. You quoted Prof. Ango Abdulahi coming to 1998. Prof. Ango Abdulahi leads a social cultural group which offers an opinion that differs substantially from that of the governors. Governors cannot afford the luxury of making statements that is dangerous for the democracy of the country.
If he says the northern governors forum supports northern presidency, compare that with 17 governors members of APC and PDP who knows that they have to work this process through their parties and they know how they were elected, they know the values and the sanctity of the democratic process, they know the value of justice, equity and fairness means.
It is a completely different selling. So I will advise you not to go there, people have used this argument Prof. Ango Abdulahi said this in 1998 and they are now comparing it to the governors.
No one is asking southern governors to go cap in hand to beg the northern voters and we are not opposed to a southern candidate.
Now there are two zones that have not produced a democratically elected president, out of the six zones and one of them incidentally is the north central zone.
They have as much right as anybody to demand that president should come from the north central zone.
Now when the 17 governors got together and said bring it to the south, they forgot the middle belt. Governor Ortom for instance said they are with them or the governor of Plateau state or the representative of the middle belt forum; when it is convenient they divide the country into two, north and south, when it is convenient they say there are three Nigerians, there is the north, there is the middle belt and the south. This kind of divisive politics is not helping this country.
The president that will emerge in 2023 must be a Nigerian president that is our position. It is very dangerous to ethnicize and regionalize this. If we can have a president from the southern part of the country that will be truly a Nigerian president, that will represent the south, the middle belt or the north, every citizen of this country equally and faithfully and do the opposite of what President appear to have done, that is to cause the problem for our diversity, alienate few groups of people from the many parts of the country, divide the country.
What we need is a unifying president, a president that will treat this country as one constituency, treat everybody alike, run an inclusive government, that is what we are looking for.
The kind of politics going on now is going to polarize the country even more when we begin to draw lines that he must come from here or there, it is our time, this kind of thing is very dangerous.
The final president is what happens if there is a northern president in 2023, democratically elected because in an election that is credible, free and fair, what happens?
Will other sections of Nigeria particularly the south going to say no? Will reject this election result it is not from the south? Is that very dangerous?
The solution is simple, go through the electoral and political process, work your way through and convince every Nigeria who wants to vote that the candidate who comes from the south should be voted for not because he comes from the south but because he is the best, we are looking for the best.
In 2023 Nigeria must produce leaders, president, governors, legislators that are very different from the current crops that we have. These current crops of leaders have run this county aground.
What we are looking for are leaders who will rebuild this country, rebuild the faith of young people in the future of this country. Begin the process of political engineering that brings the southwest and the southeast and the south-south together, that is what we are looking for; not regional leaders, not an ethnic leader.