Former Senate President, Ameh
Ebute, has replied the convener of Northern Elders’ Forum, NEF, Professor Ango
Abdullahi, on his recent assertion that the region will not vote for President
Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.
Abdullahi, a former Vice
Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, had while speaking to newsmen in
Zaria as part of activities marking his 80th birthday, also advocated a return
to parliamentary system of government, stressing that the system was more
accountable than the presidential system.
Responding to Abdullahi’s
submission, Ebute in a rejoinder on Wednesday, insisted
that the NEF chairman would not decide for the entire north.
The former lawmaker warned
Abdullahi to retract the “shameful public statement” credited to him and
retrace his steps, or risk running NEF as a one-man show.
His rejoinder reads:
I am extremely pained to publicly
address Professor Ango Abdullahi on a matter I consider very important for
regional cohesion and the stability of Nigeria.
However, in the prevailing
circumstances, I have no choice than to do the needful in view of his recent
vitriolic comments against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
and his 2019 reelection bid.
No doubt, Prof. Ango Abdullahi is
a respected academic, elder and son of the North. He is a brilliant man and the
fourth indigenous Vice Chancellor of the premier and prestigious Ahmadu Bello
University, (ABU) Zaria. I deem him a reference point anytime, Northern history
comes into focus.
Ango’s convening of the Northern
Elders Forum (NEF) was a laudable initiative embraced by all of us. We sensed
reason in his explanations of why elders of Northern extraction should have a
common platform where they could congregate, brainstorm on issues affecting the
North, lobby the central government to solve them and play advisory roles to
the younger generation and the government when necessary.
We perceived these issues as very
important and germane, hence the respected Alhaji Maitama Sule, (may his soul
rest in peace) a former Ambassador to the United Nations, an Danmasanin Kano,
agreed to serve as NEF’s pioneer chairman. That was the veneration NEF
attracted.
With other prominent Northerners
such as Wantaregh Paul Unongo a former minister of Power and Steel in the
Second Republic, serving as NEF’s Vice Chairman, alongside an array of other
officials, NEF was run purposefully and meaningfully in consonance with its
original idea to which we were all signatories.
We have never had issues within
NEF because we adhered strictly to its core mandate, doctrine and operational
principles of neutrality and non-partisanship.
But it appears we are reversing
ourselves now, after the demise of Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule. NEF’s leadership
has fallen on Prof. Ango Abdullahi. I regret to say, he is not dispensing this
leadership in consonance with the core operational principles of NEF to which
we all subscribed and have observed religiously over time.
I wish to remind Prof. Ango
Abdullahi that NEF was conceived as an apolitical organization. Therefore, the
recent widespread public statement, published in various media, which claimed
members of NEF have dumped the 2019 reelection bid of President Buhari,
credited to Prof. Ango Abdullahi is extremely in bad faith. It abuses the
sacred guiding principles upon which NEF was founded; derived its strength and
endorsed by the rest of us.
For clarity sake, I wish to
remind this NEF convener that NEF has not met in recent times and adopted a
common position on the rejection or acceptance of the reelection bid of
President Buhari or any other candidate vying for the office of the President
of Nigeria in 2019.
The public statement credited to
Ango in all ramifications came to me as a rude shock. And I dare say, it is an
abuse of his right to freedom of speech by aligning his personal thoughts with
a group, which is not part of his thinking on the matter canvassed.
Already, there are dissenting
voices against this apparent insensitivity and absurdity as propagated by Prof.
Ango Abdullahi. We cannot accept anybody’s personal desire to drag NEF into
public ridicule or partisanship, except Ango wishes to be its sole owner, as
convener, chairman, secretary, publicist and the rest.
Thus far, I completely and
faithfully align myself with the position of objection to Prof. Ango
Abdullahi’s posture by my other Northern elders, majority in silence, but
others vocal like the trio of Maj. Gen. Paul Tarfa, Capt. Basir Sodangi and
Sani Daura.
I find it pertinent to state that
even the issues raised by Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s abhorrent statement such as
insecurity, underdevelopment and poverty in the North under the Buhari
Presidency are interrogated from a porous, biased and self-serving perspective.
We all acknowledge that the North
and indeed, Nigeria deserves to be freed from the tethers of these nagging
problems. What has baffled me is the deliberate refusal of Prof. Ango Abdullahi
to critical and holistically assess the situation with an open and uninfluenced
mind.
I cannot accept, much like many
other Northern elders that insecurity in the country is worse under President
Buhari. It was worse when our President mounted the saddle of leadership in
Nigeria in 2015. President Buhari started from ground zero, but has made
commendable progress over these problems.
The failure of the likes of Ango
to see and appreciate the efforts and energies channeled into decimating and
defeating Boko Haram insurgency in the North only conveys a personal hatred
against the Buhari Presidency.
I expect Ango and those in his
camp to speak to leaders of thought in the North. They should be concerned with
engaging and dissuading their youths who are excitedly serving as hirelings to
exacerbate the insecurity situation in the country in order to reverse the
gains already recorded by the Buhari Presidency. Ango and co-travellers should
not find this as a platform to castigate and vilify President Buhari.
President Buhari has taken steps
to address the massive youth unemployment across Nigeria, including the North,
with the N-Power jobs, even if we pretend not to see his laudable agricultural
policies which have created millions of jobs with three years of his
administration.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi cannot be
preaching to us underdevelopment of the North at this material time because it
is a culture sustained for decades. In spite of it, President Buhari is
prudently and fairly distributing meagre national resources in solving
underdevelopment issues across Nigeria. The North has gotten its fair share,
just like other regions in the country.
President Buhari is the political
leader of Nigeria and not that of the North alone as Prof. Ango insinuates. It
is senseless for Ango and cohorts to expect that Buhari superintends over skewed
sharing or distribution of Nigeria’s commonwealth in favour of the North. As
elders, I believe this disposition and thinking is faulty.
I am highly uncomfortable with
Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s excessive mouthing in public domain in the guise of
speaking for NEF. Our duty as elders is to encourage leaders to sit-up where we
perceive lapses, as against outright partisan campaigns against leaders as Ango
delights in doing.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi should
retrace his steps. If President Buhari fails to grant NEF audience to discuss
these issues, why is the public platform he has used in vilifying the
President, not used as channel of advice to Mr. President? It speaks of a
personal agenda, which I am encouraged to say, has missed the target.
Other Northern elders like me, at
both personal and collective level, will keep supporting President Buhari on
his redemption mission of Nigeria. We have seen and felt the positive impact of
his administration. Where he is lacking, we would rather advise him privately.
So, the attempt by Ango to bifurcate NEF with his personal political agenda is
reprehensible and unacceptable to the rest of us.
Like others, I stand, with
President Buhari and the excitement of Prof. Ango Abdullahi to mask under NEF
will not change it.
I advise him to retract this
shameful public statement credited to him and retrace his steps, or risk
running NEF as a one-man show.
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