Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum
(NEF), says northern Nigeria will back a credible candidate from any region in
2023.
Baba-Ahmed said a presidential candidate produced through
regional or religious considerations would not be accepted.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Sun, he said the current
situation in the country does not require a leader produced by coercion or
secession threats.
He said moves to occupy the presidential office through
violence are counterproductive to peace and unity.
“We don’t want the president to emerge as a product of
ethnic or religious pushes. We don’t want a president that will be answerable
to a portion of Nigeria. We won’t accept it,” 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. The north would back any credible candidate from the region
who understands the problem, possesses the capacity to solve them (challenges)
and can build bridges across the country.”
Ahmed said the north is just as concerned about the violence
in the south-east as it is with insecurity in parts of the north.
He, however, said the north would not be intimidated by
threats of secession ahead of the 2023 election and called on the Independent
People of Biafra (IPOB) to stop the violence in the region.
“We don’t want organised violence or threats to produce the
president of Nigeria. Secession is a bad option for the south-east. It is not
in the best interest of this country or anybody,” he said.
“Why should the federal government allow IPOB to strangulate
five south-east states? If this administration does not have the capacity and
willingness to ask this question, to deal with this problem, then the next
administration should do so.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com