A Second Republic lawmaker and prominent member of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Dr. Junaid Muhammed, has said the socio-cultural group did not endorse People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
According to Muhammed, only some members of the group, led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, backed Atiku.
Last
week, leaders and elders of some geo-political zones announced their
endorsement of the PDP candidate as their preferred choice for the
February 16 presidential polls.
This was sequel to a meeting
tagged, “Summit of Nigerian leaders and elders,” held at Sheraton Hotel,
Abuja, where leaders and elders of a few socio-cultural bodies such as
Ohaneze Ndigbo, Pan-Niger Delta, Middle Belt Forum and a faction of
Afenifere teamed up with NEF to announce the purported endorsement.
But,
in an interview with The Nation yesterday, Muhammed said NEF has not
officially thrown its weight behind any presidential candidate.
“There
was no time we discussed endorsement of any candidate in NEF. What was
announced was a personal decision of Prof. Ango Abdullahi. The whole
thing was cooked up; it was faked,” he said.
Giving an insight
into how the endorsement has triggered a crisis in NEF, Muhammed said
his group summoned and interviewed PDP presidential aspirants, but could
not arrive at a consensus candidate.
The prominent politician
insisted that failure to convince the aspirants to embrace consensus
option led to the PDP primary in Port Harcourt, River State.
“Sometimes
last year, the newly appointed convener (as we call our leader) of
Northern Elders’ Forum in the person of Prof. Ango Abdullahi, one-time
vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, called a meeting of NEF. He
summoned the meeting at Arewa House in Kaduna. He claimed that there
were about 16 to 18 organisations that they have discussed with. And
that they have decided to pass a vote of no confidence in the person of
President Muhammadu Buhari and APC government.
“At the meeting,
it was a controversial decision because the person, who read the
resolution was an aide of Senate President Bukola Saraki.
“There
is no consensus in the North. And lately, Prof Ango decided to combine
with other socio-cultural groups such as Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere
Revival, Pan-DEF led by Edwin Clark. These are groups agitating for
restructuring, state police, security of the country and its various
components and so on.
“There is no consensus in NEF on some of
issues because most of us are not members of the PDP. We left them to go
and solve their problems in their own party because it was not our own
problem. That is why they went for primaries in Port Harcourt, where
money was used in the way it has never been used in the politics of
Nigeria. And in the end, it was the man with the highest loads of money
that emerged as presidential candidate. Whether it was democratic or not
was not the issue.
“As if that was not enough, another meeting
of NEF was summoned and Atiku Abubakar was announced as the unanimous
candidate or choice of the whole of the North.
“Throughout
the history of Nigeria, nobody – not even Sardauna of Sokoto Alhaji Sir
Ahmadu Bello – has ever been given such an honour. The North used to
have Northern People’s Congress, Borno Youth Movement, People’s
Redemption Party, Great Nigeria People’s Party and so on. An
organisation, which is not political or elected or appointed is now
declaring somebody as the unanimous choice of the North and is being
presented as the choice of the North.”
Despite the fact that the
former lawmaker in the Second Republic has been critical of President
Buhari, he said Atiku is no match for Buhari.
“Whether Buhari is
doing well or not, Atiku is no choice. If you are talking about
integrity, Atiku is nowhere compared to Buhari. If you are talking about
exposure, Atiku was VP and had a rocky relationship with his boss,
President Olusegun Obasanjo. If you have to endorse anybody, you need to
explain the reason to the people of the North. But no reason was given.
“I
have been critical of the President, but nobody should use my name to
endorse Atiku because Prof. Ango or any other person does not have the
right to take the North for a ride.
“How can anybody announce
that a place that consists of a land mass of over 60 per cent of Nigeria
has decided to embrace a unanimous candidate? People who issue
statements should do so in their own names; not in the name of any
organisation,” he said.
Source:- Thenationonlineng
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