The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has hit out at the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, describing it as one that is more interested in power than governance.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Director of Publicity of the Forum said years after President Buhari assumed power, it became clear to him that
Buhari was not the country’s messiah.
Baba-Ahmed stated this when he appeared on ARISE News and narrated his fall out with the Nigerian leader.
“I thought at the time, that he represented a better option than Goodluck Jonathan. What we saw on the ground 2012, 2013 was a lot of incompetence, clearly, that governance was weak, insecurity was swamping the North and by implication likely to swamp the rest of the country.
“But a year or two down the road it became very clear that the administration of President Buhari was more interested in power than governing, there was very little evidence on the ground that the president recognised the fact that he needed to approach governance with a sense of emergency, to do things different from the way it was done, to tackle corruption more decisively, to deal with book haram insurgency for which he was elected, I didn’t see evidence of that.
“There was little access to influencing or contributing to ideas and suggestions. Initially, the Northern Elders Forum had access to the president on a number of times we interacted with him, we gave him suggestions, but by the second year of his governance, it became very clear to me that President Buhari was not the messiah.”
Baba-Ahmed said the Forum is not bothered by the “childish” comments of Femi Adesina, a presidential aide describing the NEF as a “mere irritant”.
He said: “when you see spokesmen of the presidency hit out with this kind of rather childish language you know fully well that that group is making an impact.
“We are happy that our primary constituency is happy with us, they recognise the fact that we stand up for what affects the north and we are happy.”
By Abel Ejikeme