Just one week to the presidential election, the Northern Elders Forum is showing signs of some cracks down its seams as some members of the Forum kick against the suggestion that Atiku Abubakar is being pushed forward by NEF as the candidate of the North.
Converner of the Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi had at the 10th anniversary and General Assembly of the forum earlier last week hinted that the forum was close to endorsing a candidate ahead of the poll.
He has also warned against pressure mounted against any part of the vying for the exalted seat, saying only a candidate who emerges through the democratic process would be acceptable to the north.
However stating why Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot stand as the candidate of the north, Alhaji Seidu Baba, declared that northerners do not believe in the aspiration of the PDP flagbearer.
The NEF member said that while he is not unaware of ongoing schemings by the Atiku camp to have him endorsed as the sole candidate for the north in the coming poll, he told some journalists at the 10th Anniversary of the NEF, that such an effort will not succeed.
Explaining some subterranean moves by loyalists of the Waziri Adamawa which played out during the Anniversary event held at the Yar’Adua Center, Alhaji Baba explained that the seating arrangement of top runners for President and Vice president from the North was done by some persons to give the PDP flagbearer advantage but was rebuffed by other discerning members of the forum
“Atiku has not been seen as somebody who is close to the North because he has not been fair to us, he is somebody having his base outside the North.
“In 1999 during a book launch at Arewa House in Kaduna, Sa’adu Zungur written by Prof. M.A. Yakubu, the current Chairman of INEC, Atiku as the Vice President of Nigeria was supposed to be the most Senior political office holder from the North in the Federal Government as at that time but he at the occasion condemn all Northern Leaders and Elders.
“In his speech, he told his bewildered audience that the Northern Leaders and Elders were the people who failed the North and the nation. He said they were the ones that had caused the problems. That was the beginning of his problems in the North.
“Secondly, over the last two decades all the problems that have been happening in the North East (where he claims to have come from) especially Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and the rest, nobody has seen Atiku’s intervention visibly in solving the problems. Even General TY Danjuma had done much more better than him in this respect.
“All the crises that used to happen in either Onitsha or other places in the South East or South West affecting Northerners, he has never gone there to show empathy or give succor to the people who lost their lives and properties.
“His only desperate objective is to become the President of Nigeria, that’s all. That is why in his obsession and carelessness as a Vice President he came out to challenge the candidature of his own Principal, a Military officer and a General who brought him into the Government from the wilderness.
''That shows he has never been in fidelity with anybody and from that time he moved from one party to another. If people move from one party to another on principle, there is no problem but for Atiku the driving force is how to become a President of Nigeria anyhow.
“Over the years, he has contested against his juniors and against his seniors. It could be recalled Atiku contested against Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua a brother to his benefactor; he contested against General Ibrahim Babangida; he contested against General Muhammed Gusau; he contested against General Muhammadu Buhari (several times) and now he is contesting against Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. If truly he believes in the North and cares for the Northern people why must he embark on the voyage of Political desperation?
“The attempt to cajole and even force the NEF to adopt him shows how desperate he is. Many people believe even though the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-rufai was condemning Northern elders, it is believed, his real target was Atiku Abubakar.”