Ghen! Ghen! Northern Leaders Reject President Buhari For 2019 (Full Story)

Elders, leaders of socio-political organisations and key stakeholders from the northern part of Nigeria, have scored President Muhammadu Buhari low and rejected him as the candidate to run for the 2019 general elections.

The leaders who met on Saturday in Kaduna, insisted that Buhari must be replaced by competent persons.

Those present included the leaders of the Northern Elders’ Forum, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Borno Elders Forum, Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, among other groups.

In a communique read by a member of the Northern Elders Forum and Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the northern leaders stated that the current administration had not demonstrated enough strong will to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency and herdsmen/farmers’ clashes.

“We demand immediate and decisive steps to improve the security of lives and economic assets in the North by the federal and state governments. Too many communities are at the mercy of attacks from sundry groups of criminals who appear to have unchallenged access to space and weapons.

“The Summit noted that despite notable successes by the administration against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, many Northern communities still live under its threat. In many other parts of the North, communities are routinely exposed to attacks from shadowy killers, and suspicion and anger at known and suspected killers are pitching Northerners against each other. Armed bandits terrorize rural communities almost at will, while kidnappings and abductions have assumed alarming notoriety as crimes.

“The summit asserts the rights of all Northerners to examine all options in political choices they will make in 2019. The leadership selection process must be critically interrogated to present the best leader to Nigeria as a whole. No one should take the North for granted, and it is not for sale. It will resist shedding its blood for any candidate and will critically scrutinize all politicians who will seek our mandate. At this stage, all options are on the table, and politicians who have betrayed the hopes and mandates of our people should be prepared to suffer rejection, in the same manner, the votes of the North rejected the attempt to continue with impunity, corruption and indifference of the previous regime,” Baba-Ahmed stated.