Northern Elders Forum Denies Backing Jonathan President Goodluck Jonathan By Segun Awofadeji The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has denied statements credited to the former Minister of Education and prominent elder of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and NEF, Alhaji Dauda Brima, that the two groups have thrown their weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 elections. The spokesman of the NEF and former Vice- Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, who stated this at the weekend, while addressing journalists in Bauchi, said there was no time the two prominent groups gave their support to the President for 2015. Abdullahi, who said the statement which was widely reported in the media and credited to Brima during a visit to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was not the view of the ACF or NEF. He said: “I understand, quote and unquote, that he made the statement ‘in the name or on behalf of northern elders’. If he left northern elders without qualification of people as we saw in the last few days when making enquiries there is the obvious interpretation as to whether he was speaking on behalf of ACF, where there are many northern elders or he was speaking on behalf of the NEF to which I belong. “Certainly, on checking which I made personally whether Brima has been mandated to go and speak on behalf of ACF on this particular occasion the answer was an emphatic No “Obviously from what I know of the NEF to which I belong I have not chaired any meeting with Brima. I don’t remember him attending any of our meetings or our activities. So I want to make it absolutely clear that Brima was speaking on behalf of some northern elders outside the ACF or outside the NEF and I believe outside many other groups that I know working with us. So he is entirely on his own and we respect his rights as a Nigerian citizen to associate and to give support where he feels support is needed or is deserved. “Nobody is saying that 99.9 prevent or 100 per cent of northerners of various shades of opinion are going to belonging to the same opinion but we concede his right to speak for himself and for people with whom he associates but certainly he cannot be speaking for the ACF or the NEF.” He maintained that just as the south-south geopolitical region had been clamouring that the president should remain in their zone, the north has reason to agitate that power should come to it in 2015. On the appreciation to President Jonathan over the release from prison of the former CSO to late Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, which seemed to indicate that the release of Al-Mustapha as suggested by Brima was solely carried out by the president, said the view downplayed the role several other individuals and groups made to ensure the release of Al-Mustapha. Tags: Politics, Nigeria, Featured, NORTHERN ELDERS FORUM, Jonathan
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 19:54:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015