When soliciting their support for the general elections in 2023, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has set prerequisites for several presidential contenders.
According to Anaedoonline.ng, the forum stated that all presidential contenders will go through a rigorous questioning process to assess their aptitude, capacity, and awareness of the challenges facing the nation.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the forum’s spokesman, said this on Sunday night while appearing on the Channels Television program “Politics Today.”
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Baba-Ahmed added that the exercise will not be difficult for the flagbearers and that the purpose of the interrogation is to determine who of the candidates has the ability to save the nation.
He said the forum will not make the same mistake of 2015 when they charged the people to cede their bloc votes to President Muhammadu Buhari without requesting his plan for the Nigerians.
He said, “We will subject all candidates including Atiku, Tinubu, Obi through a rigorous process and they had better be willing because, believe me, we carry the responsibility on our shoulders to advise people in the north where to go. I am not saying this to impress anybody. We will exercise that responsibility seriously.
“What we promise not to do this time around was not to repeat what we did in 2015 and say ‘Vote for only Sai Baba” where we escort him to the villa but failed to sit him down and ask what he planned to do. It would no longer be about fixing the economy, security and the fight against Boko Haram, They must be specific.
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“Buhari got away with it in 2015 and in 2019, we campaigned against him, saying this time he has failed and won’t be given another chance. Today, look at where the country is. We are not going to make that mistake again.”
Speaking further, Baba-Ahmed stated that the forum will not support any candidate based on region, stressing that the options available to the forum are open.
The NEF spokesman added that the forum’s endorsement will be based on the mental health, competence, intellect capacity and political will of the candidate.
He said: “At this stage, our options are open. We will not vote on a narrow prism-like where (candidates) come from. I speak for the elders’ forum. There was no point we said only northern candidates will be considered. We don’t see the north in isolation. We see ourselves as related to other parts of Nigeria.
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“I don’t know what the other parts of the country are doing but the North is not just going to vote for any candidate unless we are convinced that he has done some serious thinking about what he is going to do for this country.
“But we need to know the presidential candidate’s mental health, physical, intellect capacity and his willingness to tap into some of the brightest brains available and his sensitivity to a number of key issues that are vital to our survival as a country.”
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