The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has declared that decision on the adoption of a consensus presidential candidate by northern leaders is still open, indicating that the northern elders are currently engaged a rigorous but productive interrogation exercise, in the search for a candidate in 2023.
The Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, spelt out the conditions expected of the candidates from the 18 formally recognized political parties to be adopted as consensus presidential candidate. According to Baba-Ahmed, the candidate “must have the mental and physical capacities to lead Nigeria and solve the security and economic problems in the country”.
The elder statesman emphasized that northern elders will not make the mistakes of the past as in 2015 when they endorsed the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, and told northern voters to deliver their bloc votes to APC. He asserted that the next president of the country must have the ‘capacity to secure the country, improve the economy, and have plans for 34 million out-of-school children in the region.’ He said that the NEF will assess the thoughts of candidates on restructuring and other national issues.
According to Baba-Ahmed, “We have an idea what the next President should look like.
“It will be a basis with which the north will support a candidate.
“What he intends to do in terms of satisfying us that he has the mental capacity, the physical capacity, the intellect, the willingness to tap into the best that is available, sensitivity to a number of key issues that are central to our survival as a country. Those things are going to represent for us the basis for which we will support a candidate.”
Baba-Ahmed declared: “At this stage, our options are open. We will not vote on narrow prisms like where you (candidates) come from…
“I can speak for the northern elders’ forum. We have not said we will only support a northern candidate; what we said is we will defend the rights of northerners to compete freely and equally with others, we will support a northerner if we think he is the best, and we will not go to apologise for that at all.
“We will support a southerner if we believe that he will do justice to the interest of the north and the interest of other parts of the country. What is important for us is that we are looking for the best that is available.
“We are not supporting anybody; we are going to support the best candidate that represents the best.
“We will put all those candidates through a rigorous process if they are willing and they had better be willing because, believe me, we carry the responsibility on our shoulders to advise a lot of people in the north where to go and we will exercise that responsibility very seriously.”