The Northern Elders Forum on Sunday night says it will subject candidates of various political parties seeking the votes of the north to a rigorous interrogation exercise until they are convinced about who has the capacity to fix the country.
This clarification was made by NEF Spokesman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, when he appeared on ‘Politics Today,’ a popular programme on Channels Television.
Baba-Ahmed stated that the northern elders made a terrible mistake in 2015 when they charged the people to cede their bloc votes to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) without requesting his blueprint.
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.
“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.”
