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Tag: NEF

  • Buhari is our candidate – North

    Buhari is our candidate – North

    Following the ratification of President Goodluck Jonathan‘s candidature by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the North has resolved to adopt the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as its consensus candidate for 2015.

    Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) on Friday said the North had resolved to support a northern candidate and since APC has fielded a candidate from the region, they have no alternative than to support him.

    They said, “President Jonathan shouldn’t be in the contest in the first place if the principle of zoning that was created by his party and the constitution is respected. He shouldn’t be a candidate by now.”

    The Chairman of ACF, Ibrahim Coomasie, a former Inspector General of Police, said, “First of all, the APC presidential primary and the PDP convention have clearly shown those who are ready to practice democracy. The APC’s primary was held smoothly without any rancour and all of them have come out to accept the result. That is a good omen for our democracy. I hope INEC will emulate that.

    “So, we are congratulating Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who has been winning primaries all through. Only when it comes to the general elections, he is always rigged out. We have also seen what happened in the other party.

    “I am the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and we have said it before and we are reiterating it that, we are going to support a northern candidate. And since APC has voted a northern candidate, we are going to support him 100 per cent. So, Buhari is our candidate for the 2015 election.”

    He, however, said if Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, had won the APC primary, they would still have supported him because he was born and brought up in the North and has shown interest in the development of Nigeria and the region in particular.

     

  • Boko Haram: ‘21 councils under siege’

    Boko Haram: ‘21 councils under siege’

    The North is critical to national unity, Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Dalung Solomon has said.

    Dalung spoke on “National Conference: National Unity & the North” at the inaugural lecture of the Bauchi Generational Leadership Awareness Initiative.

    The event, chaired by former Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ango Abdullahi, was held at Zaranda Hotel in Bauchi.

    Dalung said with about 40 million of the nation’s 70 million registered voters, the North cannot be overlooked.

    He said: “The North cannot be neglected when issues of national unity are being contemplated. Nigeria’s unity is at a cross-road because the North is not at peace, hence Nigeria cannot be at peace. As I’m talking to you, over 21 local governments in the Northeast are under siege by insurgents.

    “About 3.3 million northerners are refugees in neighbouring countries. Some of those in Cameroon went to the extent of harvesting grains from their hosts’ farms to eat to survive.

    “In fact, some Nigerians steal to survive and we have a country where 9.3 million U.S. dollars is trenched somewhere because some people want to buy arms illegally. That money could have provided food for the displaced Nigerians.

    “National unity is threatened because we Nigerians have submitted ourselves to manipulation. We have designated ourselves as slaves to corrupt leaders. We have lost our integrity as a people.

    “Most Nigerian leaders have selfishly refused to be honest and patriotic. They are only interested in dividing Nigerians to remain in office, stealing the country blind.”

  • Between Jonathan and Northern elders

    SIR: I have been at odds trying to rationalize, or otherwise put a value to the recent ultimatum given President Goodluck Jonathan by a group known as Northern Elders Forum (NEF). The group insists the President must produce the abducted Chibok girls and bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency by the end of October, or be deemed unfit to seek re-election in 2015.

    No doubt, the Chibok girls’ abduction stirs patriotic Nigerians to sympathy, and it is one issue in which Jonathan has spoken and acted with so much passion. While I agree that the lingering terrorist attacks and other related security challenges in the country pose a major threat to the 2015 elections and the survival of Nigeria as a nation, I disagree that the solution resides with one man, however high the office he holds.

    When the forum lamented that the insurgents have taken over some parts of the North-East, who really do they blame?  They must face the truth: the Frankenstein’s monster they created or helped nurture has unfortunately turned against them and cannot be potent as a tool of blackmail against President Jonathan? To send Nigeria’s President on what is ordinarily a fool’s errand is therefore preposterous.

    Yes, it does appear that some ‘Elders’ are complicit, acting as quislings to the national cause.  The last time the NEF issued a statement on the nation’s security situation, it was to disparage the Nigerian military and their campaign to halt the advance of the dreaded terrorist gang, Boko Haram, into the North-east. In defending the terrorists, the stormy petrel of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, had accused the military of genocide and threatened to drag the then Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika, to the International Criminal Court.  Ironically, less than a year later, the same NEF has made restoration of peace to the North-east its condition for the nation’s Commander-In-Chief to exercise his constitutional right to stand for re-election.  The connection between one man’s right and what is ordinarily a common national problem, cannot be more curious and revealing.

    The claim that NEF was speaking for the entire North, cannot be more laughable; so is the waspish basis on which they are threatening to decide for all of us come October.  Of course, the group which has over the years been manipulated by a certain clique cannot be speaking for the whole North, especially those other areas of the old region that have borne the brunt of their selfish activities.  It is obvious from the 2011 elections that the vast majority of northerners do not share their negative views of Goodluck Jonathan. The scenario being masterminded to weaken the president and portray him as incompetent and therefore unfit for re-election is therefore untenable.

    Like the presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati said in response to the stance of the elders, it is delusional for anybody or group of persons to pretend they are in a position to give the President of Nigeria an ultimatum.  It is even more delusional to assume they can make choices for the larger majority of northerners.  The NEF should rather direct their frustration at the terrorists killing and maiming their kith and kin, and in supporting the President’s efforts at curtailing their nefarious activities.  To seek to exploit the unfortunate incidence for political gains is most irrational.

    • Femi Ayelabowo,

     Ibadan

     

  • Northern elders and Ihejirika

    Northern elders and Ihejirika

    It is our duty to raise an alarm when birds cease to cry like birds. That is why we are worried by the statement credited to the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to the effect that the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika should be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over military operations against terrorists in the North.

    Chairman of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, had said in a statement that the group would take Ihejirika to the ICC for “extra-judicial killings by soldiers in Bama and the act of strangulating civilians in Giwa Barracks, using an underground detention centre, while depositing the corpses in hospital.”

    Expectedly, the statement has attracted criticisms and, understandably, one of the first critics of the NEF is Senator Uche Chukwumerije who, at a forum in Abuja dared the NEF to go ahead with its plan adding however that should the NEF go ahead with its threat, it would be a good opportunity for other aggrieved regions and people in the country to knock at the doors of the ICC for redress over one form of injustice or the other.

    These included the Igbo who would take the massacre of over two million Ndigbo during the civil war to the court, while the other groups would also table their own cases before the international court. “As Ango Abdullahi’s team opens the doors and walks into the hall of the world court, let them realise that they have at last opened the Pandora’s Box”, Chukwumerije said.

    We are however happy that the pan-Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), is not in agreement with the position of the NEF. Indeed, we align with every point raised by the ACF in dissociating itself from the NEF position on this matter. This tells us that the thinking of the elders’ forum may not necessarily be the position of the entire northern region on the matter; which is heartwarming.

    As the ACF rightly noted through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani,:”The campaigns by the military against the insurgence could not reasonably be personalised against the former Chief of Army Staff. And that is why the military has its own way of bringing to book those soldiers who cross the line in any of such campaigns”. The elders’ forum did not tell us the basis of its conclusion or why the former chief of army staff should be held personally responsible for whatever crimes the soldiers might have committed.

    This issue is similar to the claims of marginalisation that nearly every region in the country has been complaining about. If, as Senator Chukwumerije noted, any group decides to approach the ICC for redress over any matter, a lot of past wounds will be reopened because hardly is there any group or section in the country that does not have one grievance or the other to report at the international court. We particularly deplore the ethnic flavour introduced into the matter by the elders’ forum and commend the ACF for its timely dissociating with the forum’s position.

    What we would urge, and indeed insist on, is strict compliance with rules of engagement in all military campaign, especially the ones against insurgents, whether in the north or any part of the country for that matter. Where there are breaches, the military should be able to decide those and address them appropriately. This is what we expect the elders to demand instead of fanning the embers of hatred and disunity. It’is high time elders started acting in a statesman-like manner and as the true elders that they are.

     

  • 2015 poll: INEC ignores calls for shift of election

    2015 poll: INEC ignores calls for shift of election

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not keen on altering the dates for next year’s Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship and State Assembly elections, despite complaints from certain quarters.

    Saturday, February 14 was picked for the Presidential/National Assembly election and February 28 for the Governorship/State Assembly polls.

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) kicked against the presidential election coming up first, saying it was aimed at encouraging a bandwagon effect in favour of the PDP.

    The ACF said it would have been better for INEC to hold all the elections on the same day to “reduce cost and avoid bandwagon effect.”

    It asked the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act to empower the Commission to hold all the elections on the same day.

    Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State has also faulted the timetable along the same line.

    However, an INEC top official told The Nation yesterday that the Commission has no reason to change the poll timelines.

    The source, a Commissioner, said: “We are constitutionally empowered to conduct elections. Go to sections 76, 178, 116 and 132 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to view the mandate of INEC on dates of elections to be appointed.

    “If you look at Section 25 of the Electoral Act, INEC is expected to organize elections 150 days or 30 days before the expiration of the tenure of office of any holder.”

    The Section, which applies to all political offices, reads: “An election to the office of the President (as applicable to all offices) shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission in accordance with the constitution and this Act.

    “An election to the said office of the President (as applicable to all offices) shall be held on a date not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

    “So, we have complied with the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act. No one can ask us to change the timetable and there is no circumstance that could warrant any alteration of our schedule.

    “In 2011, a party even went to court on the timetable and the court said it is the prerogative of INEC to fix election timeline. That has laid any agitation on the 2015 poll timetable to rest.

    “The fact is that there is no enough time at hand to be playing politics with poll timetable; we will not join such fray.”

    Giving an insight into what informed the choice of the election dates, the Commissioner said that in 2011, INEC started with the National Assembly elections followed by the presidential poll and the governorship and State Assembly elections coming last.He said the only change this time around is holding the presidential and National Assembly elections on the same day because it is cost effective.

    “Instead of Nigerians going to the polling station three times as was the case in 2011, it will now be twice in 2015,” he said.

    He denied that the timetable was designed to favour any party or candidate, saying: “In any case, no candidate has even emerged from any party not to talk of favouring him or her. So, we have the National elections coming first and the state elections next in line.

    “There is no way the timetable can lead to a bandwagon effect as being claimed. What bandwagon are we talking about when the National Elections would have been concluded?

    “We gave a two-week gap in between the National Election and State Assembly election to make sure that all logistic challenges are properly addressed.

    “We want a free and fair poll; we want to conduct elections which will be acceptable to all Nigerians.”

    Jega, who spoke on INEC’s preparedness ahead of 2015 elections, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said: “When we fix dates for elections, we stick to them and do not just make changes except something bad happens.

    “In 2011, we had some challenges with the National Assembly elections and had to move it forward by one week.

    “But in 2015 general elections, the dates have been fixed and we do not intend to make changes. We are not prepared as a body to conduct all elections in one day, that is why we are starting with two categories for now,’’ he said

    He said the Commission looked at best global practices before merging the Presidential and National Assembly elections to hold on the same day, while the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections would hold on the same day.

    He also said that the continuous voters’ registration exercise would hold from June to September this year to enable those who had attained the age of 18 to get registered.

    Jega, who had earlier presented a paper at a lecture on “ The 2015 Election and INEC” at the UK Centre for Strategic and International Studies, listed logistics, attitude of the political class and delay in amendment to the legal framework, as some challenges to elections in the country.

    He said that the Commission had taken into consideration some lapses from the Anambra elections, adding that it would not use the Added Voters’ Register (AVR) for the 2015 polls.

    He, however, said that such names would be transferred to the electronic register before elections to avoid what happened during the Anambra governorship election.

    He further said that the Commission had improved on its synergy with security agencies, while stressing the need for police protection for electoral staff especially those at the polling centres.

    The INEC boss also stressed the need for more collaboration with development partners, and listed capacity building and technology as areas where assistance would be required.

    “Such partnership in capacity building will address the problem of skill gaps. We also face a systematic challenge with data gathering, for example, removing names of the deceased from the voter’s register, so we need the right technology for this,” he added.

  • Ihejirika: ACF disowns North’s Elders ICC trial threat

    Ihejirika: ACF disowns North’s Elders ICC trial threat

    The pan Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), is not convinced of the need by anyone to take the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika, to the International Court of Justice (ICC) over military operations against terrorists in the North.

    It said yesterday that ACF would not be part of the move by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to take Gen Ihejirika to the ICC.

    National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Mr. Anthony Sani, told The Nation that the group had no facts to support the position of the NEF.

    The military, according to him, has its own way of bringing to book soldiers who cross the acceptable line in any such campaigns.

    “While ACF insists on the strict compliance with rules of engagement in military campaigns against the insurgence, the forum does not have the facts needed for support of the position taken by Northern Elders Forum that the former Chief of Staff be dragged to ICJ,” he said in Kaduna.

    Sani added:”The campaigns by the military against the insurgence could not reasonably be personalised against the former Chief of Army Staff. And that is why the military has its own way of bringing to book those soldiers who cross the line in any of such campaigns.

    “We saw it happen in Abu Ghraib in Iraq and later in Afghanistan where some American soldiers who crossed the rules of engagement were brought to book in accordance with the military rules. We therefore do not expect the Nigerian Army to be different.

    “ACF is not on the field and so is not in a position to make an informed comment on when the activities of the insurgents will be stopped by the military campaigns.

    “But it is to be noted that bringing to an end activities of insurgents anywhere in the world is painstaking that often comes with sustained perseverance.

    “Nigerians will be very happy to know that what the Chief of Defence Staff has said that the final hour for the insurgence in Nigeria will be April 2014 comes to pass. Nothing will be better news”.

    He saw nothing wrong in the move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to assume leadership of the National Assembly, saying: “the face-off between the ruling and the opposition parties in the National Assembly is democracy in action, especially when regard is paid to the fact that such face-off closed down some parts of government in America not long ago.

    “All Nigerians expect is that the democratic process be used to solve problems and not to create them”.

    Chairman of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, had said in a statement that his group would drag Ihejirika, who was dropped as Chief of Army Staff two weeks ago to the ICC for “extra-judicial killings by soldiers in Bama and the act of strangulating civilians in Giwa Barracks using an underground detention centre, while depositing the corpses in hospital.”

    He added: “The Forum has therefore resolved to harmonise the reports of the two committees, preparatory to filing a case of extra-judicial killings by the Nigerian Army under the then Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika and six others.

    “The reports will be harmonised at our emergency meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, January 22nd 2014 for further action.”

    The matter did not go down well with the Southeast zone from where Ihejirika hails with Senator Uche Chukwumerije from Abia State denouncing the NEF statement.

    Chukwumerije , speaking at a forum in Abuja last week dared the NEF to go ahead with its plan, saying it would give the Southeast a good opportunity to also drag Nigeria to the ICC for the massacre of over two million Ndigbo during the civil war.

    He said: “The approach of the group to a national problem is selective, patently biased, apparently in search of preconceived culprits, pointedly indifferent to the demands of national unity, and highly provocative to the sensibilities of all who genuinely desire the unity and stability of this federation.

    “As Ango Abdullahi’s team opens the doors and walks into the hall of the world court, let them realise that they have at last opened the Pandora’s Box.

    “The indigenes of Odi, Zaki-Biam and Katsina Ala will in quick succession file into the hall. At the same time, Ndigbo of South East and Anioma will dust their files and head for Hague.

    “Let it be emphasised ab initio that senseless sacrifice of a human life is indefensible. Violations of human rights have remained the bane of Africa. A society that has no respect for human life is nearer the status of a community of animals.

    “But the situation in the universally acknowledged difficult terrain of a borderless war such as terrorism, counter terrorism and guerilla-like conflicts offers a unique challenge. The motives of Prof. Ango Abdullahi and co are obviously beyond concerns about violations of human rights.

    “Every citizen (including Prof. Ango Abdullahi) knows that the anti-terrorism campaign in the North is a joint military operation under the command of the Chief of Defence Staff.

    “In singling out Lt. General Ihejirika, the then Army boss, the likes of Prof. Ango Abdullahi are merely betraying old prejudices and embarking on a new hazardous search for bad names to hang hated dogs.”

     

  • 2015: North’s youths berate ACF, NEF over comment

    Northern youths, under the aegis of Northern Youths Network (NYN), yesterday disassociated themselves from comments credited to some leaders of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) seeking a return of power to the North in 2015.

    They said religion and other primordial sentiments, which northern elders whipped up in the past to sway the choices of the people during elections, must be discarded.

    NYN President, Mallam Alli Kano, in a statement in Abuja, with the Secretary, Auwalu Suleiman, said those speaking for the North on the 2015 Presidency had selfish reasons.

    The statement reads: “As a budding organisation, whose cardinal objective is to raise the level of consciousness of the average northerner, in a bid to compel a paradigm shift in the socio-economic and political affairs of Northern Nigeria in particular and the nation in general, we wish to state very clearly that ethnicity, religion and all the other primordial sentiments, which our elders have whipped up in the past to sway the choices of the people during election times must be hurriedly discarded as we prepare for the 2015 general elections. This is to ensure that credible and competent leaders will rule the nation and advance our democracy.

    “May we humbly ask: which age group constitutes the virile population of northern electorate? It is undoubtedly the youths! But have the elders considered it imperative to consult the youths with a view to harmonising positions in this pointless crave to return power to the North in 2015? No!

    “They just assume that as usual, they can set their selfish agenda and the youths, most of whom they have deliberately left impoverished, will fall in line automatically! But this time, they are in for a big surprise.

    “Experience has shown us that politics is not really a game of sentiments but of interest! Therefore, any leader who is capable of protecting and advancing the interest of the North would enjoy the support of the Northern youths.”

    The group said in the 52 years of the nation’s Independence, power at the centre has resided in the North for much longer than it has in the South.

    “But what do we have to show for it in the North?” the group asked. It added: “It is pervasive poverty, insecurity, hunger, disease, illiteracy and underdevelopment!

    “The egocentric and recycled politicians of Northern Nigeria have over the years used poverty and illiteracy as instruments of oppression to subject the majority of their fellow Northerners to be at their beck and call. Hence, they want the people to do their dirty biddings, people they do not really wish well…”