Former Senate President, Ameh Ebute who served as Senate president during the end of the third Republic says the north will vote President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential elections.
Ebute was responding to Professor Ango Abdullahi, the convener of Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), who had declared that the north won’t vote for the president
Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, had, while speaking to journalists in Zaria as part of activities to mark his 80th birthday, also advocated for a return to parliamentary system of government, stressing that the system was more accountable than the presidential system.
Responding to Abdullahi’s submission, Ebute in a statement sent to journalists on Wednesday, December 12, insisted that the NEF chairman could not decide for the entire north.
He warned Abdullahi to retract the statement and retrace his steps, or risk running NEF as a one-man show.
Part of the statement read: “I wish to remind the NEF convener that NEF has not met in recent times and adopted a common position on the rejection or acceptance of the reelection bid of President Buhari or any other candidate vying for the office of the President of Nigeria in 2019.
“The public statement credited to Ango in all ramifications came to me as a rude shock. And I dare say, it is an abuse of his right to freedom of speech by aligning his personal thoughts with a group, which is not part of his thinking on the matter canvassed.
“Already, there are dissenting voices against this apparent insensitivity and absurdity as propagated by Prof. Ango Abdullahi. We cannot accept anybody’s personal desire to drag NEF into public ridicule or partisanship, except Ango wishes to be its sole owner, as convener, chairman, secretary, publicist and the rest.
“Thus far, I completely and faithfully align myself with the position of objection to Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s posture by my other Northern elders, majority in silence, but others vocal like the trio of Maj. Gen. Paul Tarfa, Capt. Basir Sodangi and Sani Daura.”
Ebute stated that President Buhari cannot superintend, “over skewed sharing or distribution of Nigeria’s commonwealth in favour of the north, warning the NEF leader to retrace his steps.”
He said other northern elders will keep supporting President Buhari, “on his redemption mission of Nigeria.”
“We have seen and felt the positive impact of his administration. Where he is lacking, we would rather advise him privately. So, the attempt by Ango to bifurcate NEF with his personal political agenda is reprehensible and unacceptable to the rest of us,” he added.
