The open threat made by the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, to mobilize against President Bola Tinubu’s re-election has excited the reaction of Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.
“The North made a mistake in voting Bola Tinubu to the presidency in 2023, and it is unlikely that they will repeat the same error in the future,” NEF’s spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, told The Guardian on Tuesday.
Reacting via a statement he authored and issued on Saturday, Matawalle disparaged the group saying, “This NEF is more of a political burden to Northerners. The group is seeking to erode other people’s rights in order to be recognised or made relevant in the scheme of things despite the failure of their sponsored candidates in the 2023 general elections.”
The former Zamfara State governor added, “In as much as many have overlooked them in respect of their utterances, it is pertinent to underscore their overbearing attitude on issues that affect political unity and cohesion.”
He said further, “We all know President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR won the February 2023 presidential election convincingly. So, who is the NEF to want to undermine the president’s victory and even threaten to unseat him?
“The majority of them are more interested in faulting the government so as to be recognised or accorded some relevance.
“Our region, the North, is united, disciplined and politically-driven enough not to listen and accept being teleguided by any group of elites who had fed fat in the past on the North’s resources and opportunities which had retarded development in the region and nation due to their selfishness.
“President Tinubu is poised to do a lot for the North as President of Nigeria, elected by the people of Nigeria, not by one ethnic group or the other, therefore, anyone mistakenly seeing President Tinubu as a failure or a weakling is making a mistake and should rethink.
“Such a person or group is either blind or misguided and unable to see the new Nigeria that is emerging. Therefore, the NEF’s statement allegedly expressing regret for voting for President Tinubu is unfortunate.
“NEF is not more than a group that has refused to accept reality and is living in delusion. The truth is that the North is proud of its support and vote for President Tinubu and will continue to be proud of her relationship with the President given the enormous change and development his government has brought to the region.”
