Ahead of the 2023 general election, the chairman Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Professor Ango Abdullahi, has declared that the north would not vote along ethnicity and faith lines.
According to him, the northerners had learnt their lesson at a great cost.
Abdullahi stated no northerner should assume he is guaranteed the support and votes of northerners simply because he is one of them.
The northern leader said experiences have taught the region the values of critical scrutiny of records, dispositions and empathy.
He spoke in Kaduna on Wednesday, April 7, as convener of Northern People’s Summit on barriers between the people and their leaders.
Abdullahi said: “Northern voters have supported three southerners, Abiola, Obasanjo and Jonathan to victory in the past, two of them against northerners.
“Northern voters are enlightened and conscious of their responsibilities. They have learnt, perhaps at greater cost than most Nigerians, that ethnicity and faith alone do not make good leaders. They will not accept to be further weakened so that they abandon the same rights all Nigerians enjoy.”
Further, he said that the politicians who want northerners to vote in a particular manner should soil their boots and convince northerners how their candidates would improve security, economy and society in the north and the country.
Abdullahi further stated that using restructuring as a threat or bargaining tool for accepting zoning would destroy the imperatives of restructuring and imperil the country.
According to him, politicians and leaders who desire to lead need to understand that Nigerians are watching what they do in the immediate constituencies that would enable them to ask for their support.
He stated: “Politicians who want the support and the vote of the northerner but will not raise their voices and act to protect them against underserved treatment in areas where they have power and influence, should not expect to find our people with open arms when they ask for support.”
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