The Northern Elders Forum has said it would endorse best presidential candidate that have blueprint to fix Nigeria.
The Spokesman for the Forum, Dr. Hakeem Baba- Ahmed gave the clarification while featuring on ” Politics Today” On Channels Television.
Baba- Ahmed said all political presidential candidates would be subjected to rigorous interrogation exercise to knowing the best among them with plans and programmes that could fix Nigeria from the multi-facets challenges bedeviling it.
Showing the seriousness of the forum, The spokesman admitted that the Northern Forum erred in 2015 for ordering all Northerners to vote Buhari without demanding his plans and blueprint to fix Nigeria.
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.”
Baba- Ahmed stressed further,”At this stage, our options are open. We will not vote on a narrow prism like where (candidates) come from. I speak for the elders’ forum. There was no point we said only northern candidates will be considered. We don’t see the north in isolation. We see ourselves as related to other parts of Nigeria.
I don’t know what the other parts of the country are doing but the North is not just going to vote for any candidate unless we are convinced that he has done some serious thinking about what he is going to do for this country.
“But we need to know the presidential candidate’s mental health, physical, intellect capacity and his willingness to tap into some of the brightest brains available and his sensitivity to a number of key issues that are vital to our survival as a country,” he stated.
He said, “If Tinubu is able to convince us about his genuine intention to the North, We will, in turn, tell the people Tinubu is the best candidate, vote for him.