The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle has described the Northern Elders Forum as a mere “political paperweight” on the destructive journey seeking relevance.
Matawalle stated these while reacting to reports attributed to the forum against President Bola Tinubu.
The group had in a statement said it regretted voting Tinubu in the 2023 Presidential election and would not repeat it in 2027.
Responding to the statement, the Minister described the statement as ‘reprehensible and naive’, describing the NEF as “a group of people seeking political relevance to overburden the system and create political disunity among Nigerians”.
“The so-called NEF is more or less a political paperweight trying to embark on a destructive journey that will bring the North to disrepute for the group’s personal and selfish gains.
He continued, “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.”
He said the group were exhibiting an overbearing attitude on issues that affected the political unity and cohesion of the country.
“They cannot offer any positive idea or thought about the future of Northern Nigeria or, indeed, of Nigeria and its unity and togetherness,” Matawalle said.
The Minister said it was glaringly clear that President Tinubu won the February 2023 presidential election convincingly, querying “who is the NEF to want to undermine the president’s victory and even threaten to unseat him?
“This same group of people have intentionally shied away from their responsibility of engendering unity in the North by appreciating the incremental development being brought to the North by Ministers appointed by President Tinubu from the North, especially North-West.
“The NEF has not deemed it fit to seek audience with Mr. President to discuss issues affecting the Northern region despite the numerous challenges facing the North as rightly highlighted by the President and being addressed by him.
“The group is yet to visit any of the ministers dealing with issues of security, agriculture, water resources, police affairs, Education, Health, Budget, foreign affairs, or any head of security agencies in the country so far for first-hand knowledge of government programmes and actions,” he stated.
Matawalle added that the majority of them were more interested in faulting the government 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”.
Matawalle said 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,” the minister added.
He, therefore, described the NEF’s statement expressing regret for voting for Tinubu as “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,” he said.
Matawalle then advised the NEF, and others like it, to support the present government and join hands with the President to further move the country forward.
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