Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), yesterday, decried underlying ethnic and religious considerations by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in choosing a running mate for its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
NEF, in a statement by its director of publicity and advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, lamented that the prospects for safe conduct of free and fair elections are being threatened by the conduct of Nigerian politicians.
The forum advised that Nigerians must pull the nation away from its current precarious position as what is at stake is more than an election, but the survival of our country.
Baba-Ahmed said that Northern Elders Forum is deeply concerned over developments in many aspects of our politics as they relate to preparations for the 2023 elections and beyond, adding that these developments threaten our already distressed democratic process. He noted that our politics now operates outside safe and tolerable boundaries, warning that the nation will pay dearly for the desperation of those who ought to show leadership and responsibility among our politicians.
He added that it is not responsible to resist the urge to caution politicians only on the ground that many matters that will impact on “our lives and the quality of our national existence are purely internal affairs of political parties.”
He said the search for a running mate for the APC’s presidential candidate with religious faith of two individuals as the sole issue at stake represents a sad reminder that politicians will not allow the country’s democratic system to grow beyond the narrowest of confinements.
He observed that Nigerians take their faith seriously, noting that the “faith of our leaders has never been a factor in the manner we are governed.”
The NEF publicity scribe said the political manoeuvres in the APC now divert attention from serious issues around the quality of governance, and point to the danger that we are a multi religious country, whose citizens will pay dearly if one politician is not a Christian or Muslim. He warned that politicians are desperately shepherding Nigerians into two irreconcilable religious divides, all in a bid to garner undeserved advantages at the expense of religious tolerance and co-existence.
He said the melodrama around selection of the PDP’s presidential candidate’s running mate, and the role of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike will remain constant reminders that power and wealth, irrespective of how they are acquired, have made the political process its hostage.
Baba-Ahmed said the ransom that will be paid to free our democratic process may be such that the nation cannot afford, adding that “our nation is being carved into strongholds controlled by powerful individual politicians who must be placated at all cost. He noted that the country will pay a huge price if these politicians succeed in stamping their personalities into the democratic process.
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