The Northern elders on Saturday
floated a new group the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF).
The group is aimed at enabling
the region take its destiny in its hand ahead of next year’s elections,
especially the presidential poll.
The group emerged at a meeting of
the Northern Elders’ and Stakeholders Conversation co-convened by a former
national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bello Mohammed;
former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu; and Second Republic Senator, Paul
Wampana.
It was gathered that the group
was formed as the north’s direct response to former president Olusegun
Obasanjo-inspired Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) and its main goal is to
have a northerner rule Nigeria in 2019.
Bello Mohammed, speaking at the
opening session yesterday said the group was formed “after due consideration of
the current political situation in the country and formation of new movement.”
The elders appointed Dr. Umar
Ardo as NPLF’s Secretary and Commodore Isaac M Mankilik (rtd ) as Deputy
Secretary.
It also raised five committees:
2019 Election Sub-Committee, Security Sub-Committee, Political Sub-Committee,
Northern Unity Sub-Committee and a Restructuring of Nigeria Sub-Committee to
that respect
In a statement, the group also
agreed to hold a Northern Political Summit on 15th March 2018.
Former PDP chairman, Bello
Mohammed speaking on new group said “From what is apparent in the political
arena today, it is clear that the major political operators have agreed that in
the forthcoming 2019 General Elections, it is the turn of the North to produce
the president.
“And what we can see in the
political arena is that most political operators have agreed that the political
leadership of our country should be zoned to the North according to our
Constitution with regards to zoning and rotation. But from what we have seen
earlier, it has always been zoned to the North but the decision on what to do
and who to be has never been a Northern decision.
“What we observed is that the
same trend is starting now. We have seen all kinds of movements coming up. If
you look at what is happening now and remember what happened when it was the
time of the North to produce president, President Umaru Yar’Adua of blessed
memory was produced but was he really a Northern choice? At the end of the day,
Yar’Adua had mishap and lost his life in the process and somebody else was also
chosen, his Vice President.
“We knew the struggle that went
on when it was decided that the presidency should leave the North. It wasn’t
the northerners who decided that the Presidency should leave the North. We had
to follow the bandwagon.
“The same thing happened in 2015,
the North voted for the northern candidate but the decision on who should be
the candidate wasn’t a northern decision. What we want is that this time
around; with the new group let us have the opportunity to come together so that
whatever is decided for the North, it is the Northern leaders who decide it and
then we get support from other regions.
“If we are able to do that, then
we should be able to produce a leadership for this country that would be just,
equitable and lead us to nation’s development which is eluding us. That is the
reason why we are here. “
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