Northern Elders Forum Roasts Buhari, Speaks On Lagos Okada Ban

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has said the administration President Muhammadu Buhari lacked fresh ideas on how to deal with the nation’s security challenges.

Speaking through its chairman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the forum stated that Nigerians have become poorer under the administration of President Buhari.

NEF said: “It has become necessary and appropriate, however, to make public, the position of the forum on important matters that affect the manner Nigerians live, and the future we must address.

“The forum regrets that by any standard of judgement, the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed the nation in the vital area of improving its security.

“The relationship between insecurity and poverty is fundamental, but the administration does not appear to have any idea on what will provide relief or solution.

“It gives the forum no pleasure to say that it had warned Nigerians that President Buhari lacked the will, the competence and commitment to lead it into a secure and prosperous future before the 2019 elections.

“It is shocking that in spite of unprecedented consensus among Nigerians that the administration requires a new resolve, approach and leadership in the fight against the nation’s multiple security challenges, President Buhari appears either totally isolated or in deep denial over the result of his failures to secure Nigerians.”

Lagos Okada/Keke Ban

The Northern Elders Forum also kicked against the recent commercial motorcycle ban, popularly called Okada, in Lagos State.

The group urged northern governors to support northerners that would be returning back to the region due to the ban.

NEF said: “With due respect to the rights of the Lagos State Government to take decisions that improve the environment and public safety, we are constrained to draw attention to the impact of its policy on banning Okada and Keke in parts of the State on the poor and operators, many of them from the North, who earn honest living through this trade.

“We urge restraint in the responses of those who are immediately affected by this policy, while we urge Northern State Governments to mobilize and support the people who will be compelled to relocate back to the North with other sources of legitimate living.”