The convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Professor Ango Abdullahi has replied the attack on his group by the Presidency.
He told the Presidency that the members of his group were millions of Nigerians who had acknowledged “the blatant failure of the General (Buhari)”.
In a statement released at the weekend and signed by Abdullahi, NEF had claimed that the government at all levels had lost the political will to protect the citizens from rampaging insurgents, bandits, and other criminal elements in the country.
Specifically, NEF said “Our current circumstances in the North clearly demonstrate that President Buhari’s administration has woefully failed to achieve either. This is unacceptable.We demand an immediate and comprehensive improvement of our security in the North.”
READ ALSO: We either return Nigeria to 1960 Constitution or go our separate ways – Ango Abdullahi
But in a statement issued by the special adviser on media and publicity to the president, Femi Adesina on Sunday, the Presidency described Professor Abdullahi’s NEF as an irritant and featherweight group without a credible membership.
“We are not surprised by this latest statement by Prof. Abdullahi, and our past position on what his group represents remains unchanged: a mere irritant and featherweight.
“The former vice-chancellor signed the statement under the banner of Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF). Hearing that title, you would think the body was a conglomeration of true elders.
“But the truth is that NEF is just Ango Abdullahi, and Ango Abdullahi is NEF. It is a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership, and its leader is akin to a General without troops”, Adesina had said.
However, responding in a terse statement on Monday, the former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria said:
“My troops are millions of Nigerians who acknowledge the blatant failure of the General who claims troops to secure the country”.
Opinions