Wrong call by the Northern Elders Forum

On Tuesday last week, the Northern Elders Forum issued a statement demanding the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, from office over the rising challenges of insecurity in the country. The statement, made available to newsmen by the Director, Publicity and Advocacy of NEF, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said, among other things, that: “The administration of […]

On Tuesday last week, the Northern Elders Forum issued a statement demanding the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, from office over the rising challenges of insecurity in the country. The statement, made available to newsmen by the Director, Publicity and Advocacy of NEF, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said, among other things, that: “The administration of President Buhari does not appear to have answers to the challenges of security to which we are exposed. We cannot continue to live and die under the dictates of killers, kidnappers, rapists and sundry criminal groups that have deprived us of our rights to live in peace and security. Our Constitution has provisions for leaders to voluntarily step down if they are challenged by personal reasons or they prove incapable of leading. It is now time for President Buhari to seriously consider that option, since his leadership has proved spectacularly incapable of providing security for Nigerians”.

The Forum noted further that they are “aware of the weight of this advice”, but at the same time, also “aware that we cannot continue to live under these conditions until 2023 when President Buhari’s term ends”.

As to be expected, the NEF’s call generated quite a lot of controversy among wide sections of Nigerians in the regular press and on social media. The statement was roundly condemned among many Nigerians on social media, but also praised and widely circulated by others.

Speaking for the President in a reaction statement titled “Reforms in internal security to take hold sooner than later”, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said that, “The Presidency does not wish to be drawn into the high-decibel show in the media, taking the nation by the storm from the Northern Elders Forum. “Publicity is the oxygen for politicians who have failed to connect with voters in a democracy. It is enough to say from our part, that resignation call on the President is not a solution to the security problems facing the country, something that has built up to a worrisome level, following decades of neglect”.

The presidency said further that “it is more important that citizens know what their government is doing to deal with this situation and for politicians to come to terms with the fact that it is beneficial to all that they help to preserve the state so that when it is their turn, they will have a place that they will manage. People don’t have to destroy what is there in a desperate quest to get power”.

At Daily Trust, we believe that NEF’s call for President Buhari to resign is uncalled for, unnecessary, and unlikely to help in any way to resolve the situation. We also find the verbal tit-for-tat between the Presidency and the Northern Elders Forum regrettable, after all, the President is also an elder of the North and of the country. For sure, we understand the frustration of the Northern Elders Forum in the wake of rising insecurity challenges and the spate of killings, kidnappings and general lawlessness in the country, particularly in the northern part of the country.

We also share the Forum’s view that the federal government, and President Buhari in particular, could do better in addressing the security situation in Nigeria and the North.

But the resignation of President Buhari is not by itself a solution to these challenges, nor is the call for it, however politically expedient it might seem. The complexities of the security situation in Nigeria go beyond any quick fixes, or what can be blamed on a single government, even if, as we have said repeatedly on this page, the current government can do much better than it now does. The entire architecture of security in the country has been badly managed over decades, and the rising challenges we are facing today, are in a sense, an indication of that. And by security we mean much more than just the armed forces, which themselves have decayed to their roots over these decades. The collapse of the society’s moral values and the persistent economic downturn are all part of the security architecture. Neither the resignation of the president, nor any successor can resolve these issues the next day.

Moreover, the resignation of the president in an election year is bound to cause constitutional and security crises of its own, arising from the heat and tensions in the national polity that such a move will entail. Nigeria does not need any of that right now. Instead, we call on the NEF and all leaders of the country to join hands with the government to work together towards resolving the security challenges and ensure a peaceful, free and fair election. Indeed, hardly any of the scores of presidential candidates across all political parties angling to succeed President Buhari has shown Nigerians blueprint for tackling rising insecurity in the country.

This is worrisome in itself, for any Buhari successor will inherit both the assets and the liabilities, including insecurity, which, therefore, makes it important for Nigerians to know now how they aim to resolve our most challenging problems. We, therefore, urge the NEF and all other people of goodwill to cast their searchlights on not just the present government, but those who aim to replace it soon enough. In the meantime, let Buhari complete his final term.