By Fola James
Ango Abdulllahi, leader of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF and other leaders have remained shell shocked over the presidency’s week end outbursts that the group no longer represents the region.
The magazine learnt that many northern leaders consider the outburst an attack on political leaders in the region and would no longer support the administration.
President Buhari needs the support of the region to cushion the effect of pressure from the south, particularly over suggestion that he favors the region on political appointment and infrastructural development.
The NEFÂ was largely responsible for President Muhamnadu Buhari election in 2015 and his re-election last year for a second term.
But things got bad after Buhari won last year and the group became his nemesis.
Abdullahi, on his part has remained a thorn in the flesh of the president, constsntly calling him a failure.
It is now possible that he will begin to thread softly over matters of state, following serious verbal flogging from.the presidency.
Abdulllahi, a professor and former Vice Chancellor of ABU had on Saturday virulently criticised the government for its failure to tackle the nation’s economic and security problems.
Barely 24 hours after the president descended heavily on him, through Femi Adesina, President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, who told him to shut up.
According to Adesina, the NEF. forum has lost relevance after allowing people like Abdullahi to take over its leadership.
The presidential spokesman said Abdullahi is now running a carcass NEF which could no longer claim to speak for northerners.
Abdullahi is now a ‘General without troops,’ Adesina said of the ex ABU vice chancellor.
Hear Adesina on the statement signed by Abdullahi criticising Buhari
“The former vice-chancellor signed the statement under the banner of the 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 said.
According to him “Before 2019 presidential election, the one-man army called NEF had shown its antipathy against President Muhammadu Buhari and its preference for another candidate.
They all got beaten together.”
He said “NEF is merely waving a flag that is at half-mast. President Buhari steadily and steadfastly focuses on the task of retooling Nigeria, and discerning Nigerians know the true state of the nation.
They don’t need a paper tiger to tell them anything”
