COMMUNIQUE OF THE MEETING OF NORTHERN LEADERS CONSULTATIVE FORUM HELD AT YAR’ADUA CENTER, ABUJA.
DATED 2ND DECEMBER, 2022
PREAMBLE
The Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, a body comprised of Muslim and Christian leaders across the 19 Northern States and FCT was set up on the 8th October, 2022 with the mandate to consult among all strata of people in Northern Nigeria with a view to identifying the political party to support for the 2023 presidential elections. This was necessitated by the rejection of the same faith Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC.
ACTIONS
The Forum set up a Technical Criteria Committee with the mandate to develop a framework and criteria for the assessment of the leading political parties and their presidential candidates and recommend the ticket that represents our religious, ethnic and geographical diversities, capable of bringing about peace, unity, cohesion and inclusiveness.
The Committee has completed its assignment and presented its report to the Forum. The Forum has accordingly adopted the report and hereby issues the following communiqué:
That the four leading political parties that were considered by the Technical Committee for the purpose of this assignment are:
- The All Progressives Congress (APC)
- The New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPP)
iii. The Labour Party (LP) and
- The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
DECISIONS
- The NNPP and the Labour Party
- That the presidential tickets of the NNPP and LP are inclusive, representing our religious diversity as a country populated by a dominant population of Muslims and Christians.
- It is however noted that the NNPP and LP have not yet unveiled their Strategic Policy Plan for Nigerians to interrogate. This is less than 3 months to the general elections. And so, it is safe to say that no one except the two parties know the direction in which they intend to take the country. Nigerians cannot go into an election blind folded, especially in view of the myriad of problems bedeviling the nation.
- The NNPP and LP do not have all round grassroots structures required of a political party seeking the highest office in the country. They do not have reasonable presence of its members in positions of governance at national, state and local government levels. The few if any, have only recently decamped to the parties. There seems to be a dearth of experienced hands within their parties to pilot the affairs of state.
- Based on INEC’s final list of candidates for the 2023 elections, the NNPP could not field in all the seats for the office of Governor and House of Representatives while LP could not field in all the candidates at the levels of Governor, National Assembly (Senate and House of representatives) and State Houses of Assembly.
The NNPP and LP do not have the required structures to win the presidential election and even if they win, they cannot be able to smoothly run the government as they will not have the required parliamentary majority to successfully pilot the affairs of government.
- The All progressives Congress (APC)
The APC as we all know has fielded the same faith (Muslim-Muslim) ticket which excludes a large demography of Christians who do not feel represented by the ticket. The APC presidential ticket does not promote inclusiveness, unity, religious harmony and cohesion. A large population of Muslims has also expressed reservations to this ticket and has called for fairness and inclusivity.
Consequently, this ticket is outrightly rejected by the Forum and the Forum hereby calls on all lovers of democracy, peaceful coexistence, unity and religious harmony to reject the ticket in its entirety.
III. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)
- That the PDP presidential ticket is representative of our religious diversity as a people.
- The presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar is the only candidate among the candidates of the four leading political parties that has the knowledge and experience of managing the country at the presidential level. This gives him the advantage to set the ball rolling from day one.
- That the PDP presidential candidate has a track record of working harmoniously with all classes of people across religious and ethnic divides.
- That the PDP presidential candidate is a well-known talent hunter who has demonstrated capacity to hunt highly experienced talents across different sectors and bring them into government. This country needs highly talented people at this critical time to pull the country out of the doldrums and bring it back to the path of stability, security and prosperity.
RESOLUSIONS
The Forum therefore adopts the PDP and the Atiku/Okowa Presidential ticket as the right ticket to support in the 2023 presidential elections, as it addresses all the concerns of inclusiveness, fairness and national cohesion.
The Forum recommends for support the Atiku Abubakar/Ifeanyi okowa presidential ticket to all well-meaning Nigerians across the ethnic, sectional and religious diversities, in order to foster unity, peace, development and progress.
Signed:
PROFESSOR DOKNAN DD SHENI, OON
H.E. MUKHTARI SHEHU SHAGARI, CFR
Delta to Buhari: Okowa not among ‘pilfering’ governors
Delta Government on Friday dissociated Governor Ifeanyi Okowa from the allegation by President Muhammadu Buhari that some governors were involved in diverting local government funds.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, at a news conference in Asaba said Okowa’s administration had remained transparent and accountable to the people and would never be counted among governors (if any) that steal local government funds.
He stated that in case the President had information that such pilfering happened in some states, “ the reverse is the case in Delta, where rather than touch the funds of local governments, the governor gives them nothing less than N300 million monthly to augment their salaries and pension bills, and remain afloat’’.
According to Ifeajika, I want to say that Mr President, as one who has all the information about issues in the country, knows the governors who fall into that category of the so-called ‘thieves’ he was referring to.
“We all know that our own Governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, does not belong there. He was one of the first governors, if not the first, to embrace local government autonomy when it was agreed on just like he did with the judiciary and the legislature.
“He went as far as getting legislation to grant autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary. He allowed them to run autonomously. And, for a man, who allowed these organs of government to have autonomy, he cannot have anything to do with funds belonging to the local governments.
“I repeat that the government of Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, every month, augments the finances of local governments in the state with more than N300 million to make sure they are able to pay their salaries and stay afloat.
“He does that religiously monthly; so, for a man who does that, how can he be among those who steal local government money?
“Our governor is not part of it. You are also aware that the government of Sen. (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa recently released N5 billion for pension arrears; N2.5 billion of that was a grant to the local government for payment of pensions.
“It is a grant to the local government; they are not going to pay. The governor did that because the local governments have to fund their activities, pay their teachers and healthcare workers,” he stated.
Okowa’s spokesman also took a swipe at Deputy President of the Senate and All Progressives Congress Governorship Candidate in the state, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, for lying about consulting Governor Okowa on the status of PTI-Eku-Agbor road.
Ifeajika said that Omo-Agege knew that the road was under contract and he knew the contractor who abandoned the road.
“I have told you before that lying is in the DNA of Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege just like it is in the APC. But beyond lies, his utterances obviously smack of malice and mischief.
“In a meeting with CAN members in Sapele some days ago, he told them that he had asked Okowa to furnish him with information about the status of the road from PTI through Agbor.
“I wonder how Omo-Agege, Deputy President of the Senate, would be asking the governor to furnish him with such information when he can easily find out about the road as a federal officer.
“Again, he lied when he said that he was doing that because the contract for that road had been awarded previously. But, if that is the case, all he needed to do was to use his good office to return the contractor to site.
“He said he wanted that information to enable him to put the road contract in NDDC’s budget. So, what happened to the first contract? If a contract was awarded, as a Deltan, all he needed to do was to find out what happened to the first contract.
“Well, Deltans are Deltans and they know the truth. He said N80 billion has been approved for that same project again through NDDC. We have heard him but, until we see the contractor deployed to work, we cannot believe him.
“He said again that because of insecurity, oil companies have left the state, Warri particularly. We all know where insecurity comes from. It is one big thing that the APC administration has given to Nigerians.
“It is their flagship gift to Nigerians, and his comment on insecurity is a great indictment on the Federal Government where he is a big stakeholder,” he stated.
