Resign Now, Northern Elders Tell Buhari

For the umpteenth time, the Northern Elders Forum has demanded the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari from office, after describing his administration as utter failure.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday, signed by its spokesman, Mr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Forum called for the president’s resignation citing the worsening insecurity situation in the country.

“The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari does not appear to have answers to the challenges of security to which we are exposed,” the statement said.

The elders said, “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.”

According to them, the Nigerian constitution has provisions for leaders to voluntarily step down if they are challenged by personal reasons or they prove incapable of leading.

Consequently, for gross incompetence in protecting lives and property, the forum said, “It is now time for President Buhari to seriously consider that option, since his leadership has proved spectacularly incapable of providing security over Nigerians.

“Our Forum is aware of the weight of this advice, and it is also aware that we cannot continue to live under these conditions until 2023 when President Buhari’s term ends.”

Lamenting on incessant killings in the country, the forum said, “Killers and other criminals appear to have sensed a paralyzing vacuum at the highest levels of leadership, and they grow more confident and acquire more competence in subverting the State and our security.

“Nigerians have shed enough tears and blood without appropriate response from those with responsibilities to protect us.”

The Forum advised Nigerians to exercise great levels of discretion in choosing their leaders in upcoming elections as the nation currently needs good leaders to place it on the path of rediscovery.

The forum had in 2021 called on the president to resign twice and has been pressing for new security architecture to rein in excesses of some elements the group said have made the country ungovernable.

The forum has severally regretted its support for the president and has called for a nationalist president to emerge in 2023 regardless of his ethnic or religious leaning.