We would rather die with Buhari, than vote a Southerner -Northern Leaders.

                        

2019: We Would Rather Die With Buhari, Than Vote A Southerner – Northern Leaders Senior Northern Leaders on Monday, October 10, have said that despite the current economic woes characterizing the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, their votes for him (Buhari), in the 2015 Presidential election, were never wasted.

A former Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who spoke on behalf of the Northern Elders, at the Northern Group’s Summit, organised by the Northern Elders Forum, in Kaduna, said that if Buhari, or any Northern candidate contests for Presidency in 2019, they would gladly vote in their favour.

While speaking, Hakeem said: “Today, we meet in Kaduna, in a vastly-improved security atmosphere, with the Boko Haram sect pinned to enclaves. Some will say thank you to President Buhari; we will say, you have delivered on one of your promises, which was to improve our security.”

Hakeem however, reminded the President, that there was hunger and starvation in the land. He said, “We will not join those who say President Buhari, should stop reminding us of a past that is haunting us today, but we will join those who remind him daily, that hunger is stalking millions of homes.

“Inflation is making life difficult by the day. People are losing their jobs. Businesses are closing down. “Infrastructure is decaying. Young Nigerians are losing hope of being employed. Our hospitals are full of people who suffer mysterious illnesses, and they cannot afford the fees.”
Hakeem, said despite the current economic woes in the country, the Northern votes for Buhari in 2015, were not wasted, insisting that the North did not make a mistake in voting for the President.

He added, “So, those who are disposed to listen, please listen. Northern votes were not wasted in electing President Buhari.

“In 2019, we will also use our votes in a manner consistent with our interests as Northerners. We did not make a mistake in putting up a solid, united front as Northerners, in spite of our ethno- religions differences.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, and helmsman of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has said that nobody, be it the Indigenous People of Biafra, or any other separatist agitators, can divide Nigeria.

Shettima, said the current calls by some Nigerians, particularly the Igbos, and other ethnic nationalities in the country, were purely the handiwork of those who had lost in the “chess of power politics” in the country.

He noted, that there was no single ethnic nationality in the country that had a greater stake in the continued existence of Nigeria than the Igbos, saying that continuous agitation for the decimation of the country, would remain an illusion. Besides, Shettima argued that the greatest tragedy that befell the country, was the emergence of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The Borno State Governor, further noted that the Jonathan administration, made every effort to not only divide the North, but the entire country along ethnic and religious lines. He added, that no matter the differences, nobody, or group could balkanize the Nigerian nation.