For the second time this week, Northern Elders Forum asks Buhari to resign

The Northern Elders Forum has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over insecurity in the country. 

The group Spokesperson, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed made this resignation call for the second time in two days.

He spoke on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today monitored by NewsWireNGR on Wednesday. 

Bala said that it will ask President Buhari to resign just as the President asked former President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over insecurity before 2015. 

He said: “We will continue to ask that he (Buhari) resigns. He is a democratically elected president. We wish he is doing better but he is not. Ordinarily, under a democratic system, a leader is supposed to deliver, he is supposed to do two things–he is supposed to secure citizens, and he is supposed to facilitate their economic welfare. He (Buhari) hasn’t done the first and he is not doing the second. So, explain to me on what basis President Buhari should continue to be our president?

“However, it is his right to continue to be the president even if Nigerians are unhappy and unsatisfied with what he is doing, that is his right but we will not keep quiet; we will continue to speak up that he has failed Nigerians, he is failing Nigerians and under a democratic setting, we have to raise our voices and say, ‘Mr. President, you are just not good enough for this country’. That is just the simple truth.

“We have respected the President, we understand the difficulty he is facing and we understand how difficult it is to tell him to resign but we also have the democratic right to tell him, ‘Sorry sir, you cannot run this country, you have been given five, six years to do so and the situation is just getting worse and we believe that you have nothing new to offer and the only way is for you to resign’. We believe we are speaking for millions of Nigerians.”

The Northern Elders Forum had on Tuesday made the call for the President to resign through a statement released by Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed. 

The group claimed that life had lost value under the Buhari-led administration and the government does not have the political will to fight the insurgency. 

It blasted the presidency for its insensitive response about Saturday’s gruesome massacre against 43 farmers in Zabarmari, Borno State by terror group, Boko Haram. 

“These killings and the reality they expose will make relocation of citizens and resumption of economic activities a lot more difficult to achieve even for leadership that attaches priority to them, and this administration does not. Elsewhere in many parts of the North, many farming communities have not been allowed by bandits and kidnappers to plant crops,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday agreed to comply with the resolution of the House of Representatives summoning him to appear before it to explain why insecurity is threatening the country to its very fabric and what he’s doing about it.

Making the disclosure while answering questions from journalists after leading a delegation to a meeting with the president, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said the group was in the State House to covey to Buhari the resolution summoning him to appear before it.

He said aside conveying the resolution to the president, they also had the intention of fixing the date for the president’s appearance but they later declined fixing the date in deference to the president’s office.

However, he was swift to add that they eventually reached an agreement with the president on the date he would appear before them, but declined to make the date known, promising instead that it would be communicated to journalists later.

“We came to see the President on developments in the country. He was so willing to listen as typical of the president.

“The usual democrat that he is. What we basically sought was to convey the resolution of the House and to fix a date which we did not fix out of respect for Mr. President and his very tight schedule, what date will be convenient.

“We have agreed on a date and he will meet with the House to address the situation. We have fixed a date but we will communicate with you. He is a perfect democrat. He will come to the House to address members in the nearest future,” he said.

Asked what was his perception of the president’s handling of security threats ravaging the country, Gbajabiamila was swift to add that the president was more concerned about the worsening insecurity bedeviling the country.

He added, however, that he would avoid preempting the president until he personally appears before the House, adding that Buhari is committed to addressing security crises threatening the country.