The performance of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has split the ranks of Northern elders as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday disowned the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and other leading organization on their verdict on the political leaders in the North. ACF stated that it is not party to the Northern groups that declared that President Buhari and other northern politicians have failed and will be rejected in 2019. ACF, in a statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna yesterday, said they did not send anybody to represent them at the summit and, as such, are not party to the vote of no confidence passed on Buhari and other political office holders from the North.
The statement, signed by Muhammad Ibrahim Biu, National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, said the group will speak to the nation at the appropriate time on the fate of President Buhari as it relates to the 2019 elections and other issues. The NEF, ACF and other leading groups, after the Northern Groups Summit held at the Arewa House, Kaduna, on Saturday March 24, declared that Buhari and other politicians from the North have failed. The groups said Buhari and other politicians should expect rejection by northerners in 2019. The communiqué after the summit was signed by Professor Ango Abdullahi, chairman of the political committee of ACF and Ambassador Ibrahim Mai Sule who represented ACF at the summit, among others. But reacting to the communiqué, ACF said: “Any member who claimed to have represented ACF or signed on behalf of the Forum did so on his own.
“Furthermore, the views expressed in the said communiqué were that of the conveners and not that of ACF which is an umbrella body for all northerners irrespective of their political, ethnic and religious persuasions. “ACF, therefore, dissociates itself from the communiqué in its entirety. “The ACF will address the North and the Nation on this and similar issues as it always does at the appropriate time.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the ACF would want to state clearly that it was never involved in the preparation nor participated in the said summit of that group and did not mandate any of its members to represent the Forum. “ACF acknowledges the right of the individuals or groups to freedom of association as enshrined in our constitution.”