Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spokesman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has warned that North will not campaign for selfish persons justling for legislative positions at both lower and higher chambers of the National Assembly.
Baba-Ahmed however, advised prospective candidates of Northern extraction to pick a consensus candidate among themselves as a mark of working collectively since they know each other capacity for the betterment of the larger society.
The NEF image maker spoke virtually on Thursday in Kaduna at a one-day Colloquium organised by the Democratic Watch Initiative (DWI) under the chairmanship of former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
The theme of the Colloquium was titled, “Inclusive Participation for Sustainable Democracy”.
However, recalling the votes that came from the North during the last general elections, Baba-Ahmed noted that the region produced the highest votes for most of the political parties.
“That is how politics is played. The North does not want just any legislator from the North to become Speaker. We should hope that he has the highest personal integrity and a good idea of how his position can help him. All of them contesting should submit to a process by which their fellow contestants nominate them and then support them.
“The same thing should be done at the Senate level. If those who know each other better than us cannot decide who will serve our interests as Northerners best, then we stop campaigning for all of them. We do not want legislators who want to be in positions of power to fulfil personal ambitions.
“The northern voter has done his job. Some voted because of convictions over the qualities of candidates, some because they were induced; some along faith lines and others along party lines. The result was that the North was the only region that gave all the candidates huge votes, indeed, they made the difference in terms of who became elected at presidential levels. Individuals and groups lobbying for positions for northern legislators should be conscious of a number of things.
“First, the best thing is to respect the independence of the legislature and allow members to choose their leaders. Elected legislatures waiting for final verdicts from the courts who are lobbying groups and members of the public to be elected by colleagues or the President-elect forget that if successful, they will be leading the legislature. Groups which lobby Tinubu for ‘theirs’, should know they will pay a price in the long run,” Baba-Ahmed said.
