By Ismail Auwal
The Northern Elders Forum ( NEF) has said that it would not reply Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s vituperation against the elders of the region.
The spokesman of the group, Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, who ruled out any possibility of response to Elrufai’s recent condemnation of the elders said they would not act like the governor.
“All the good people in northern Nigeria know that the region has elders from parents to patriots who struggle for the betterment of the society,” Ahmed wrote on his Facebook page in Hausa.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna had on Friday northern elders as mere paperweights who lack actual political power.
The Kaduna State Governor bragged about the influence of him and his colleagues in the region over the electorates.
“I am 63, too, I have children and grandchildren, I am also an elder. So, who are the Northern elders? They should come out and contest elections. I was elected twice,” El-Rufai boasted.
“Those claiming to be elders, ask them if they have ever contested for any election, even councilorship position. They are liars,l. We, the Northern Governors, are the true elders and leaders of the region,” he added.
El-Rufai claimed that some northern political heavyweights were actively working to thwart Bola Tinubu’s bid for the presidency because they opposed the transfer of power to the South.
