By Chijioke Kingsley

Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Coalition of Concerned Northern Groups, CCNG, has expressed concern over the Northern Elders Forum’s statement that it will not vote for President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

CCNG described the statement “as wrongly depicting the government of President Bola Tinubu.”

The president of the group, Muhammad Ibrahim, said in a statement issued on Saturday: “The Coalition of Concerned Northern Groups (CCNG) finds it pertinent to respond to the recent statement made public by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) wrongly depicting the [government of] President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“The spokesperson of NEF expressed the regret of the forum for supporting and voting for Tinubu without clearly stating why. More so, the group’s spokesperson ratted that the north will not accept a second term for Tinubu.”

According to him, it was an unwise move for NEF to engage in “such a slander,” as Nigerians see the hard work of the president as manifesting practically.

“It baffles us that the NEF was silent when former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime killed hundreds of innocent men, women and children when it clamped down on Shi’ite members in Kaduna in 2015. Were they not northerners who were murdered in an extrajudicial manner?

“Was it not during the Buhari regime that the banditry became more prominent in the Northwest, a situation that has virtually killed the farming profession in the region and destroyed lives and property? Yet the NEF never rose against that.”

The CCNG president, noting that the country is hardly two years into the regime that started on a very difficult footing with many things to be put right, stated that it is unbecoming for the forum to demonise the regime instead of giving it the benefit of the doubt.

“Reviewing the NEF claims that they mobilised the north in favour of President Tinubu, even as his major contender, Atiku Abubakar, was a northerner, cannot be substantiated because they have no such influence over the electorate in the region,” he explained.

In comparison with the Buhari regime, Ibrahim said NEF is not fair to President Tinubu, who is currently enjoying the goodwill of Nigerians because of his commitment to national development and progress.

CCNG, passing a vote of confidence in President Tinubu, called on NEF to reconsider its stance in the interest of the north and northerners.