ICYMI: Crack in NEF, as youth wing rejects Baba-Ahmed’s comments on Gov Bello, Fani-Kayode

The Northern Elder’s Forum (NEF) has disowned the statement of its Director of Publicity, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, over the intervention of the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and a former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode on the recent strike action by the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria (AUFCDN) that led to the blockage of food supply from the North to South-West.

Baba-Ahmed had said the forum rejected the idea that the Federal Government or its agents could encourage the outsourcing of its duty and responsibility to protect citizens, to individuals who were neck-deep in encouraging violence and corruption of communal co-existence.

Also, the statement noted that the forum believed that the involvement of the individuals was contrived to render its purported intervention valueless.

Reacting to this, the Youth wing of NEF countered the statement, saying it was done to serve the selfish interest of some people.

In a statement, the Director of Youths and Mobilization, NEF, Nastura Ashir Sharif, said it was regrettable that some people used the platform to express personal political jealousies against other individuals.

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He said, “I write in my capacity as a Director in the Northern Elders Forum and one of its founding members in regards to a recent media statement by Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, NEF’s spokesperson purportedly on behalf of the Forum.

“I can authoritatively say that the statement in which the personality of some individuals involved in the recent negotiations to resolve the food to South blockade issue was challenged, merely represents the personal view of the spokesperson, not that of NEF and made without due consultation.”

According to him, the general assembly of the forum never met to take a decision on the issue since the conclusion of the negotiations, noting that it was inappropriate for one individual member to assume the sole ownership of the right to speak for the forum, without consultation with the general assembly.

“Regrettably, this attitude had once led to a serious misunderstanding with one of our core founders in the past and should in no way be tolerated by anyone else.

“Unfortunately, such an overbearing attitude of using the platform of NEF to vent pent up personal political jealousies by the spokesperson has been on for a while to the irritation of other members,” he added.

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