‘Let’s save a fragile Nigeria from failed leaders. Buhari a failure,’ Northern elders rally elite  

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) on Thursday rallied the elite to save a “fragile Nigeria” from failed leaders.

The NEF Spokesman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who made the call at the “2nd Never Again Conference: 51 Years After the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War,” organised by an Igbo think-tank, Nzuko Umunna, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has failed in all aspects of governance including security, economy and infrastructure.

He challenged the country’s elite to make Nigeria great again by speaking with one voice towards national cohesion.

Baba-Ahmed said: “We finished the civil war in 1970 and within four years, virtually all the Igbos who had left the north and were still alive came back to the north. They continued with their lives. Northerners moved to the East and Nigeria moved on.

“Here we are 51 years after, abusing each other, disputing history. It is a good thing that we are saying ‘Never Again’, but we need to recognise, ‘Never What Again’? The post-civil war elite had substantially failed this country, even more than those who plunged this country into the disaster that ended in 1970. The elite of Nigeria still speak in a manner that suggests that we are still fighting a war. This means this country has not made any progress at all.

“We need to be very careful. We need history but our present and future should not become captives of the past. If we do that, we will never fix the problem, we will always fight over what happened in the past.

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“As we speak, this nation has never been worse than this – not even during the civil war. The civil war isn’t the worst disaster; the day is the worst disaster we are living in. We have a very poor government and leadership that does not care about Nigerians. You have massive insecurity, no fresh ideas, and a complete vacuum in leadership. It is only going to get worst unless something dramatic happens.

“When we say ‘Never Again’, we must understand something that it can happen again. Let’s not deceive ourselves. When IPOB says we are leaving Nigeria and other parts of the country are no longer keen on staying in the country, that is a big issue.

“The Nigerian state is very fragile, not just because there is no consensus but because the elite who should work together are not working together. We need to adopt a sense of urgency and change the quality of leadership that we produce.

“We are on our knees now because we made wrong choices in the type of leadership that we elected and politicians who have no business being in power are in power. We need to review the process with which leaders emerge.”

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