2023: Northern Elders Insist On Urgent Conversation Before General Election

Northern elders yesterday said the various challenges facing Nigeria must be fixed before the nation could hold a general election in 2023, warning that except that is done the country would become weak and vulnerable to internal strife.

Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who spoke to Source, said there is an urgent need for a genuine conversation around the country’s challenges as well as how to resolve them in order to reduce the threats to the general election.

“We need to meet to address our collective challenges like the decentralisation of power before we get to the 2023 general election,” he told Source explaining: “If our challenges are not addressed before the 2023 elections, we will definitely have a weak country struggling to address monumental challenges.”

Furthermore, he said the election has become a distraction as politicians have focused on it rather than tackle the crises of insecurity and the rising quest for the decentralisation of power among other demands for the review of the subsisting power relations in the country.

“The truth about it is that 2023 is instrumental to our challenges because politicians are already planning for 2023 elections without first considering fixing the insecurity challenges of the country,” Baba-Ahmed said.
Suggesting, he alleged that politicians in power and government are resisting the political demands for a review of the prevailing structure, he was sure that no president or politician would agree to restructure the country and whittle down the powers of the presidency and the National Assembly members, which he argued represent a threat to the country.

“No president, no governor, nor legislator, nor politician will agree to change the situation that they are benefiting from and this is the reason why we need to meet and fix the challenges before 2023 general elections,” he emphasised.

This stumbling block role and what he called the utterances of politicians, he said, pose more potent threats to the security of the nation than banditry and insurgency, adding that Nigerians must meet through various fora to discuss the insecurity and political challenges facing the country.

He cautioned politicians against unguided utterances targeted at Northerners, which he said, were threats to the sovereignty of Nigeria.

“The real threat to Nigeria is not just coming from bandits and protesters, but from our politicians who swore to protect the country, because of their utterances,” he stated.