The Northern Elders Forum (NEF), on Friday, decried the precarious state of the country occasioned by President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style.
Buhari anchored his 2015 presidential campaign on the mantra of change.
But since coming to power, the NEF has been one of the fiercest critics of the Buhari administration.
Its members, in 2019, declared their support for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and urged Nigerians to vote out the inept government of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Since the President was re-elected three years ago, NEF has been unrelenting in its criticism of the government over the worsening insecurity, increasing poverty, corruption, and other problems.
In a series of tweets on his Twitter handle on Friday, the NEF spokesman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, identified strong and sincere leadership as the basis for the development of any country.
He cited religion and ethnicity as the major problems bedeviling Nigeria and stalling its progress.
He also accused Nigerians of failing to learn from bad leadership exhibited by the country’s elite.
Baba-Ahmed wrote: “Leadership is critical, but so is the ability to learn from past mistakes. In 2015, millions thought Buhari would transform Nigeria. He did negatively.
“You have to wonder if the results of poor leadership under which we have been sinking have taught us anything. Just look at how we have elevated faith and ethnic identity over everything else. Yet insecurity and poverty affect us all.
“No country is ever guaranteed to work and none is guaranteed to fail. To keep countries together, you need good people to lead them, strong values shared by the majority of citizens, strong institutions that will support consistent development, and citizens as stakeholders.”