NEF Leader Rubbishes Tinubu, Atiku, Names ‘Better’ Presidential Candidates To Vote For

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, have been named as better choices to become Nigeria’s next President.

Convener of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, made the observation yesterday while speaking about the 2023 general elections, Naija News reports.

This is as the elder statesman lists presidential candidates that cannot fix Nigeria.

According to Abdullahi, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, have nothing to offer to Nigerians if they become the next leader.

While stressing that the likes of Obi and Kwankwaso could make good leaders for Nigeria, Abdullahi said Tinubu, who was once a governor in Lagos State, and Atiku, a former vice president, have both been in politics for decades but had done nothing positive to be reckoned with.

The former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, said there is no way he is queueing behind any of the candidates of the PDP and APC, considering the state of the nation.

Abdullahi hailed Osinbajo, who contested but lost in the APC primaries, and a former banker, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who also aspired for the ticket in the PDP. He said the duo would have made a better President as technocrats.

Speaking on the state of the nation, Abdullahi said he would instead tell Nigerians to brace up for more trouble should any of the candidates from APC or PDP win the 2023 presidential election.

Naija News understands that Abdullahi spoke at length over the weekend during a phone chat with Vanguard.

He said: “No, we still haven’t got the man we think will fix Nigeria. What we have on ground is not good enough. How can you look at Tinubu and Atiku to say they are the ones who will fix this country?

”They have been on the ground for the last 25, 30 years, and so on. What have they done? What are we looking for? I was the one who encouraged a technocrat to join this consensus. You probably had seen Mohammed Hayatu Deen in the group of people going around looking for a consensus arrangements in PDP. I was one of those who encouraged him. We haven’t got the materials on the ground, unfortunately.

“Peter Obi, unfortunately, I don’t know him that much. He is a young man, he was the former governor of Anambra State, and he is a businessman.

“He (Kwankwaso) is a good, young man. He started his politics with us, and he is quite smart—no doubt about it. Of course, he had some of these debts that he acquired, or he must have picked in other political formations and so on, but clearly, he is one of the bright ones around—no doubt about that.

“I believe we have not had good array of politicians. With due respect to some of them that one saw contesting, I am not being selfish here by referring to certain people like Prof. Osinbajo. He is a quality material, but the political system will not tolerate him,” Abdullahi stressed.