Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has called the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) a general without troop for saying that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed the nation in tackling wides spread security challenges across the country.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement said the forum is a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership, aside from the one that signed the statement, Professor Ango Abdullahi.
The statement reads: “Professor Ango Abdullahi on Sunday signed a long-winding statement on many issues relating to the North, and purportedly to the country.
“The former vice-chancellor signed the statement under the banner of Northern Elders Forum (NEF). Hearing that title, you would think the body is a conglomeration of true elders.
“But the truth is that NEF is just Ango Abdullahi, and Ango Abdullahi is NEF. It is a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership, and its leader is akin to a general without troops.
“Before the 2019 presidential election, the one-man army called NEF had shown its antipathy against President Muhammadu Buhari, and its preference for another candidate. They all got beaten together.
NEF is merely waving a flag that is at half-mast. President Buhari steadily and steadfastly focuses on the task of retooling Nigeria, and discerning Nigerians know the true state of the nation. They don’t need a paper tiger to tell them anything.”