Northern Stakeholders Dump Buhari, Endorse Atiku For President

The Director Action and Mobilisation of Northern Stakeholders Forum (NSF), Alhaji Aminu Adam has advanced reasons why the group decided to dump President Muhammadu Buhari and chose Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the February 16 presidential election.

Speaking at a Zonal Town hall Meeting, held at Mambayya House in Kano yesterday, he said they opted for Atiku because Buhari had disappointed Nigerians.

According to him, the group vehemently supported Buhari in 2015 when there was so much yearning and agitations for credible leader who would move northern Nigeria forward.

He added that they were among the youth who orchestrated a protest in United States of America, when they suspected rigging by PDP in the 2015 elections, which apparently showed Buhari had edged over Jonathan Goodluck, calling on international communities to pay attention to the polls in order to ensure Buhari’s success.

He however said that when Buhari came to power, they later realized that he had failed to fulfill his campaign promises, especially in the area of fighting corruption, economy and security.

“In 2015, we fully supported Buhari because we believed he was the only person to move northern Nigeria forward. This is because we see that North is lagging behind in terms of development in Nigeria.

“Ironically, when Buhari came to power, we realised that he even preferred southern part of the Country to the North that gave him unprecedented votes. Buhari has failed to fulfil his campaign promises, especially in the area of economy, corruption fight and security.

“Look at how killings are becoming the order of the day. People of Zamfara have turned to refugees as a result of incessant killings. Likewise Katsina, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue States and other places,” he said.

Adam added that, “that is why we have now decided to try Atiku Abubakar because we believed in his integrity and compassion to the masses. We also believed in his ability to perform better than Buhari,” he said.

In his remarks, Chief Guest of the occasion, Alhaji Nastura Nasir Sharif, said Buhari is not the man of his words.

According to Sharif, Buhari claimed to have fought corruption, but it was later proved that the crusade is selective and he surrounded himself with corrupt politicians who even have cases at EFCC.

He added that at the present critical situation that northern Nigeria had found itself since 1999, supporting Atiku is the answer.