Northern Leaders Want Yar Adua To Resign

El-Rufai, Arewa Elders Ask Yar'Adua To Resign
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna

IRKED by the continuous decline in the nation's economy, a group of Northern Elders and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasir el-Rufai have advised President Umaru Yar'Adua to resign.

They alleged that under Yar'Adua's watch, Nigeria was gradually turning into a failed state under a democracy.

While the Arewa Elders position was contained in a communiquŽ issued in Kaduna, el-Rufai spoke in an interview on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Kaduna.

The communiquŽ by the Arewa Opinion Elders Forum signed by its spokesperson, Alhaji Sarki Abdullahi, noted the increasing slide towards anarchy, stressing that all indices that characterise and accelerate a nation towards a failed state had started emerging.

The elders from the 19 Northern States, who converged in Kaduna to review the state of the nation, also decried the nonchalant attitude of groups towards the electoral and constitutional reform and the slide towards a one-party state.

They lamented the increasing spate of insecurity particularly the rising wave of kidnapping and hostage taking, and urged that all hands must be on deck to arrest any degeneration.

The elders condemned the "renewed attempt to cause chaos and promote instability in Anambra State by the "non-democratic selection of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as the flagbearer of the PDP against popular and consensus choices."

But the elders' group said: "We supported and commended Chief Andy Uba's attempt at enforcing rule of law and credible democratic ethics in Anambra and called for a speedy implementation of Justice Uwais report on electoral reform."

The Arewa leaders also commended government's renewed attempt at giving the anti-corruption campaign the needed bite, especially on corrupt individuals hitherto regarded as untouchables and urged for greater transparency and accountability in all sectors of the nation's economy.

Meanwhile, el-Rufai stated that unless the President wake up from his slumber and start working for Nigerians, he should return to Katsina in 2011.

"I'm still a PDP member but I know they may expel me from the PDP. But it is possible to defeat the PDP if Nigerians would act the way the people of Bauchi and Lagos behaved in 2007, to safeguard and protect their votes," the former Minister said.

He argued that the Yar'Adua government had nothing to show for the past 30 months and vowed to continue criticising the administration for lack of direction and proper focus to attend to Nigeria 's problems.

Said he: "I will surely return to Nigeria in December even if I would be killed because I am not afraid of any bad leader. I contributed a lot towards his (Yar'Adua) emergence as President but he decides to deal with me.

"I won't listen to those who advise me to leave him with Allah; I will fight back and Allah will be our judge. But before I die, I will fight on. Allah will be the judge hereafter."

He said he would not sit down and allow people to tarnish his name and that of his family.

According to el-Rufai: "They said I gave my friends and relations plots; since the government is out to tarnish my image and that of my family, I have to stand up to defend myself.

"Apart from that, they feel they are in Abuja just to sleep; they are not working. If others chose to be silent for fear of losing contracts or work for their children, we have to talk and we shall continue to be against this government as long as we are alive."

On whether he was against the Yar'Adua administration because he was not given an appointment, el-Rufai said he had never wanted to work with Yar'Adua and had said several times that he would never be a minister twice.

He stressed: "Even when Yar'Adua invited me to be in the Energy Council, he had to convince me that it was temporary. I accepted but when I realised that nothing serious was happening there, I left.

"I don't do a job twice. I am a Quantity Surveyor and never dreamt of working with the government."

He explained that 3,200 megawatts of electricity was generated during the Obasanjo administration but instead of the Yar'Adua's government to improve on the record, the figure had now dropped to 2,000 megawatts, which showed that there was no improvement in the power sector.

He continued: "Yar'Adua said $10 billion was spent on electricity and constituted the Suswam Committee, which discovered that only $6 billion was spent on the power sector.

"Suswam's committee found that only $6 billion was spent and only $3 billion was actually paid, others were letters of credit.

"They are just diverting attention that, hundreds of billions were spent on power because they know they are not working. But even if a hundred billion was spent, all that Nigerians want is a stable power supply."

The former FCT minister said Yar'Adua was a product of his alma mater - Barewa College in Zaria - "where some heads of state of Northern extraction were produced and did very well," adding that he would be sad if the incumbent President became a disappointment.


source: Guardian

so they have finally woken up from their slumber! rubbish

You no tink say na war be dat?

These days everyone is heavily armed.

Very interesting.

For it to have taken them this long to know that nothing is working under the leadership of Yar'Dull, then, it means they are actually dumber than we thought, under the fool, Nigeria has plunged into nothing but disaster.
Economy is nothing to write home about, no money in circulations, bankings are drowning in problems, factories are shutting down, people have no access to funds, business' are dying.
I hope they will be able to convince him to sign the dotted line and walk away from the "dark house" in Aso rock.

Honestly, i would like to hear from politicians, not these guys who have no constituency.

Where have they been? If they had a hand in his selection, have they shown any remorse

or are they not ashamed?

What a revelation.So pdp members knew that they rigged in 2007.El rufai said pdp can be remove from power if pple do what they did in bauchi&lagos.So pdp rigged in 33states minus bauchi&lagos.No wonder uwais report will not be adopted

I thought I was a lone ranger.I am currently preparing an article where I have articulated 10 critical reasons why Yar'Adua should consider resignation or better still forget about the 2011 elections which I will post on http://nigeriaoutlook.blogspot.com/ as from tommorrow.Unless he wants to disintegrate Nigeria soon.

Well, resign or no resign what Nigeria is needed is the best.

where were the elders when Obj was running us down can el-rufai really convince us that Obj is better. He should keep quiet all he wanted is to run the presidency if u doubt read his essay on yaradua, the time he realised they made a mistake was when yaradua asked him to subm,it just three names for appointment el rufai wanted to know to which office the nominees would be for but Yaradua told him to just nominate the three. So el rufai should not deceive us his government was not and will not be better than this administration

E be like say this el-Rufai guy is nursing an ambition come 2011 . . . .

Do your research before you make such claims.
http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2009/10/mongolian-prime-minister-tenders-resignation/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/asia/30briefs-MongoliaBrf.html

And the case is even similar. Resigning to face his health issues.

All dis gra gra sef, with no action insight.     _{*big sigh*.}

Yes is time for yaradua to resign. yaradua should resign jst becoz a son of the Arewas has become a victim of his bad leadership. If  el-Rufai was to be a son of oduduwa, ND or an Igbo will they(Arewas) also stand in agreement to ask for Yaradua's resignation? Indirectly telling us the power lies within them to put whoever they wanna put there and get him out when they want to.

If ya'adua shld resign it shld be on health ground. El-rufai is a thief, because he wanted more than he was given. nd adua cld not do otherwise then he opened his stinking mouth. Idiot!!!