Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has denied a statement credited to a former Education Minister, Dauda Brima, that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the NEF have decided to support President Goodluck Jonathan to run again in 2015.

Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi on Monday, NEF spokesman, Ango Abdullahi, said there was no time the two groups gave their support to the President for another term of office.

According to Abdullahi, the statement credited to Brima in the media following a visit to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bamanga Tukur, was neither the view of the ACF nor the Northern Elders Forum.

“I understand that he made the statement in the name or on behalf of northern elders.

“If he left northern elders without qualification, as we saw in the last few days when making enquiries, there is the obvious interpretation as to whether he was speaking on behalf of Arewa Consultative Forum where there are many northern elders or he was speaking on behalf of the Northern Elders Forum to which I belong.

“Certainly on checking, which I made personally, whether Dauda Brima has been mandated to go and speak on behalf of ACF on this particular occasion the answer was an emphatic ‘No’.

“Obviously from what I know of the Northern Elders Forum to which I belong I have not chaired any meeting with Mallam Dauda. I don’t remember him attending any of our meetings or our activities.

“So I want to make it absolutely clear that Mallam Dauda Brima was speaking on behalf of some northern elders outside the ACF or outside the Northern Elders Forum.

“So he is entirely on his own and we respect his rights as a Nigerian citizen to associate and to give support where he feels his support is needed or is deserved.

“Nobody is saying that 99.9 per cent or 100 per cent of northerners of various shades of opinion are going to belong to the same opinion but we concede his right to speak for himself and for people with whom he associates but certainly he cannot be speaking for the ACF or the Northern Elders Forum,” Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, said.

He noted that as the South-South geopolitical region has been clamouring that the President should remain in their zone, the North has reason to agitate that power should come to it in 2015.

On expression of appreciation to the President over the release from prison of Major Hamza al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Office to the late General Sani Abacha, after 15 years of incarceration openly made by Brima and which seemed to indicate that the release was solely carried out by the President, Abdullahi said the view downplayed the role several other individuals and groups played to ensure the release of al-Mustapha.

On the renewed activities of insurgents in Borno and Yobe states, Abdulahi warned the Federal Government that military action would not succeed, saying his group had advised the President in various meetings to tow the path of dialogue.

But as Abdullahi spoke, the Presidency also reiterated its stance that Jonathan is yet to take a position on his fate in 2015 since he is currently busy with governance.

Jonathan’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, on Monday also defended the President’s recent pledge to rein in politicians who have been heating up the polity with 2015 politics.

Speaking during a ‘Raypower’ radio programme, Abati said: “To the best of my knowledge, the President has never at any time discussed 2015. He has never at any time said this is his position on 2015.

“His position has been consistent and straight forward and that has been the President saying look let’s focus on governance.

“If the Nigerian people have given you an assignment, it is your assignment to deliver and move the country forward, that is what we want to focus on. And that was the statement about the mid term report that was publicly presented.

“Two years down the line the President presented to the Nigerian people scorecard of what they have been able to do. He said ‘I took over and now two years down the line I have moved the country forward, this is the evidence’.

“Nobody has been able to dispute the evidence. So we must be able to make a distinction between politicking, the fact and reality. The President stands on the side of truthfulness, of fact, of reality. So he wants to be engaged at the level of his performance.

“And I will continue to tell Nigerians that this Presidency will remain focused. He is doing the job that Nigerians have given him and he is making progress and has provided evidence that he is making progress. People who concentrate on politics want to distract Mr. President,” Abati said.

Source:http://dailyindependentnig.com/2013/07/we-wont-support-jonathan-for-2015-northern-elders-insist/