The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spokesperson, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has said that no Nigerian leader would be worse than the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Reflecting on eight years of the previous administration, Baba-Ahmed said the former president left the seat of power with more challenges than he met.
According to him, Buhari came into power with enthusiasm that he would fight corruption, insecurity and a bad economy. But that he things became worse under him.
Naija News understands that Baba-Ahmed said this when asked during an interview if he expect things to be different under the incumbent administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Eight years ago, when President Buhari came, he cleared all checkpoints, removed Service Chiefs, and ordered the military to relocate to Borno, then Boko Haram was chased and limited substantially. These were greeted by the same euphoria. There was enthusiasm that he would fight corruption, insecurity, and a bad economy. But look at where we are now after eight years. We are worse than when he came in. Certainly, the entire country had not been in the situation before. So, forgive me if the Northern Elders Forum has a different perspective on the euphoria as a result of the tentative action or salvo being released by President Tinubu against the economy, corruption and service chiefs, and others. I will rather exercise some reservations. It is good he is starting with some policies, but he has to be very careful, he should not rush into putting in policies just because he wants to be different from Buhari. Although by all means, any worst government will be better than Buhari’s government of misrule, indifference, and incompetence. I am sorry if I don’t share your enthusiasm (about Tinubu). I will rather advise him to be different from Buhari and address those issues that needed to be addressed with courage and sensitivity. Buhari had lowered the bar of governance and lowered our status of existence; insecurity and poverty are more pronounced,” the NEF spokesperson told Vanguard.
Meanwhile, Baba-Ahmed cautioned President Tinubu to thread carefully not to repeat the same mistake Buhari made while in office.
He warned Tinubu not to get carried away by the euphoria of actions and picking points.
The NEF leader also urged the President to be careful about policies. He said: “For me, I will not rush but I also will not hesitate to put a distance between Tinubu’s administration and Buhari’s. Tinubu’s administration must be infinitely better because this country cannot stand another eight years of misgovernance, indifference, and incompetence.”
