Admin l Wednesday, February 15, 2023
ABUJA, Nigeria – Islamic scholar and political activist, Professor Usman Bugaje has tasked members of the Northern Elders Forum to task presidential candidates seeking their votes ahead of the February 25, election on clear, measurable demands.
Bugaje who was speaking at the Northern Elders Forum held in Abuja said such presidential candidate should also be made to use public resources to achieve them and that the forum should be able to monitor them and see that what is set out to them is achieved.
“Whatever government we are able to get, the this gathering must come together and priotise these things, engage them and make it clear, let them know that these are our target, to raise productivity in agriculture, etc, face these people with clear measurable demands asked them to use public resources to achieve them and monitor them”, he said.
He told the elders that to survive and thrive, there is the need to change our mindset towards national development, stressing that training will go a long way to achieve the new thinking.
He said that 25 years of democracy has left Nigeria with poverty, insecurity and other vices and therefore the need to change our mindset.
He said Nigeria has become a laughing stock in the committee of nations because of inherent behavior of leadership which has left the nation pauperized.
“The way we behave, the world is laughing at us and we are not making any progress, we have alot of egos, our great leaders were modest, even though among them were professors”, but we sometimes behave like children, when we have a big problem to think about”, he said and that many are obsessed with acquisition of titles and project themselves as superhuman.
He also canvassed for reinjection of good values into the system, stressing that people have started selling their parents.
Alluding to Zamfara State where Sharia started, he said it is benumbing that two young men could come out and have sex in the public even though they were later arrested.
He said that the north must negotiate with whoever comes to power. “We must decide what power we want to use. We must not allow the next dispensation to become like the past, when leaders come to the north with music and dancing and “leave us dry’.
