The deputy Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF,
Wantaregh Paul Unongo, has revealed reasons the North refused to vote former
President, Goodluck Jonathan.
Unongo disclosed that the immediate past President didn’t garner much vote in
the North because the region wanted a leader that will understand their pains
and work towards resolving it.
Speaking with The Sun, NEF deputy Chairman said, “From the
on set, we made it clear that we are a political organization concerned with
global politics, and we articulated our views on the politics that had gone on
and the one that had to go on.
“We felt that if a Northerner was made the President of the
Republic, he would know our pains, he would feel our pains and he would take
actions and stop the murderous campaign that was decimating the population of
the North.
“So, we said that in the next elections, we would lead
Nigeria, particularly the North, not to consider any other party except a
political party that chose a northerner as its presidential candidate.
“We resolved that we would all work to have that candidate
elected and we did so. We carried our campaigns across the whole of Nigeria. We
carried our campaign without fear or intimidation to the international
community.
”We went to the United States and confronted the United
States Administration and explained our position to them. And all these were
done in the context of our firm belief that when the North is united, Nigeria
becomes united.
“That when Nigeria has a crisis and the North is together,
the Nigerian crisis can be better solved. And this Kano was the very place we
came and issued out that document called “the Kano Declaration”
Speaking further, Unongo said, “We went to Borno State and
we saw what the great, gallant governor of Borno State was trying to do amidst
tremendous encumbrances. Borno , Yobe and Adamawa States, as you know, were
virtually left for Boko Haram to do whatever they wanted to do during the
administration that we refused to vote for (Jonathan administration).
” We saw Mr. President, (Jonathan), we told him that we were
pained and we gave him our recommendation to do this and get relief and ‘if you
don’t do, you will kill all our people.’ He didn’t. So we switched and voted
for a person that would hear us.”
By Seun Opejobi
