160 
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, reprimanded Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Publicity Secretary of the Northern Elders’ Forum, NEF, over the statement credited to him to the extent that the north will continue to lead Nigeria.
The party, while faulting the NEF’s spokesperson’s position on the power rotation, warned that the nation’s wheel of progress will still continue to be retarded with such utterances coming from a personality of Dr. Hakeem.
Recall Baba-Ahmed had also said the North has the majority number to produce Nigeria’s president without recourse to any rotational arrangement.
Speaking with Vanguard in Abuja, the National Chairman of ADC, Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu, urged northern elites to discourage hitherto divisive tendencies that have negatively impeded growth and development of the nation.
According to him, “I am infuriated when any of our respected public intellectuals sounds this way. Reducing our rich knowledge to North and South thinking creates the kind of dichotomy that impedes development and the kind of national cohesion needed to leverage our various people.
“Holding unto leadership by any group and creating the kind of poverty, insecurity, and division we have now leverages none. Elites must become unifiers so that we can build a nation that is able to employ our rich diversity values for quality and endearing public policies”, he said, while “Demanding for public policies that are just and non-discriminatory.”
Chief Nwosu said, “In a multi-ethnic country like ours, it is important we give everyone a sense of belonging to build a united country. I feel serious that aiming to use the gaps in the democratic process to dominate others or threaten them hurts everyone.
“We need to develop an elite culture that is beyond myopic prism. Our elites should really begin to challenge the status quo so that we can inspire our youths towards a direction that creates harmony, prosperity, security, peace, and opportunities for all.
“Hakeem and many of our elites in the public space should realize that they model the way for all others especially the youths each time they mount any podium.”
