Northerners have become wiser, and come 2023 general elections, they will not vote along ethnic and religious lines.
Chairman, Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, disclosed on Wednesday in Kaduna during the Northern People’s Summit on barriers between the people and their leaders.
Abdullahi said no northern political office aspirant should assume he is guaranteed the support and votes of northerners simply because he is one of them, adding that over time the region has learnt the values of critical scrutiny of records, dispositions and empathy.
He recalled that northerners voted for three southerners MKO Abiola, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan in the past, two of them against northerners.
“Northern voters are enlightened and conscious of their responsibilities. They have learnt, perhaps at greater cost than most Nigerians, that ethnicity and faith alone do not make good leaders. They will not accept to be further weakened so that they abandon the same rights all Nigerians enjoy.
“Those politicians who want northerners to vote in a particular manner should soil their boots and convince northerners how their candidates will improve security, economy and society in the North and the country.”
