The Northern Elders Council (NEC) has faulted the pan-northern socio-political organization, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, for criticizing President Goodluck Jonathan over the current security challenges in the country.The Ibrahim Coomasie-led ACF in Kaduna weekend, accused President Jonathan of failing woefully to protect the North from Boko Haram insurgency
But addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, the chairman of the NEC, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said the current leadership of the ACF had derailed from the mission and vision of its founding fathers.
“A motley crowd of desperate opposition politicians have hijacked its machinery. The ACF leadership appears not to adhere to the tradition of the organization which was originally conceived as a non-partisan umbrella organization to harmonize and promote all shades of interests and opinions in the North.
“The statement accredited to the chairman has confirmed the allegations of partisanship and the claim that ACF is hob-knobbing with opposition elements and un-repented critics of the Jonathan administration”, he said.
According to him, security is a delicate issue that requires collective efforts to stem.
He said the ACF chairman should have widely consulted with “key managers” of the security establishments, who are eminent northerners and are major actors in the fight against Boko Haram.
“The NEC wishes to affirm that the ACF chairman’s statement that ‘President Jonathan doesn’t like the north’ in no way represents the general opinion in the north nor does it represent the attitude of the majority of the northern leadership to the Jonathan administration”, he said.