The Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Dr. Hakeeem Baba-Ahmed has said that one of the many tragedies bedevelling Nigeria is that the nation has politicians but not political elites.
He said that this has resulted in a situation where people hold office for a short tenure and go into oblivion.
Baba-Ahmed said that all established democracies have political elites who do not necessarily hold political office but are powerful voices that influence the nation’s political climate.
The NEF spokesman said this while countering a remark by former Kaduna governor, Nasir el-Rufai that the group comprises people without political bases.
Baba-Ahmed said that el-Rufai belongs to a class of political leaders that do not like being criticised.
According to him, members of NEF are good people who, though unelected, will continue to contribute their quota in an advisory role to political officeholders.
“We don’t worry about not having power. We don’t want it in the sense of being elected. But we have it and we use it very carefully.
“Sometimes, most people think we use it very recklessly when we say things that some people in the southern part of the country are not happy about. This is okay. We also hear things about the North being said in the South that we take exceptions to. But that is the way the country is.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria has no political elites. It only has politicians. You can’t have elites that lead for only four or eight years and then they are gone. This is one of the many tragedies of this country.
“After the First Republic, you never had political elites and the military never allowed the emergence of solid, unified, national political elites; and this is one of our problems. We have many areas where we are poor. The sad thing is the absence of enduring national elites. This is what saved America from Donald Trump at the last minute. And this is what keeps the democratic processes in many countries going.
“When politicians fight themselves into a stupor, the elites step in. In many instances they are shadowy. You don’t see them, you don’t hear from them. But there are people who hold the strings. But here it doesn’t happen. They will draw lines as to what is allowed, and what is not allowed.
“Unfortunately, many of our former heads of state, former this and former that, are scared to come out and stick out their necks, except former President (Olusegun) Obasanjo. Why is it that our political system alienates them and scares them from getting involved? Why can’t they say something is wrong and say it together?
“That is what we are trying to do in the Compatriots that I also belong to. We took our name from our national anthem. We thought what better to say than the Compatriots.
“We come from all over this country and we have been doing some great work. We just haven’t been vocal about it. We are planning a number of things, one of which is to engage this government on a number of things. I hope that they are amenable to advice, including advice that they may not necessarily like,” Baba-Ahmed said.
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