The Chief Whip of the 10th Senate, Ali Ndume, has been warned by the Coalition of Northeast Elders Forum (CNEF) to stop attacking President Bola Tinubu.
The coalition, which alleged that Ndume’s 20 years in the National Assembly have not helped Borno State, threatened to mobilize voters against him in 2027 if he keeps attacking the President.
According to the elders, Ndume should rather support his brother from Borno, Vice President Kashim Shettima, instead of speaking against Tinubu.
The Northeast elders who asked Ndume to render an account of his stewardship were angry at the Senator’s recent outburst about President Tinubu’s administration, which they described as unnecessary.
The Coalition of North-East Elders Forum questioned the rationale behind such, when he is expected to support the President to tackle insecurity and other challenges caused by insurgents and bandits in Borno and the Northern region.
The elders alleged, “Senator Ndume did attack the administration of President Bola Tinubu, saying it’s run by kakistocrats—those deemed the least qualified and most unscrupulous citizens—and kleptocrats, who are merely in power to steal.”
In reaction to the outburst, the group, in a statement signed by the Coordinator, Ali Ibrahim Sheriff, said what was “expected from Senator Ali Ndume now is to work closely with the President; Vice President, who is from same Borno with him and security agencies to address the unprovoked attacks by insurgents and bandits in the North.
“As concerned elders from the Northeast geo-political zone, we wonder why during the days of President Buhari he chose to be silent amid heightened problems of insecurity; pervasive hunger, looting of public funds and bad governance.”
While telling the Chief Whip of the Senate to be sensitive to the yearnings of his people in Borno and the entire North, they asked him to give an account of his stewardship over the last 20 years as a lawmaker.
They said, “If leadership is as easy as that, we make bold to ask, all these years, how many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has he trained, educated and empowered with funds allocated to him?”
“Ndume should come out boldly to render an account of his stewardship or we mobilise voters against him come 2027.”
The elders, however, called on Northerners to shun what they termed, “Ndume’s divisive vituperations” and support the Tinubu and Shettima’s administration to tackle the security challenges in the North and in other parts of the country.
