The Chairman of Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Prof Ango Abdullahi, says the Nigerian elite are to blame for the barrage of problems confronting the nation.
Abdullahi, who is former Vice-Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said that the political and other elite are not bringing their education and wealth of experience to bear in efforts to resolve the nation’s problems.
He therefore called for a “national conference” of the elite to chart a way forward out of Nigeria’s many challenges, adding that only then can the nation truly experience peace.
“I have always said that the trouble in Nigeria is the Nigerian elite,” the elder statement told Sunday Sun.
“The Nigerian elite, political elite, technical and so on, all elite in Nigeria are guilty of what is happening in the country today because they are the ones that are educated, they are the ones that should know what is happening all around them not only within themselves, but also around the world, so they should be able to learn about what is happening in other parts of the world, and bring all the experiences together to see how they can help their country, but to a large extent the elite have failed us.
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“We are all guilty, but I said the best way forward is that the elite should come together, there should be national conference of the elite – not ordinary Nigerians.
“Ordinary Nigerians have no business with all the crisis that we are having, it is the elite that are having these crises, so they should convene a conference of national elite to discuss the problem of this country objectively, hopefully and agree that first and foremost they should declare they are guilty, and if they are guilty they should identify areas where they have done wrong and then resolve that they will go forward and correct them and then this country will be peaceful.”