GROUP BERATES NORTHERN GOVERNORS FOR BETRAYING BUHARI

The health status of President Muhammadu Buhari has become an issue of concern for Nigerians as there are reports of underground schemes by some eminently placed persons to be selected as Vice President, in the case that Buhari choses to step down and attend to his health as being suggested in many quarters.

Lending its voice to the reprimand against some of the schemes, which has been described as a "betrayal",
a socio-political organisation, Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), has described as "wicked, callous, selfish and insensitive", the decision of the 19 Northern State Governors to "abandon President Muhammadu Buhari in his moment of trial".

The NYLF alleged that "instead of informing their citizens about the true situation surrounding the President, the governors have engaged themselves in schemes and underhand deals meant to favour them to emerge as Vice President in the event that Buhari does not complete his tenure".

In a statement issued on Sunday by the organization's National President, Alhaji Adamu Mahmuda, he observed that Buhari has been left on his own since the controversy on the issues surrounding his health broke out.

According to the NYLF president, "this has exposed the governors as people who do not mean well for the region but themselves alone".

"The Northern Governors who won their elections for merely identifying with Buhari have all of a sudden gone asleep not wanting to be drawn into any issue surrounding the health of the President", the group said.

"After benefiting from his campaign and support through the provision of bailouts and other handouts for them to run their states, we find it extremely uncharitable for the governors to have gone so cold when the occasion demands they should rise up and reassure citizens in their states that there is no cause for alarm and that the president is only taking a rest".

"Nobody is fooled by their ‘see no evil, hear no evil posture’ which is deliberate so as not to make them appear too supportive of the President for fear that that might make them lose out in case the president decides not to continue".

"But, this is wicked, selfish and insensitive", the group stated.

The Northern Youths Leaders Forum however, said that, apart from Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State who organised a prayer session for the President some months back, the rest were busy either inviting party leaders to their states so as to intensity lobby for their Vice Presidential bids or holding clandestine meetings to serve their interest.

The NYLF condemned a situation where while series of meetings were being held in Kaduna and other states on the issue, none of the Northern Governors either individually or collectively deemed it fit to publicly douse the tension over the matter.

Although, it is within the governors’ given rights to aspire for whatever positions, they should remember that most of them would not have won their elections if not for the strategy of identifying with the overwhelming influence of Buhari, the group said.