A former Chairman of Northern Elders’ Forum, Paul Unongo, has explained how former President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, emerged as the most preferred Northern consensus candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
Unongo, a former Minister of Steel Development, disclosed this on Sunday at a press conference in Jos, Plateau State.
He added that the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammad, comes after Saraki in terms of experience, competency and capacity to attract followers across other zones in the country based on the assessment of the Northern Elders’ Forum.
He said: “I was actually the person who proposed the consensus arrangement.
“I cannot go to a meeting where people have respect for me, and in Nigeria people know that I speak my mind, that I am fair.
“I cannot deny what I have done and if I do, it will be unfortunate for Nigeria.
“I cannot deny I was present, I was consulted and all kinds of proposal were brought to me.
“I was summon to appear in Abuja and I went because I believe in this country.
“After deliberation for two days, we reached a consensus that if the Northern region of old wants to field a candidate for the presidency and not the Southern Nigeria alone, we the Northerners should fill a candidate from what used to be the Middle Belt or the North Central.
“They brought four candidates and we looked at their credentials, we were predisposed to bring stability to the North so that they can be united on critical important things peculiar to the former region of Northern Nigeria, we took that in to consideration.
“We settled for harmony and total unity of the North and that even if we present a person and he doesn’t win, he should be presented from that part of the North that used to be called the Middle Belt or as it is call today the North Central.
“We look at the candidates purely from their merit and capacity to attract other governors or people to work with him and in my case, I even consulted my Governor and he told me his own disposition and what they wanted.
“From our thinking, we thought we should give the Governor of Bauchi State, which was also part of the Middle Belt, in our own movement and the former Governor of Kwara State and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, because of the contribution of Saraki to the North politically.
“In our opinion, we believed that the two of them stood out, the Governor of Bauchi and the former Senate President.
“We looked at their experience in the politics of Nigeria and we felt that the person who can be Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can pilot the affairs of Nigeria successfully.
“So we felt that Saraki should be presented as our own preferred choice.
“The person who came second in our own assessment was the Governor of Bauchi because of the geographical coverage and we decided to present the two names for the people to choose among the two.”
