From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Coalition of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has disowned its Director of Advocacy and Publicity, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, over his recent statement entitled: “Advice to the Tinubu Administration”.
In the report, Baba-Ahmed had advised President Bola Tinubu, to periodically communicate with Nigerians on his policies and how he intends to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.
But NEF’s Director General, Doknan Sheni, in a statement, yesterday, said the contents of the report were not the views of the Directors of NEF and did not represent the views of the Forum.
Sheni said: “The attention of the directorate of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has been drawn to a publication credited to Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Director of Publicity, titled, “Advice to the Tinubu Administration”, dated 31 July 2023.
“We wish to state categorically that the write-up and the contents were not the views of the Directors of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), and therefore do not represent the views of NEF on the Administration.
“This was a personal opinion of Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed. NEF has a procedure for approving such press releases.
“The acceptable position is that any such statements must first be subjected to scrutiny by the Directorate after which it would be forwarded to the Convener for ratification. This procedure was not followed in this case.
“Therefore NEF hereby distances itself from this publication and all its ramifications.”