We regret supporting Buhari in 2015, says Unongo

•Explains NEF’s choice of Saraki, Mohammed for PDP ticket

Former chairman, Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Chief Paul Unongo, has regretted spearheading President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign in 2015.

Unongo said the preference for Buhari in 2015 was not based on justification alone, but also emotion, saying that the President was a no-nonsense person and the people then felt he was the right person to steer the affairs of the country.

In a chat with journalists on Sunday evening in Jos, the Second Republic Minister of Mines and Power said: “Some of us that went for Buhari risked our lives. Many of us are disappointed and I am too old not to speak the truth. We are disappointed with the performance we have seen by the government led by Buhari.

“He could have done better, but he didn’t do as we expected him to. History will judge that he has total support from his people; some of them took a risk. I took the risk of leading a delegation to the United States of America (U.S.A.) to plead his cause because of what he had done in the past.”

Unongo noted that the U.S. Congress argued that Buhari was a religious fanatic; that he would bring trouble and he countered them.

“I addressed the Congress for General Buhari. So, what we are doing is not different from the role we played in the past,” he added.

ON the controversies trailing the endorsement of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the Northern consensus candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by NEF, Unongo explained that the decision was taken in the interest of the North and North Central in particular to foster its unity.

His words: “Both Saraki and Bala stood out. We felt that a former Senate President/two-term Governor of Kwara State and performing Governor of Bauchi would be better choice of the North.

“We felt we should present the two and choose among them. With somebody from the Middle Belt (Saraki), we felt he was qualified for the interest and unity of the North. NEF has competent elders. I cannot speak for those that are not there when the decision was taken, but by the people I saw there, I felt everyone was represented.” (The Guardian)