A northern group, Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has described Muhammadu Buhari as a regional president.
The group added that by insisting on a leader from the North, the region is now in serious trouble.
Buhari is from Katsina State, which is in the North.
He defeated the incumbent, former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 to get into office and was reelected in 2019.
But Buhari’s time in office has been characterised by growing insecurity, worsening economy, increasing debts, among others.
The spokesperson for NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said this during an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday.
According to him, the North’s insistence on having a president from the region in 2015 put it in big trouble.
He noted that Nigeria must move beyond ethnic, regional, and religious sentiments when electing leaders for the country to make progress.
He said, “We have learnt a lesson from the North about this tendency to say ‘only one of our own’. We are in trouble today because one of our own has put us in serious trouble. And if the North doesn’t believe that, they should just look around.
“If we can’t move beyond ethnicity and religion and think of one country and create citizens of equal rights, then I’m afraid all we are going to do is go in circles and keep repeating the same mistakes we are making.
“Leadership has failed Nigerians, not just northerners. What we are trying to say is that ‘don’t let us keep going back’. If this country becomes a hostage of primordial and limiting past, we are in trouble — all of us.”