By Our Correspondent Abuja
A deep crack has opened within Northern leadership as the Concerned Northern Elders Forum publicly disowned and rebuked the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) over its recent attacks on the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms, setting the stage for a high-stakes battle over the future of reform politics in the region.
In a blistering statement issued Tuesday, the Elders accused the NEF of speaking without a mandate, misrepresenting the conscience of the North and peddling narratives that undermine national recovery.
The statement, signed by Dr. Nasir Manguno, said the group was compelled to intervene “in the interest of truth, responsibility and historical accountability,” warning that silence would amount to endorsement of distortion.
The Elders were unequivocal: the position attributed to the NEF against FIRS, its Executive Chairman and the Tinubu administration does not reflect Northern values, aspirations or interests.
Instead, they described it as the product of political grievance, nostalgia for failed systems and resistance to accountability.
In unusually sharp language, the group said the NEF has forfeited its moral authority, drifting from a council of wisdom into what it termed a platform for sponsored opposition and entitlement politics.
Elder statesmanship, the statement argued, must be anchored in integrity, foresight and national interest not comfort with inefficiency or immunity from reform.
Turning to the FIRS, the elders offered a robust defence of its current leadership, crediting the agency with consistent revenue overperformance, aggressive non-oil revenue expansion and the deployment of technology to seal long-standing leakages.
They noted that under the present administration, taxation has been stripped of privilege, ensuring that influence no longer confers exemption.
“These achievements are measurable and verifiable,” the statement said, describing them as proof of what Nigeria can achieve when competence replaces complacency. Resistance to reform, the elders added, is coming from those unsettled by transparency and efficiency.
On President Tinubu’s economic reforms, the elders said the administration inherited an economy crippled by subsidy addiction, opaque practices and selective compliance.
They praised the President for choosing what they called “courage over convenience,” insisting that difficult reforms are the unavoidable price of recovery.
Revenue reform, they stressed, is not punitive but foundational to nation-building.
No society develops, the elders argued, by protecting elites from responsibility while transferring the burden of governance to the poor.
The group also threw its weight behind the Memorandum of Understanding signed by FIRS to deepen inter-agency cooperation, harmonise data systems and eliminate duplication.
Any framework that strengthens institutions and improves revenue efficiency, they said, serves both Northern and national interests.
Warning against what they described as the “politics of sabotage,” the elders said renewed attacks on FIRS coincided with opposition realignments aimed at weaponising the North against reform.
They cautioned that the region would not submit to partisan manipulation.
According to the statement, the real priorities of the North are jobs, infrastructure, education and accountability not recycled rhetoric or inherited excuses.
Achieving these goals, the elders said, demands strong institutions, fair taxation and fearless leadership.
The statement closed with a firm endorsement of the FIRS Executive Chairman, President Tinubu’s reform agenda and public officials willing to prioritise national interest over elite comfort, declaring that history has never been kind to obstructionists.
“The North is not against reform,” the elders said. “The North is against failure and it will not be dragged backward by voices sponsored to fear progress.”
