Buhari’s Associates Have Deserted Him, Says Sule Lamido

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reflect on his ways to find out why his loyal associates from the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) and others have abandoned him.

Lamido, who was reacting to the statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, where he addressed the chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, as a general without troop, tasked the president to reflect on why his former associates have abandoned him.

The former governor, in his verified Facebook account, said: “I urge Mr. President to reflect deeply on the response in his defence made on the statement of the Northern Elders Forum on the State of Nation on Security by Femi Adesina.

“Sir if you reflect on your political evolution from All Peoples Party (APP), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the likes of Prof. Ango and Hakeem Baba Ahmed and many more in the NEF have been your loyal troops through thick and thin and have never abandoned you even in defeat!

“The question you should ask yourself is why have they abandoned you in victory to political mercenaries like Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu who are with you only for the pay?

“Sir, the issues they raised are real and each and every Nigerian except Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu share these concerns, even you as our Commander-in-Chief claimed not be aware of our insecurity situation until the likes of NEF raised the red alarm!”

Lamido added: “You need to also read the warning written by elder statesman Bashir Tofa to Nigerian big men on the analysis of insecurity in Nigeria, our sub-region and Africa.

“I hope the General without troops Femi Adesina was referring to sarcastically is not you sir! You have many capable hands around you sir, listen to them, engage them. You are the man of the moment.

“Ignore Femi, ignore Garba, keep paying them if only for charity, but please secure us,” Lamido.

Meanwhile, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) yesterday said there were so many things Nigerians could not understand about the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government, especially those things that sometimes defied common sense and logic.

YPP, in a statement in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Egbeola Wale Martins, said: “For example, President Buhari increased fuel from N87 to N145 in order to stop the payment of subsidy but ended up still paying subsidy it claimed never existed in the first place.

“A government that claimed to have technically defeated Boko Haram but the terrorist group kept on waxing stronger by the day and unleashing unprecedented terror like never before since insurgency began in Nigeria about 10 years ago.

“A government that is very proactive in issuing statements of condolence over persistent destruction of lives and property, but extremely reluctant to take drastic actions such as re-jigging the current security architecture and sacking the security chiefs who from all indications are completely overwhelmed.

“A government that declared an intention of lifting a hundred million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years, yet raised VAT from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, increased electricity tariff intermittently, borrowed recklessly both locally and internationally to finance a padded budget and inflated capital projects forgetting that the loans will be paid by same generation of people he is planning to lift out of poverty.”