Afrigather By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- A number one and founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Kabiru Marafa who represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District (2011 -2019) has taken a swipe on the Minister of State for Defence, Mr Bello Matawalle for describing the Northern Elders Forum as a political burden to the North.
In a press release on Sunday in Abuja, Marafa advised Matawalle that Northern elders are neither a burden nor paperweights in anyway, simply as he known as on the minister to withdraw the offensive assertion and tender, immediately, an unreserved apology to the Northern elders and Northerners usually.
Matawalle had, in a press release with the title, ‘Tinubu Presidency: Northern Elders Discussion board, a political burden to the North, they don’t converse for the area’, described the Northern Elders as ‘paperweights and a burden’.
Marafa who was the coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima 2023 Presidential Marketing campaign in Zamfara State stated that slightly than negatively portraying the Northern elders, Matawalle ought to have listed the achievements, programmes and insurance policies, initiatives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu within the North and the nation as a complete within the first 10 months of the administration.
Based on him, calling the elders of the area, which has and gave the very best variety of votes to make sure victory for the Tinubu presidency, was counterproductive and an awesome disservice to the president, who’s working tirelessly in the direction of addressing the quite a few challenges going through all segments and sectors of the nation, amongst them terrorism, insurgency, financial and monetary malfeasance and infrastructural decay, to checklist a number of.
He stated that at this second, what President Tinubu wanted from his appointees is help, loyalty and onerous work to actualise the Renewed Hope Agenda conceived to return the nation to the trail of progress and prosperity, not sycophancy and unguarded statements.
Senator Marafa stated, “Within the final one week, I’ve been inundated with calls from well-meaning and distinguished stakeholders in our area and social gathering, the APC, who know my relationship with the President.
“They’re anxious and disturbed that the unlucky assertion by the Minister of State for Defence, if not addressed, may have an effect on the president’s electoral fortunes in our area as a result of it will likely be seen as if the minister spoke the thoughts of the president or the Presidency.
“The crux of the matter is that; whether or not you want them or not these individuals are known as Northern Elders, so, until they’re stripped of that title by the individuals of the area, insulting them is tantamount to insulting all the individuals of the area.
“It’s not in our tradition and upbringing to insult elders. No descent society will seek advice from its elders as a burden and paperweights. The North will not be an exception.
” As one of many senators who labored very carefully with Asiwaju as social gathering chief (as he was then known as) from the formation of APC by way of the primaries that led to the emergence of Basic Muhammadu Buhari as APC presidential candidate in Lagos, the politics of the Nationwide Meeting management in 2015 and 2019 and the processes and intrigues that characterised the 2023 Presidential Primaries, I can say with out mincing phrases that President Tinubu holds the North, the Northerners, and their leaders in excessive esteem.
“Though, I’m not the mouthpiece of both the president or the Presidency, as a Northerner and an elder within the area, as an APC stakeholder and one which has labored carefully with each the president and the Vice President, I need to state categorically that this view expressed by Mr Matawalle is his private opinion and never in any method that of Mr President or the Presidency, and may, subsequently, be disregarded.
“I do know for positive that the North, Northerners and the Northern elders are neither a burden nor a paperweight within the scheme of issues within the area and the nation as a complete. The president shares this view, and subsequently he’s with me on this.”
