Bello Matawalle, the Minister for Defence, has issued a warning to all northern regions in the nation stating that they must defend President Bola Tinubu’s administration or exit.
Matawalle, who was former governor of Zamfara State made this statement on Monday after Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, expressed a differing opinion regarding the minister’s defence of Tinubu’s administration.
This came shortly after the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spoke on Saturday, saying it regretted supporting Tinubu in the 2023 general election.
Baba-Ahmed, a former spokesman of NEF, was displeased with the minister’s comment.
He wrote in a post on X on Sunday, “Scathing criticism of NEF by a junior minister of defence, Matawalle, is ill-advised. He could have done a better job for this admin if he identified the contributions of especially northern ministers and other appointees like me to improving security and reducing poverty in the North.”
In defense to comment made by the NEF against the President , Matawalle in a statement on Monday, said as an appointee of the current administration, Baba-Ahmed needs to work towards its success and protect it from unwarranted criticism rooted in ethnic or narrow interests.
Matawalle said, “Consequent to my position on the recent attack on the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR by a spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, it has come to my attention that Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed who once served as the Spokesperson of the group and currently a Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Presidency took to his page on it to express a different position.
According to Dr Baba-Ahmed, he states that his stand against the unjust and slanderous attack against the new administration of President Tinubu who is working very hard to reposition our country and economy for the better is ‘ill-advised