A former director of civil society organisations in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, Mrs. Naja’atu Mohammed, has slammed the party’s presidential flag bearer, Mr. Bola Tinubu saying he is only interested in power to make money.
Speaking in an elaborate interview with ThisDay, Mohammed who resigned her appointment recently to drum up support for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, also alleged that Tinubu bought the party’s primary by sharing money to the APC governors who in turn influenced his emergence.
“You see Asiwaju is synonymous with money. So, for God’s sake, if all it takes is money, then, what else will he do when he takes over power? It’s for him to retrieve his money. It is not even about Egbe Omo Oduduwa,” she said.
On the cash-and-carry primary, she said: “There is nothing like democracy in this democratic system. The whole thing is a hoax. I will tell you for instance what happened in their primary election. People were given ballot papers with Asiwaju written on it. That was what happened and we saw a clip in which governors were collecting money. It’s so shameful. It’s a disgrace.
“Yes collecting money, sharing money given to them by Asiwaju. It is such a disgrace. It is the first time that I have heard or seen such. At least in this dispensation, I have been in politics for decades, I was born into it. But this is the first time that a presidential candidate will be sponsoring governors.”
She further said that the people surrounding the APC presidential candidate are not altruistic stressing that they are interested in his war chest.
“Let me tell you why they are following Asiwaju, they know that he’s incapable. They know that he can’t decipher, they know that there is something seriously wrong with his brain. It is like they say in Hausa, somebody will hold the horn, and you will be milking. So, all of these people…know that he’s incapable, know that he’s handicapped but they also know that he’s already a cabal that they can depend on for the piece of a pie.
“No more, no less. I want to tell you that I have not spoken to anyone, both in or outside APC from up north that I know that has told me or that believes Asiwaju is capable. But all they are saying is that you know we have to get something out of it.
“The problem is extreme selfishness. All these people that you are talking about are thinking of themselves as individual, their personal interest; they don’t have the country at heart. That is why I said I have to follow my conscience because I cannot afford…in fact, to be silent is criminal. This is my position. Anyone that refuses to talk when they are supposed to talk is either a hypocrite or a coward or both. So, that is why I took the position I took,” she added.
Mohammed also spoke about Tinubu’s health status saying the gaffes and blunders trailing his campaign appearances were an indication of ill health, and the fact that he will be incapable of presiding over the affairs of the nation.
Mohammed said the vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo would have been a better choice given Tinubu’s poor health.
“He’s a Professor, he’s brilliant. For few weeks he was given to govern this country, he did a great job. But the Lagos-Ibadan press, they said all sort of things against him. Tinubu controls the strongest propaganda machine in this country, which is the Lagos–Ibadan press,” she said.
However, the campaign council has denied the claim that Mohammed left the party out of her freewill.
It stated that she was sacked for alleged incompetence and quarrelsomeness besides being a secret agent in the PCC.
The special adviser on public affairs in Tinubu Media Office, Mr. Mahmud Jega, warned the public against being taken in by the claim that she resigned.
“The Asiwaju/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council received with amusement the hasty ‘resignation’ of Hajiya Naja’atu Mohammed from her position as director of civil society organisations just before she was sacked for incompetence, quarrelsomeness and after being uncovered to be a mole planted in our winning campaign in order to leak sensitive information to our desperate opponents.
“Although she deceived the gullible public by claiming that she resigned, her sack letter with ignominy from the campaign and the party had just arrived at her desk.”
“Her desperate, fact-free, machination-filled and imaginary utterances since her sack from the campaign has proved beyond doubt that she was unfit to serve in the first place, until it was discovered that she was actually a mole.
“Not being a medical doctor but whose profession in the last three decades was as a political jobber and expert name-dropper, she nevertheless issued a pseudo-medical report on our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, after a brief meeting in London.
“Even the association of native doctors would sack her for quackery and for reaching a medical conclusion without any test,”, he stated.
Jega said despite his position as the clear front runner in the 2023 presidential race, Tinubu has been running the most punishing campaign schedule of any of the presidential candidates, and has already visited many parts of the country with an almost non-stop schedule of rallies, town hall meetings and meetings with professional, community, business and religious groups and associations.
“Naja’atu claimed that when she asked Asiwaju what plans he had for the North, he answered that he had none. This is strange and questions the integrity of the woman and her story.”
“Asíwájú has unfolded an Action plan for the whole country, in which problems bedevilling the North got very comprehensive attention. Asiwaju also attended the Arewa Summit last year, at which he unfolded and elaborated on these programs.
“As conclusive proof of her unstable and unreliable character, Naja’atu said in her pre-emptive “resignation letter” that she was quitting party politics as the political parties have no ideological differences and her values and beliefs no longer align with party politics.
“Within a day, pictures surfaced in the media showing her meeting with the PDP presidential candidate and declaring her support for him.
“All Nigerians must be wondering what kind of “values and beliefs” she has apart from opportunism, selfishness and greed.
“We were least surprised about her dramatic exit, coming after she went on TV to disparage our party and President Muhammadu Buhari. Only a mole could behave in such a manner.
“We urge our supporters all over the country to ignore the antics of this political soldier of fortune and concentrate on the job of delivering the Tinubu/Shettima ticket at the polls in barely a month from now”, Jega added.
