The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has called on all northern appointees to either support President Bola Tinubu or step down from their positions.
Matawalle’s call came after Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who formerly served as the spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum and currently holds the position of Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Presidency, expressed a differing opinion regarding the Minister’s defence of Tinubu’s administration.
On Saturday, the minister slammed the NEF for saying it regretted supporting Tinubu in the 2023 general election.
He described the action of the NEF as a political burden on the North.
This comment, however, did not sit well with Baba-Ahmed, who said Matawalle was ill-advised in his X post on Sunday, noting that a better defence could have been presented.
He wrote, “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.”
However, in his defence, 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.
