A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, has come under heavy criticism for describing President Muhammadu Buhari’s term as a waste to the North.
Speaking when he appeared as a guest on a television programme at the weekend, Na’Abba said most people in the North are opposed to the zoning of the presidency because they have not benefited from Buhari’s administration.
The former speaker, who also said Buhari is “highly opinionated”, accused him of running the country without appropriate consultations. It is not as if northerners and southerners are at war, but in any relationship from time to time, you get some friction. This friction arises from certain reasons,” he said.
Similarly, the APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, said that Na’Abba was looking for political relevance.
The party said Buhari is the best of all the presidents Nigeria has had on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since the return to democracy in 1999, after many years of military rule.
“Na’Abba has been out of circulation and now he is looking for relevance. We all know that he has served his term but he has nothing to offer to Nigeria. What did he do? What kind of laws did he pass to help the people of Nigeria or the northerners or the less privileged in the North?
“So he has lost it. The president has truly performed more than any PDP president and both the North and the South have benefitted from this administration. So Ghali Na’Abba has no facts.
“If you look at appointments, the North has benefitted more than the South, so what benefit is he talking about?” he queried.
Similarly, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has urged the media to ignore what he called “Na’Abba’s malicious criticism” of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “The media should learn to ignore Speaker Na’Abba’s malicious criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari. The President consults widely. The fact that the former Speaker has not been called into the tent does not mean that there is nobody inside.
“There are some people who are unhappy that they are no longer in a position to travel with a retinue of twenty people at public expense and buying 600 ties at a go.”
