Ahead of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 100th day in office, the Convener of the Arewa Think Tank Group, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, has noted that Northerners cannot accuse the President of nepotism as exhibited by the immediate past administration.
Tinubu was sworn in as president on May 29, following his victory at the polls. However, Yakubu said even if nepotism existed under the current administration, Northerners have no moral justification to accuse Tinubu of nepotism because when such was prevalent under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the majority of them kept quiet without criticising the former president.
In a statement he issued on Friday and made available to newsmen in Kaduna to appraise the administration of President Tinubu in his 100 days in office, the Think Tank group expressed satisfaction with the warning given by the President to the recently appointed ministers to be hardworking and of good conduct or get fired from office.
The Arewa Think Tank admitted that in one of his published stories, he advised Tinubu not to appoint former governors as ministers, even though some of them have been appointed. He is satisfied that any of them could be sacked in the event of poor performances.
According to him, from all indications, President Tinubu meant business in taking the country to the promised land, just as he appealed to every Nigerian to cooperate with the President to achieve his goals.
He said from the appointments the President has made so far, there is no element of nepotism, adding that he will even encourage Tinubu to do nepotism because “No individual, group, or region should hold Tinubu hostage since his coming to power was divine and by dint of hard work”.
“I must confess that Tinubu has surpassed my expectations, especially in the stamina with which he has been exhibiting in carrying out his functions. Virtually every day, including weekends, there were actions by President Tinubu.
“If you go to the Villa now, it is like a market; that is how democracy should be, compared to what it used to be in the last eight years, and his level of humility in governance is exceptional.
“No Northerner should bring up this unjustified sentiment now because some of us spoke against Buhari when he was doing the nepotism thing. And he didn’t listen.
“So it is just 100 days into President Tinubu’s regime. And he is doing exceptionally well. We will not allow anybody to express that kind of sentiment against Tinubu.
Most Northerners are now going to support Tinubu to bring this country out of the woods because a lot of damage has been done to it in the past.
‘When Buhari came in 2015, six months after he constituted his cabinet, I was one of the first people to grant an interview to a national television station, telling Buhari that we would not watch him misbehave coming into office after Jonathan. And we will not watch him do the wrong things and keep quiet. We will be the first to take you to the cleaners.
“So the same thing with Tinubu: if we see him going wrong, we will not keep quiet. But we will not exhibit stupid sentiments. And I don’t see Tinubu committing nepotism like Buhari did.
“Tinubu looks like a leader who is going to be very objective. I have heard some snippets, which I cannot say publicly, where Tinubu stamped his feet on the ground and said that he would not take such a mess.
This is one of the qualities that are required of a leader. He is a leader who is going to be firm and stamp his feet.
“I once advised that the past governors that have served for eight years in office should take the back seat so that President Tinubu would not incur the wrath of Nigerians.
“I told him to forget about these former governors. But since he had appointed some of them, so be it. My happiness is that Mr President has warned all the ministers to perform or be fired from office. So the ministers must sit up and perform their duties”. The statement said.
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