Senator Kabiru Marafa has taken on the Minister of State for Defence Bello Matawalle, saying that the Northern elders are neither a burden nor paperweights.
Marafa is a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima 2023, stated this in a statement with the title, ‘Tinubu Presidency: Northern Elders Forum, a political burden to the North, on Sunday .
Matawalle had carpeted the Northern Elders Forum as ‘paperweights and a burden’ after the organization had expressed regrets for voting Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as president.
Reacting on Sunday, Marafa said instead of disparaging the Northern elders, Matawalle should have listed the achievements, programmes, policies and projects President Tinubu executed in the North and the country since the advent of this administration ten months ago.
To label Northern elders in that war, Marafa, said Matawalle faltered and forgot that the North gave the highest number of votes to ensure victory for the Tinubu presidency.
He described the ministers’ remarks as was counterproductive and a great disservice to the president, who is working tirelessly towards addressing the numerous challenges facing all segments and sectors of the country, among them terrorism, insurgency, economic and financial malfeasance and infrastructural decay, to list a few.
Marafa maintained that what President Tinubu needs from his appointees is support, loyalty and hard work to actualise the Renewed Hope Agenda conceived to return the country to the path of progress and prosperity, not sycophancy and unguarded statements.
Marafa, asked the minister to withdraw the offensive statement and apologise to the Northern elders and Northerners in general.
“In the last one week, I have been inundated with calls from well-meaning and prominent stakeholders in our region and party, the APC, who know my relationship with the President.
“They are worried and disturbed that the unfortunate statement by the Minister of State for Defence, if not addressed, could affect the president’s electoral fortunes in our region because it will be seen as if the minister spoke the mind of the president or the Presidency.
“The crux of the matter is that; whether you like them or not these people are called Northern Elders, so, unless they are stripped of that title by the people of the region, insulting them is tantamount to insulting the entire people of the region.
“It’s not in our culture and upbringing to insult elders. No descent society will refer to its elders as a burden and paperweights. The North is not an exception.
”As one of the senators who worked very closely with Asiwaju as party leader (as he was then called) from the formation of APC through the primaries that led to the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as APC presidential candidate in Lagos, the politics of the National Assembly leadership in 2015 and 2019 and the processes and intrigues that characterised the 2023 Presidential Primaries, I can say without mincing words that President Tinubu holds the North, the Northerners, and their leaders in high esteem.”
