Buhari responsible for kidnapping, terrorism, insecurity in northern Nigeria—Defence Minister

Joseph Irikefe

The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, has reacted to the threat made by the Katsina Elders’ Forum on the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027. The elders had warned President Tinubu to reverse the decision to relocate some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Lagos and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) or risk losing the support of the North in the 2027 general election.

Matawalle said the threat by Katsina Elders is an empty one because the forum has no mandate to speak for the North on such sensitive issues.

The former Zamfara state governor stated this while travelling to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attend a world conference for ministers of defence in Riyadh and to perform lesser Hajj According to report, the minister asked why the elders did not warn former president Muhammadu Buhari over banditry, terrorism and insecurity in the north.

“Yet another question for the Katsina Elders is why they did not warn the former President to stop the carnage against the people of Northern Nigeria when banditry and other security challenges persisted?

“Why were the Elders silent on the failures of their own over terrorism and large-scale corruption?

“Let me also draw the attention of the Katsina Elders’ Forum to the fact that when former President Buhari’s Minister of Transportation decided to locate the Transportation University in the former President’s hometown, Daura, other Nigerians did not protest against that decision, as they believed it was in the interest of unity and peaceful coexistence of the country.”

Meanwhile,the Northern Senators Forum’s (NSF) decision to reject the planned relocation of CBN, FAAN from Abuja to Lagos generated a lot of uproar across the country. A statement signed by Senator Suleiman Kawu Sumaila, the NSF alleged lopsidedness in the allocation of resources in the 2024 budget against the North.