President Bola Tinubu must be sweating over increasing antagonism from the northern political elite.
There’s rising opposition to how the administration is handling issues of insecurity, poverty and most recently the alleged claim that the administration had signed an agreement to allow Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) in the country.
Support for the president who defeated Atiku Abubakar, a northerner who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election is allegedly waning.
Some sections of the elite are mobilising for the August 5 protest tagged Day of Rage.
The anti-Tinubu sentiment seems to be spreading in the north, forcing a Hausa
social-cultural group to warn against any protest against the president.
The Hausawa Tsantsa Development Association (HTDA), in a statement signed by its leader, Kalthoom Alumbe Jitami, warned all Hausa youths across Nigeria against participating in the alleged planned protests, asking Hausa youths to be wary and vigilant of the plots.
“By this call, the youths are enjoined to shun every entreaty at them to join in the protest,” HTDA stated.
The alleged anger against the president has partly been blamed on neglect of people like former Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai and others who did not receive any appointments.
The swelling dissent to the administration reached a different level recently when various northern leaders visited ex-president, Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku, El-Rufai, ex-presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and others were among northern leaders who visited Buhari in what is likely the beginning of realignment against Tinubu ahead of 2027.
The development prompted former Kaduna senator, Shehu Sani to carpet those he said “failed the North” when they were in power.
Tinubu’s policies are being blamed for the alleged deplorable situation in the North, and the elite opposed to the president seems to be taking advantage of it.
The latest group to lambast President Tinubu are Buhari’s kinsmen, Katsina State Elders Forum (KSEF), who said 12 local governments in the state are under the control of bandits.
The forum’s secretary, Malam Aliyu Mohammed, who conveyed the feelings of the elders, said, “We have complained severally to the Federal Government to complement what the state government is doing to protect lives and property in our dear state. The federal government has not lived up to expectations.
“These hoodlums keep on killing our people, burning their properties, claiming their farms, and destroying their houses.”
He lamented “If you are travelling, you are not sure of coming back. If you leave home, you are not sure of coming back to meet your people safe. And it is really unfortunate that the so-called Defence Ministers are from the North. We don’t know what they are doing. They have not done enough to protect the North. And it is unfortunate that these killers are only in this part of the country. We are really disturbed.
“They have killed hundreds of people in Katsina. Nobody, none of the ministers or the president deemed it fit to come and condole the people of Katsina State and provide some succour to cushion the impact on the victims. That’s why you see a lot of beggars everywhere. This is as a result of this banditry.
“The Katsina State Governor has done his best. He floated the Security Watch Corps and they are doing their best. But unfortunately, the community corps are not allowed to handle sophisticated weapons like the bandits.
“The soldiers are not helping matters. So, we don’t know where the problem is. We are yet to understand the problem. What is happening? Who is behind this banditry?
“The Federal Government has to explain why our soldiers can go elsewhere in other countries and perform miracles, and restore peace, but not in the northern part of the country?
“We are calling on the federal government to come up with immediate measures. Let them introduce jungle battalions. Put these soldiers in the forest, let them remain there and fight the bandits. The bandits are known and they also know where they are. We are calling on Mr President to please save the North, for goodness sake. Save Katsina State,”
On LGBT, he said, “Katsina State vehemently objects to this arrangement because we are 98 per cent Muslims. Even Christianity is against same-sex marriage. We are begging Mr. President to reverse this decision with immediate effect. Nigerians are not happy and everybody is crying.”
He further lamented that there’s ravaging poverty in the north.
“Our people are very poor. There is hunger and abject poverty in our region. Everywhere you go, you see people begging because they don’t have what to eat,” he said.
Buhari’s Kinsmen Threaten Tinubu, Underscoring Northern Anger On Alleged LGBT Romance, Insecurity is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
