The Mayor of Urhoboland and prominent ex-militant leader, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro, has carpeted the Northern Elders Forum, NEF over what he described as the gaffe of a self serving and greedy few who he said arrogate to themselves power they do not have due to what he described as a barefooted threat issued President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidency bearing in mind 2027 presidential election.
Akpodoro’s comment is contained in a release made available to journalists over the Eid Fitr holiday, stressing that the era when a few disgruntled elements wake up “from the other side of their bed to decide who rules the country was long gone.”
Mayor Akpodoro noted that only the North did not vote President Tinubu into power but that he came to power on the back of well-meaning Nigerians who do not pander to ethnic and religious sentiments like a few individuals who he said live in the past like Abdul Azeez Suleiman’s so-called NEF.
According to the Urhobo-born vociferous Mayor, Nigerians are looking forward to a better and more prosperous nation and not drooling in ethnic jingoism like Suleiman would want Nigerians to beleive but an equitable nation standing on fairplay in the spirit of one indivisible united Nigeria.
He stressed further that the 2023 presidential election proved people like Suleiman and co-travellers wrong noting that President Tinubu at that election defeated ethnicism and religion to the disappointment of the hegemonic few who see themselves as owners of Nigeria.
The former warlord said, Suleiman belongs in the 19th century Nigeria where a few people areogate to themselves the power to make a President stressing that the spread of the overwhelming victory of the Presidential candidate in last year’s election defeated such notion.
Nigeria, accoridng to Akpodoro, belongs to all and not an exclusive preserve of the likes of Suleiman who would rather want the larger Northern region to remain in abject poverty and despondency while they smile to the banks standing on the numerical strength of the northern masses.
He added that Tinubu’s government is a government of the masses and not that of a few who see themselves as kingmakers as he challenged Suleiman to tell the world who he and ethnic jingoists voted for in that election that he said remains one of the best in Nigeria’s history.
The Mayor stated that if anyone was to be denied a second term in office, that person ought to be the immediate former President Muhammadu Buhari who he noted led the nation deeper in abject poverty on account of bad governance maintaining that President Tinubu’s administration would not fund corruption like the nation witnessed in the eight years of General Buhari whose eight years ineptitude dragged the Nigerian state back by twenty years.
“Unfortunately, Suleiman spoke for himself and the very few who live under the illusion that they have the power to decide who becomes the nation’s leader.
“Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for Asiwaju and that mandate he has been utilising in ensuring that a new Nigeria where the children of the poor are made relevant without necessarily dancing to the whims and caprices of some spent forces.
“The candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi that Suleiman alluded to in his wishy washy statement is not more of a statesman than the man who birthed democracy in the world’s most populous black nation.
“One wonders where Suleiman and his ilks were when the then Senator Tinubu and his National Democratic Coalition wrested power from the military. Was he on sabbatical? This is another failed blackmail that can never stand the test of time.
“The North is united in its support for the Renewed Hope Agenda under this President and people like Suleiman whose group exists only on the pages of newspapers should be told in clear terms to queue behind this President whose ambition is to bequeath a new Nigeria where every citizen is hopeful and united in national solidarity.
“Come 2027, Nigerians more than ever before will excitedly file out to vote massively for the man who has taken the gaunlet to build a new nation where the child of the common man will be able to live happily among other Nigerians. While Suleiman’s NEF sees division; patriotic citzens see unity, friendship, brotherhood and peace.
“The NEF should bother itself with the insecurity plaguing its region and not play naira and kobo politics at the detriment of the Nigerian masses who largely live in squalor hopelessly.
“Even in his cluelessnes, Nigerians voted Buhari for a second term in office at the time of which Suleiman’s NEF was asleep. Power belongs to the Nigerian people and not NEF. This government has come to stay. Suleiman and his ethnocentric group should go get a life, stop the rascality and self aggrandisement that President Tinubu has defeated on February 25, 2023.
“It’s a new Nigeria that is being repositioned for greatness by genuine democratic forces and nobody will pander to the whims and caprices of forces of retrogression and reactionary elements.”
The Mayor called on Nigerians to be wary of those he described as political liabilities who can not win election in their polling units let alone their wards saying they are jittery of the progress being made by the Tinubu’s administration.
Recall that, Suleiman was quoted recently as saying the North regrets voting President Tinubu to power siting none inclusiveness in the current FG wondering how elections can inclusiveness be defined if not what the government in power is doing.
