Minister of State Defence, Bello Matawalle, has asked the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on political matters, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, and other political appointees from the North to defend the President’s administration or resign.
Mr Matawalle stated this in a statement on Monday while reacting to a comment by Mr Baba-Ahmed.
On Saturday, the minister had lambasted the Northern Elders Forum for saying it regretted supporting Mr Tinubu during the 2023 general election.
He described the forum as “political paperweight” and a “burden to the region”.
However, Mr Baba -Ahmed said Mr Matawalle’s outburst was ill advised, suggesting that he could have done a better job in defence of the administration without denigrating the group.
But the minister said: “Dr. Baba-Ahmed’s relationship and affinity with Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) is well-known.
“The fact now is that he is an appointee of the administration as Special Adviser, and it is incumbent on him to work for the success of the government he is part of, protect and defend the government against unjust and vicious attacks from those who hide under ethnic and other primordial interests to heat up the polity for myopic reasons.
“It is pertinent to state that every appointee of President Tinubu, including Dr. Baba-Ahmed owe the government a copious duty to promote, elucidate and advance the good works and commendable efforts of the government across all sectors.”
As appointees of the government from the North, he said, ” we must all take a stand, be unequivocal, and be counted in the roll of honours for our support and work for the success of the administration we are serving”, he said.
According to him, this is not the time to keep quiet in the face of intimidation and misrepresentation of the efforts and achievements of the current administration.
“We must stand up to be counted for being on the part of government or take our exit,” the minister added.
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