Hardship: Don’t Blame Tinubu, He Didn’t Promise Nigerians Anything – Senator

The Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), has berated President Bola Tinubu over the economic situation of the country, saying that the president does not understand the difficulties of ruling a country like Nigeria.

The Senator however said people should not blame the president since there was no agreement or promise between him and the people during his campaign. for the seat

Ningi who spoke in an interview aired on BBC Hausa Service on Saturday, noted that things are getting worse since Tinubu took the leadership of the country.

The NSF Chairman explained that the fact that he is a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not distract from his patriotic disposition as a Nigerian and representative of the people.

He said, “First of all, I want you to know that I am a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a representative of the people. Based on my opinion, the government hasn’t performed to our expectations.

“Things are getting worse compared to when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the leadership of the country. People are going through a lot of difficulties. We live in villages.

“We are going there to interact with them, and they are lamenting seriously. They have nowhere to go, so they have no one to express their grievances to other than us.

“I think Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t even understand this country, and he didn’t understand the difficulties of ruling a country like Nigeria. Probably he has his own idea of what governance is, but I don’t blame him so much because when he was campaigning for the seat, there was no agreement or promise between him and the people.

“People were just blinded and voted for him because he supported former president Muhammadu Buhari when he was contesting. Some even voted for him because he is a Muslim; as such, he needed their vote on whether he could or could not do the right thing for the country.

“But the most painful thing is that Northerners stood for him and did all they could to bring him to power, but unfortunately, there was no agreement between them and the president on what should be done to the North and the Northerners.

“Especially taking into consideration the importance and significant projects that North has been yearning for and aspiring to get for a long. For example, the Ajaokuta project, the Mambila power project, the dredging of the Niger River, and other notable projects.

“What mostly disturbs my sleep is that we had a budget in 2013 and 2014 in which we earmarked billions of naira, but it was neglected by President Goodluck Jonathan. When President Buhari came, we thought it was one of the projects he would pay attention to, but unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for over eight years.

“Even road construction like Kano-Abuja is not yet completed, as if it were cursed by someone, despite the road being the soul of our travellers in the North.

“Indeed, we don’t attack the government as the opposition is supposed to do. But this is a result of the situation and the government we have. These so-called leaders they forced on us were not voted for by us.

“They brought religious issues and ethnic and tribal issues into the process; they used propaganda, saying that no Hausa/Fulani would be trusted to lead the opposition because there would be no peace.

“If you look at it from this scenario, the majority of those in opposition are from the Northeast and the Northwest, but we were not allowed to be the leaders of the opposition in the Senate.

“This is one of the reasons why we said we would go back and look at what is happening under the umbrella of the Northern Senators Forum, which is under my leadership.

“But you can’t do everything here because it involves members of the ruling and opposition parties. It is very difficult to challenge the ruling party under that umbrella once you want the unity of the North.“