A former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has questioned the competence of the Minister of State for Defence, Musliu Obanikoro, in addressing the insecurity plaguing the country.
In a speech made available to our correspondent, Tinubu said Obanikoro had spent more time playing politics rather than facing the job he was appointed to do.
He said that during the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State, Obanikoro was seen playing politics when he should have been in Chibok, Maiduguri, where over 200 girls were kidnapped by terrorists.
The All Progressives Congress leader said, “The Minister of State for Defence has spent more time in Ekiti than he has in Chibok. This is not responsible democratic governance. It is a hoax.”
He added, “Boko Haram is an extreme manifestation of the chronic and acute misrule that has spread gross injustice and mass poverty across the face of our beloved nation.
“All nations have their wayward souls. However, in better governed, more prosperous societies, the number of anti-social actors is much less and even their extremism is somewhat muted.
“Because of their low numbers, they are confined to being a law enforcement problem.
“But here, abject poverty swells their ranks. Here, they have become a small army. With that, they are a national security threat and a political challenge to a free and open society.”
However, Obanikoro described Tinubu’s statement as unbecoming of a former governor.
The former senator, in a statement signed by his media aide, Ohimai Amaize, said that rather than assisting the Federal Government in tackling insecurity, Tinubu was using the opportunity to play politics.
He added that Tinubu had yet to recover from the trauma of the defeat his party suffered in the Ekiti election.
He said, “It is unfortunate that people like Tinubu have chosen to politicise our war against the Boko Haram insurgency. To begin with, the mess we are trying to clean up was created by the opposition which had promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for this administration.
“If I have a political campaign, anywhere in the country to participate in, I will go there. It does not in any way affect my responsibility as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In other advanced societies, their leaders deal with their security issues without reducing it to politics.
“Leadership is multi-dimensional and I am combining politics with my governance responsibilities.”
PUNCH
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