Further sign of a soured relationship between President Tinubu and northern leaders emerged yesterday as his Presidency was denied mention in a five point communique issued at the meeting of Northern Governors and Traditional rulers held in Kaduna.
The meeting which was held at the Arewa House in Kaduna was attended by members of the Northern State Governors’ Forum, and Chairmen of Northern states Council of Emirs and Chiefs.
Also in attendance at meeting where issues challenging the north and other parts of Nigeria were discussed was the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa.
It was admitted in the communique that “the meeting deliberated extensively on matters of common interest” and the CDS was invited to address the meeting on the security situation in the north.
The Forum sympathised with the People of Jigawa state over the recent incident of petrol tanker explosion that killed many people and the flooding in Maiduguri that followed the collapse of … dam.
The Forum commended the Chief of Defence Staff for battling various acts of banditry in the north and other parts of Nigeria.
“Particularly we commend the untiring commitment of the Chief of Defence Staff General C. J Musa whose professionalism and innovative approach has made difference in security architecture of the Country at large,” it was stated.
The communique dwelt extensively on the role of traditional institution in combating crimes and the need for the government to partner with traditional rulers to arrest the festering violent crimes, they said.
Even the recent #EndBadGovernance protest and the current power outage in most parts of the north that engaged the attention of the northern leaders at the meeting were mention in the communique.
This is why some observers of political happenings in the North wonder why no credit was given to President Bola Tinubu in a communique, not to mention that a single word was said about the president.
A veteran journalist and former Managing Director of Champion Newspapers Ltd, Mr. Ugo Onuoha, commenting on the issue, remarks, “That no credit was given to [President] Tinubu in any area of improvement including security was loud.
For security, the CDS was lauded. But it’s likely the communique published here was abridged. That was a telling statement of how this group or the region they purport to be speaking for feel about this regime.”
