Former Deputy Senate Leader and Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Senator Abdul Ningi, representing PDP Bauchi Central, has criticized Bola Tinubu, stating that conditions have worsened under his leadership.
In an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Senator Ningi expressed doubts about President Tinubu’s understanding of the country and the challenges of governing Nigeria, particularly the northern region.
Senator Ningi highlighted concerns about the performance of the federal government, noting that conditions have deteriorated since President Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.
He also raised alarm over alleged budget padding, citing a discrepancy of N3 trillion between the proposed and approved budgets.
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Regarding Tinubu and the government’s performance, Senator Ningi remarked, “As a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a representative of the people, I must express that the government’s performance falls short of expectations. People are facing increasing hardships, and the situation has worsened compared to when President Tinubu assumed leadership.
“We receive firsthand accounts from constituents who are struggling and have nowhere else to turn but to 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 thinking 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 can or cannot 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 and aspiring to get for a long.
“For example, the Ajaokuta project, the Mambila power project, the dredging of river Niger 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 was cursed by someone, despite the road being the soul of our travelers 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 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.”