Support Tinubu or quit, Matawalle tells federal appointees from North

Following the recent attack on President Bola Tinubu’s administration by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has charged federal appointees of Northern extraction to either support the President or relinquish their positions.

In a statement, yesterday, the minister asserted that every appointee of the government must advance the performance of the regime.

He said: “It is pertinent to state that every appointee of President Tinubu, including Baba-Ahmed, owes 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, 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. This is not the time to keep quiet in the face of intimidation and misrepresentation of the efforts and achievements of Tinubu. We must stand up to be counted for being on the part of government or take our exit.”

Baba-Ahmed, who once served as spokesperson of the group and is now Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Presidency, had expressed a different position.

Matawalle added: “Baba-Ahmed’s relationship and affinity with NEF is well-known. Now he is an appointee of the administration as a special adviser and it is incumbent on him to work for the success of the government, he is part of, protects and defends 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.”