APC Attacks Bauchi Gov For Accusing Tinubu of Hunger, Poverty

The ruling All Progressives Congress, on Wednesday, lashed out at the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for accusing President Bola Tinubu of inviting poverty, hunger, and protest to the country.

Bauchi governor, who is also the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, said this following the recent hunger protest against bad governance in the country.

Mohammed had on Monday described Tinubu’s Sunday broadcast as empty, saying it escalated rather than quelled the nationwide hunger protest, which turned violent in the North.

However, on Wednesday, the governor, speaking at the flag-off of the PDP local government campaign rally at the Dr Rilwanu Sulaimanu Adamu Square, further knocked the President.

Mohammed said, “I said with humility and courage that what he (Tinubu) said was empty. It did not address the problems and challenges. And that is why, amid this protest, we came out to show you that Bauchi is different. The youth are with us, we are with them. 'They are we and we are them'.”

Mohammed restated that the crisis in the country could be traced to the policies of Tinubu’s government.

“Unemployment is everywhere. Our education system is not working. The new policies brought by the Federal Government are not working. They have to understand that. It is their problem. It is their programmes that have caused all these problems. So they have to change. We in Bauchi are ready to change,” he said.

Mohammed said the hunger protest should be a wake-up call for the country’s leadership, “from the Presidency to sub-national and to the local government.”

“In the North, there is a very big wake-up call for us to bring good governance; to respect people. There is hunger and anger. We have to really address the problem of development,” he said.

Defending President Tinubu, the National Director of Publicity for the ruling APC, Bala Ibrahim, said Mohammed and other governors should be held responsible for the hardship in the land because they had received more allocations under Tinubu’s administration.

Ibrahim said, “A lot of money has been given to these governors but they have not been utilising them judiciously in a way and manner that will make development cascade down to the people.

“This means the governors have been the engine of corruption in the country and they have not been doing what is expected of them by way of giving the dividends of democracy to the people, thereby making the people point fingers at the President.

“At no time has the Federal Government given as much money to the state governments as being done under the present administration of Bola Tinubu. What are they doing with the money?

“Every state governor has received triple what they used to receive before. So they ought to have elevated people and taken a lot out of poverty. But they are not doing it.

“They should stop playing politics with poverty. Let them concentrate on the mandate and show proof that they are making judicious use of the resources given to them, not putting blame on the President every time.”