The former senator stated that insulting the Northern elders was counterproductive and a great disservice to the president.
A former federal lawmaker and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), Kabiru Garba Marafa, has responded to a recent uncomplimentary remark made by the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, about members of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).
SaharaReporters earlier reported how Matawalle said that NEF members lacked the authority to speak for the entire region following their criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
He noted that they had become a political burden to Northerners and were deluded into thinking they had political relevance in the country.
Matawalle’s remark was a result of the NEF's decision to withdraw its support from the Tinubu government.
Commenting on the developments in a press statement issued on Sunday, Marafa berated Matawalle for his comment.
He urged the minister to highlight the present administration’s achievements to warrant the support of any meaningful stakeholders in the country.
The former senator stated that insulting the Northern elders was counterproductive and a great disservice to the president.
The former lawmaker said: “In the last one week, I have been inundated with calls from well-meaning and prominent stakeholders in our region and party, the APC, who know my relationship with the President.
“They are worried and disturbed that the unfortunate statement by the Minister of State for Defence, if not addressed, could affect the president’s electoral fortunes in our region because it will be seen as if the minister spoke the mind of the president or the Presidency.
“The crux of the matter is that; whether you like them or not these people are called Northern Elders, so, unless they are stripped of that title by the people of the region, insulting them is tantamount to insulting the entire people of the region.
“It’s not in our culture and upbringing to insult elders. No decent society will refer to its elders as a burden and paperweights. The North is not an exception.
“As one of the senators who worked very closely with Asiwaju as party leader (as he was then called) from the formation of APC through the primaries that led to the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as APC presidential candidate in Lagos, the politics of the National Assembly leadership in 2015 and 2019 and the processes and intrigues that characterised the 2023 Presidential Primaries, I can say without mincing words that President Tinubu holds the North, the Northerners, and their leaders in high esteem.
“Although I’m not the mouthpiece of either the president or the Presidency, as a Northerner and an elder in the region, as an APC stakeholder and one that has worked closely with both the president and the Vice President, I want to state categorically that this view expressed by Mr Matawalle is his personal opinion and not in any way that of Mr President or the Presidency, and should, therefore, be disregarded.”
“I know for sure that the North, Northerners and the Northern elders are neither a burden nor a paperweight in the scheme of things in the region and the country as a whole. The president shares this view, and, therefore, he is with me on this,” his statement added.