By Kassim Afegbua
If at this age, a 67-year old Lady can still behave like a typical hustler, then Asiwaju Tinubu truly has a lot of work to do to empower such fellows when he becomes President. Last week, Najaatu Mohammed separated herself from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and joined the Atiku Abubakar’s chequered aspiration. She loosely and lousily declared that but for the South-West media, Asiwaju Tinubu should not be allowed to become president.
A Najaatu that has always been on the side of justice; or supposedly, I should have said, has now latched on to Atiku Abubakar’s campaigns to further her hustle. Since then, she has been shouting like a scarecrow trying to demarket Tinubu; as if the APC candidate is not a man we see all the time. She says Tinubu cannot hold a tea cup; maybe she has been babysitting Asiwaju Tinubu and feeding him tea, or spoon feeding him each time he has a meal. The likes of Najaatu, eg Bwala, came with the notion that there will be so much to salivate their appetite, but seeing that Asiwaju Tinubu was not forthcoming with free money, they decided to find the exit door.
If Najaatu Mohammed had quietly exited and hid her shame, it would still have made some sense; but for her to be shouting at the top of her voice to undermine The APC candidate is the most ridiculous engagement of this lousy Lady who has failed in all her political contests. She has just joined her compatriot, another perennial loser; who has been contesting for president since 1992. Like him, the times that Najaatu Mohammed has contested, she has failed. She will soon meet her disappointment in the Atiku camp, because the mouth-watering financial greasing of the palm that she so desperately wants is not there. I doubt if Atiku Abubakar can match her appetite for easy money. The romance will soon go sour. Let it be on record that I said so
Najaatu Mohammed declared that Asiwaju Tinubu “cannot hold a tea cup” and that The APC candidate is “suffering from dementia”. It is possible that Najaatu is talking about another Asiwaju Tinubu, certainly not the one we have been seeing campaigning everywhere. When Najaatu’s new partner, Atiku Abubakar, went to Chatham House sometime ago, he went blank trying to deliver his written speech. He said there was interruption by only God knows what. Even when Reno Omokri rushed to his aid, he was still transfixed, looking helplessly because his mind had deserted him. That is a typical example of dementia. And Atiku Abubakar exhibited that so eloquently. I do not quarel with Najaatu Mohammed for exiting the Tinubu camp to follow her heart, but to make empty conjectures and rhetorics in order to embellish her deep hunger and greed exposes her dubiety of purpose. That is usually the stock-in-trade of jobless minds who live on charity and free money.
Asiwaju Tinubu has defied all the insinuations to confound the public with his energetic campaign since November. Since his return from Saudi Arabia, no single day has gone by without one activity or the other. If able-bodied minds like Governors Ganduje, ElRufai, Bagudu, Badaru, Suleiman, Masari, Lalong, AbuBello, Yahaya Bello, Zulum, MaiBuni, Mutawallen, Yahaya, and Abdulrasaq, all serving Governors from the North under the platform of The APC, persons who see Asiwaju Tinubu on a regular basis, have not seen “dementia” in Tinubu, it means that Najaatu possesses spiritual binoculars and sees that which does not exist. There are other notable Nigerians in the Tinubu Campaign who can attest to his alertness , agility and energy. Trying to blackmail Asiwaju Tinubu or run him down will certainly not fetch Najaatu Mohammed extra meat from Atiku Abubakar’s pot of soup. Asiwaju Tinubu is an idea whose time has come. God almighty will surely see his aspiration through to victory. It is interesting that Najaatu Mohammed has joined Atiku Abubakar’s rottweiler colony, but she should please be honourable enough to bark with facts, and not mere conjectures. I will come her way again.
Prince Kassim Afegbua is former Edo State Commissioner of Information.
