- Amid allegation of neglect
A former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf, has accused President Bola Tinubu of alienating the North.
Yusuf, in a recent interview, stated that the North gave Tinubu 62 per cent of his votes, lamenting that he has been alienating the region in key political appointments.
According to Yusuf, over 70 per cent of Tinubu’s appointments are from the South-West hence he questioned their contribution to the President’s victory in the 2023 election.
Yusuf added that Northerners have no reason to vote for Tinubu again.
He said: “He is from Lagos; he ruled there, and he is still ruling them. Nobody becomes governor of Lagos until they get his stamp of approval. This doesn’t happen in any part of this country, yet he lost Lagos. So, you guys knew something that we did not know.
“The North gave him 62 per cent of his votes, predominantly from the North-West. The South-West did not vote for him. It’s the North that brought President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to government. But what has he been doing? He’s been alienating the North.
“Over 70 per cent of his appointments are from the South-West. His kinsmen are from Lagos. What have they done to deserve that electorally? So, it’s political suicide for any politician to alienate his electoral base and expect us to vote for him again. He should come and tell us why he’s taken everything to the South-West, to Lagos.
“We (North) have no reason to vote for him again. We voted for him when his people did not. Katsina, where I come from, gave him more votes than his State of Lagos. So, his people did not vote for him. We sheltered him politically, and now he alienates us and wants to come back again.
“It’s political suicide that he’s committing, and he’s doing that knowingly because he doesn’t know politics. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s politics is South-West-based. He doesn’t know Nigerian politics at all, and that’s why he’s committing this political blunder all over the place.”