NAJA’ATU MOHAMMED AND THE ALLURE OF “FOOD IS READY” POLITICS -JESUTEGA ONOKPASA

In what did not come as a surprise to those who truly know her, Hajia Naja’atu Mohammed, self-styled rights activist and compulsive oppositional character, suddenly resigned from the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

What was actually a surprise was that she had somehow found her way into the council, in the first place, with no less a designation as Director of one of its organs!

But, then the campaign council of the APC is a behemoth whose membership may well have grown to several thousands by now.

It is inevitable that a few unsavoury characters would end up within such a structure – the apostles of Our Lord Jesus were only twelve in number yet one of them still turned out a traitor, and, a most dastardly one, indeed!

Upon her resignation, Hajia Naja’atu almost immediately resurfaced in the arms of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubarkar, in a most bizarre but rather comical scene featuring the pathological hugger of the limelight and Atiku’s house “Bingo”, Dino Melaye, beside himself with glee, clowning with gusto as ever.

Naja’atu promptly proceeded upon invective, dissolving into the purest bile and most unrestrained bitterness, pouring expletive after expletive on APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in such a shockingly gutter manner that was truly sad coming from someone of her age.

It is, of course, Hajia Naja’atu’s entitlement to jump ship and identify with any camp of her choice but unfortunately for her, she has only, in this case, succeeded in reducing herself to a mere puppet of a very mean group of very, very desperate men.

While her puppeteers are quite happy to let her feel like some superstar and rave of the moment, she is actually but a bit player, acting an infantile script which unimaginative characters like Dino Melaye and Phrank Shuaibu must have come up with and simply handed her to mime.

Atiku and his goons will use and dump her as they do absolutely everyone foolish enough to fall for their bluster and guile.

Indeed, in the context of the impending election, Naja’atu will end up twice disappointed.

Atiku will assuredly lose this time as he has always done and, immediately thereafter, take off as usual to Dubai, leaving the likes of Naja’atu biting their fingers, hapless and leaderless, constrained to fend for themselves.

For a woman who does not joke with her stomach and clearly cannot bear hunger, Hajia Naja’atu is set to be pretty much challenged attending to her voracious appetite, going forward.

Indeed, from all indications, Naja’atu clearly wanted something from Asiwaju which she didn’t get quickly enough.

She has therefore only gone to where she thinks “food is ready”.

That is as low as it can get for someone who expects to be taken seriously as elder and activist, possessed of honour and attended by self-respect.

It was indeed truly disappointing to see the Naja’atu that was never even close to Bola Tinubu, in the first place, quite apart from having always been against power shift to the South, suddenly waxing defamatory about someone she has never liked from the get go!

It is, in fact, quite naive for a woman that has long been tied to the apron strings of the Sarakis – was extremely close to the late Olusola Saraki and is rumoured to be on the payroll of Bukola Saraki till date – to think she can impress Nigerians with some poorly crafted bunkum about Bola Tinubu, the most actively campaigning candidate for President, and, poster child of good governance in Nigeria.

That she would proceed to attend the delivery of her blatant falsehoods with the most abhorrently tribalist and shamefully sectionalist commentary is a complete disgrace, to say the least.

One would have expected much better judgement and far greater circumspection from a woman of Hajia Naja’atu’s age.

Funny enough, I do not think Hajia Najaatu can deliver her polling unit, much less her ward, in an election.

Thankfully, the highly patriotic and pan-Nigerian Northerners who can actually deliver votes on election day are solidly behind Asiwaju.

They led the charge to make him the flagbearer of the APC and are also leading the charge to make him our next President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In the final analysis, unstable characters and unreliable quantities like Hajia Naja’atu do not really matter at the end of the day.

Contrary to the rabidly ethnicist calculus Atiku and the likes of Dele Momodu hope will get them into Aso Rock, I actually believe Tinubu is more loved in the North than even in the South, and, may God bless our Northern brothers and sisters for that.

This election will shock those hoping to profit from dividing our country along ethno-religious lines.

They will fail.

Indeed, barely a month from now, they will be regretting their perfidy when Bola Tinubu becomes President-elect!

By May 29 they will find themselves having to come to terms with the fact that he has become their President.

Onokpasa, a lawyer and member, All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, writes from Warri.