Minister alleges Buhari ‘lavished’ $100m W’Bank loan on meetings
Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, has said the recent visits by prominent Northern politicians to former President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, are all plots to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Meanwhile, a minister in Tinubu’s cabinet has accused Buhari of squandering a $100 million World Bank loan on meetings. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2023 presidential election, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai; and his Borno counterpart, Ali Modu Sheriff among others, recently paid a Sallah homage to the former President in his Daura hometown.
These high-profile visits fuelled speculations of a potential strategic alliance across party lines ahead of the 2027 general elections. Buhari, who presided over the country for eight years under the All Progressives Congress (APC), handed over power to the party leader, Tinubu, who was declared winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to Sani, an activist, the prominent Northerners want to resurrect the Buhari political charms, a project, the former lawmaker, in a post on his Facebook handle, noted would eventually fail.
Sani, therefore, urged northerners to reject the faces and their plot to unseat the President in 2027 while noting that they had nothing to offer.
“The recent visits by prominent Northern politicians to Daura appear to be the usual Eid homage; but looking deeper and beyond the façade, it is surreptitiously a new attempt to build a strong northern alliance using ex-President Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict Tinubu’s government in 2027.
“It is a regrouping of Northern political forces for the next general election, a project that will eventually kiss the dust.
“They want to resurrect Buhari’s political charm, and fanaticism and mobilise the gullible to another hollow and bewildering end.”
They want to stock up and light up the Arewa sentiment without considering the inferno it would eventually generate,” Sani stated. He noted that Buhari led the country for eight years and left the North worse than he met it.
Their (Northerners) obsession with power is condemnable. Opposition to Tinubu from the point of policies, promises and programmes of his administration is a democratic right of any Nigerian. People have the right to speak and criticise the government. But attempt to whip up Northern sentiments to achieve their political ends is a dangerous political experiment and expedition at this material time.”
MINISTER of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has accused former Buhari’s administration of lavishing the initial $100 million of a $500 million World Bank loan for women empowerment on meetings, advocacy and consultancy.
The minister made this known in an interview with Arise News, yesterday. The World Bank approved a $500 million loan on June 27, 2023 for Nigeria to help improve the livelihood of women in Nigeria.
Kennedy-Ohanenye commended Tinubu for his proactive involvement in the project, particularly his scrutiny of how the initial $100 million was spent. She clarified that the funds were a loan, not a grant, and stressed the importance of proper management to ensure repayment.
“Let me make it clear. This is not a grant; it is a loan. When some monies are loans, they have to be managed well, so that the loans can be repaid. If you don’t manage it well, how do we pay back the loan?” she said.
