THE Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, has stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been fenced off and caged by certain forces.
Ndume, representing Borno South, told journalists on Wednesday, July 10, at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, that nothing appreciable was being done by the President to tackle the security challenge facing the country.
He said Nigerians were not happy over Federal Government’s failure to tackle the challenges of poverty, insecurity, hunger and others that have brought the country to its knees, insisting: “Mr. President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. So many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him.
“Now, they have stopped him from talking and he doesn’t have public affairs managers, except that his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements. Nigerians are getting very angry.
“The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently. We don’t have food reserve; there is unavailability of food. Food crisis is the worst crisis that any nation can encounter . If we add that to security crisis, it will be severe.
“The President should wake up, it seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening, because he has been caged off; he has been fenced off by plutocrats. He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth.
“Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him. I am very worried not only for the President himself, but also myself.”
On farmer-herder crisis, Ndume said stakeholders were not sincere in finding a lasting solution, noting that opinions on the issue have always been driven by ethnic sentiments.
He told the BBC Hausa Service, earlier, that the federal government’s failure to tackle these issues was a major challenge, lamenting that some ministers have been unable to meet with the President to discuss the matter.
“The major problem with this government is that its doors are closed, to the extent that even some ministers cannot see the President, not to mention members of the National Assembly who do not have the opportunity to meet with him and discuss the issues affecting their constituencies.”
