By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has said the presidency was right to describe Prof. Ango Abdullahi, a former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, and Convener of the Northern Elders Forum(NEF) as ” an irritant, and general without troops”.
Prof. Abdullahi, who is the Convener of the NEF had alleged in a statement that the insecurity in some northern states of the country was an indication that President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors of those states have lost control, and could no longer guarantee protection of the people as a constitutional duty.
But in a blistering reaction, the presidency described the Prof Ango Abdullahi’s led NEF as “a mere irritant and a featherweight”. Special Adviser to the President on Media and publicity, Mr Femi Adesina had said in a statement released on Sunday night:
“The former vice-chancellor signed the statement under the banner of Northern Elders Forum (NEF). Hearing that title, you would think the body was a conglomeration of true elders.
“But the truth is that NEF is just Ango Abdullahi, and Ango Abdullahi is NEF. It is a quasi-organisation that boasts of no credible membership, and its leader is akin to a General without troops.
“Before the 2019 presidential election, the one-man army called NEF had shown its antipathy against President Buhari, and its preference for another candidate. They all got beaten together.”
However, taking to Twitter on Monday, Fani-Kayode wrote, “No-one in Nigeria has supported the barbaric savagery of the Fulani herdsmen more than Prof. Ango Abdullahi. He is even more of an extreme hegemonist, religious bigot and ethnic supremacist than @MBuhari. He deserved what he got from @FemAdesina and the Presidency today.”
