Bala Mohammed attacking Tinubu over presidential ambition – Tuggar

The Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yussuf Tuggar, has accused Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed of attacking President Bola Tinubu because of the latter’s presidential ambitions.

The Bauchi governor has been a staunch critic of the president in recent times.

Following the introduction of the tax reform bills, Mohammed, who is also the chairman of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ forum, alleged that the bills were anti-people, anti-north, and would only favour a section of the country.

He warned that if the policies continued, the North would show the president their “true colours.”

The Presidency asked the governor to retract this statement. Instead, Mohammed doubled down on his opposition to Tinubu’s policies.

Tuggar, who spoke during Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, said Mohammed was insincere and criticing Tinubu to galvanise support for his presidential ambitions.

READ ALSO: Retract your statement against Tinubu, Presidency tells Bala Mohammed

“There is the issue of sincerity of purpose. Governor Bala Mohammed showed clearly that he did not have any sincerity of purpose,” Tuggar said.

“It is not that other governors did not try to interrogate the tax bills when it was presented, which is a good thing, as a matter of fact, so that Nigerians get the best out of the bill.

“But what senator bala Mohammed used it to do was to use it as a platform to launch his presidential campaign very early in the day.”

The minister added that Mohammed was also seeking an audience with the president.

He said that Mohammed used a religious event to plead with the president behind the scenes, but this was unsuccessful because Tinubu directed that Mohammed’s letter be submitted to him – Tuggar.

“Now that he has seen that the tax reform bills have moved forward, he is still talking on one hand and using the back door to secure an appointment with the president. This smacks of insincerity,” Tuggar said.

“He wrote to the president, and the president directed that the letter be sent to me because the language he was using was about foreign Islamic scholars coming to visit, and he wanted them to be supported when they come and then he would use that to meet the president and beg quietly.”

Mohammed had stated that there was nothing wrong in criticising Tinubu with government critics, citing Tinubu’s opposition to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to implement the removal of subsidy on petrol in 2012.