Ndume warns Tinubu against attention seekers

Former Senate majority leader, Senator Ali Ndume, has cautioned President Bola Tinubu to be wary of persons he called attention seekers who rain insults on other politicians as part of a strategy to curry favour from the presidency.

The Senator gave the admonition on Saturday in a statement he signed and distributed to journalists in Abuja.

Ndume was reacting to an allegation against him by a former aide of Atiku Abubakar, Daniel Bwala.

Bwala, who had since defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) had tweeted on his X handle last Friday, alleging that Ndume was planning to mobilise youths in his local government, Hawul, to attack him. Incidentally, Hawul is one of the constituencies of Senator Ndume.

Reacting in a statement at the weekend, Ndume maintained that he has always criticised certain policies of the administration, which he believed were inimical to the economic survival of Nigerians.

He also submitted that the former aide of ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar has no political value because he is not known in Hawul, his home town.

He said, “Ordinarily, I do not want to join the issue or wouldn’t have replied Mr Bwala who claimed to be from Hawul local government area which is part of my constituency.

“I can describe Daniel Bwala as a failed lawyer, making noise in Abuja. As I said, I did not want to respond, but because Bwala talked about threats or I am mobilising youths to attack him, which has security implications and is very sensitive. I believe Bwala’s strategy is how to get the attention and sympathy of Mr President to give him Police cover and maybe a job.

“We have credible people in the Hawul local government area, and they know who Daniel Bwala is, in fact when I saw his message on X handle, I thought it was Inuwa Bwala who was the former Caretaker Chairman of Hawul and a renowned journalist. I quickly drew his attention to it, which he said, he was not the one.

“Later, I was made to understand that it is Daniel Bwala who has no political relevance as far as Southern Borno is concerned. I replied to his post and said that if accusing and abusing me on Twitter or pages of newspapers would fetch him something from Tinubu to survive after being a failed lawyer in Abuja, I would be happy for him.

”We have three former Deputy Governors from Hawul, and all of them are my ardent supporters and people I took in high esteem throughout my political journey. Bwala wants to portray the peace-loving youths as violent people. You can’t instigate Hawul people to go into political violence, because it is not in their character. All I can say is that Bwala is trying to get sympathy from Mr. President.

“The only advice I can give President Tinubu is that he should be careful with the likes of Bwala.

“Bwala was once a member of the APC, but later ran away shamelessly and joined former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, where he started accusing Tinubu with all sorts of abusive and insulting words on live television. Bwala can only be useful in attacking people, but the 2027 general elections are coming, all I can advise is for Bwala to come to Borno and trace his roots.”