As apprehensions swirl about the imminent reshuffle of President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Executive Committee (FEC), Zamfara State Governor, Dr Dauda Lawal, has decried the attempt by his predecessor, Dr Bello Matawalle, to use the state as a launching pad for national politics.

Lawal regretted that ever since Matawalle, who is the current Minister of State for Defence, lost the 2023 gubernatorial poll, he has not been able to live with the realities of the time by focusing on his new assignment.

The governor, who described his predecessor as a dysfunctional minister, wondered why he should descend into the gutter by embarking on unprovoked attacks on the current Zamfara State Government.

It would be recalled that in a video clip, which made the rounds in the social media, Matawalle, hauled attacks on Lawal, stressing that the incumbent apart from populating his cabinet with non-indigenes, turned the Government House into a public space.

Matawalle, who was speaking when supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from eight local councils of the state paid him a courtesy visit, lamented that Governor Lawal instead of providing good governance, turned the Government House into a marketplace.

But Governor Lawal in a statement made available to The Guardian, through the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Dr Mahmud Muhammad Abdullahi, said he “is too focused on rebuilding a state that was nearly wrecked under Matawalle’s incompetent and corrupt leadership that descended into petty mudslinging.”

On the allegations of appointing non-Zamfara indigenes into government and insecurity, the governor pointed out that “it is embarrassing that a serving Minister of State for Defence would shamelessly politicise the issue of insecurity.”

He said: “The claim that non-indigenes are managing the state is a tired, divisive lie from a desperate man who once called his own APC allies thieves and thugs before joining them for political survival.”

Lawal, while noting that his administration prioritises infrastructure over propaganda, said that unlike Matawalle who claimed that he managed the state with N3.9 billion Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) monthly allocation, he believes in real impact, not optics.