November 11, 2023, might have come and gone, but an essential question persists: Why does Yahaya Adoza Bello harbor such animosity towards President Tinubu? Even though Bello belongs to the same ruling APC as Mr. President, his actions and inactions consistently demonstrate a deep-seated dislike.
Allow me to take you through recent events. During the run-up to the presidential election earlier this year, the APC Northern governors convened and agreed to support BAT for the APC presidential ticket. However, Yahaya Bello vehemently disagreed. He walked out on his colleagues, publicly declaring that he wouldn’t step down for anyone, as he believed the office wasn’t anyone’s birthright, particularly referring to BAT (Tinubu). Bello even mocked and mimicked Tinubu in various viral videos, stating he was too old for the presidency.
One of Bello’s handpicked delegates for the presidential primary, Kabir Bala, aka Okwo, stood firm in supporting Tinubu for the APC ticket. This enraged Bello, who reopened Okwo’s past crimes that Bello himself had previously claimed to pardon. Bello’s frustration peaked when Okwo declared support for Muritala Ajaka instead of Bello’s favored candidate. Subsequently, Yahaya Bello orchestrated the extrajudicial killing of Okwo for siding with Tinubu and Muritala Ajaka. May his soul rest in peace.
However, despite Tinubu’s victory in the primary election, Bello did not support Tinubu’s presidential ambition. He instructed his appointees and allies to vote for whomever they pleased, asserting that he would never support a Tinubu presidency. This was evident in the election results: Tinubu only managed to secure 22,038 votes in Bello’s Local Government, Okene, out of 141,000 voters. This disparity is striking and seems unjust to President Tinubu and the APC that contributed to Bello’s rise.
Similar discrepancies occurred in all the Local Governments in the Central region (the records are available for verification). Bello has now compelled Ododo to pledge unlimited access to the state’s resources to support his (Bello’s) presidential bid in 2027, positioning himself against President Tinubu. However, the reasons behind Bello’s deep-seated animosity toward Mr. President remain unclear.
Perhaps it’s worth probing President Tinubu to understand why Yahaya Bello holds such strong resentment toward him.
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Comrade Muhammed Faruk
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