Some youths in northern Nigeria under the aegis of the Northern Youths Movement (NYM) have counseled former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and other political leaders to desist from utterances that could attract opprobrious reactions against them from Nigerians, especially the young people.
The youths, who were reacting to Alhaji Lamido’s recent description of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, as a “small boy in PDP history,” said the former Jigawa governor had not spoken well.
The NYM in a statement on Sunday added that it was wrong and embarrassing that Alhaji Lamido did not just describe Wike as such, he also went on to ask: “Where was he in 1999?”
In the statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Ishaya Jato, the NYM said Lamido and the others should note that that those he was referring to as “children and small boys” were the ones who kept PDP from going under after the loss of the 2014 election which they said was “a rebellion in which he (Lamido) played prominent roles before he backed out.”
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According to Kato, it was ironic that Alhaji Lamido had forgotten that those who were children when PDP was being formed had grown to maturity and were now fathers of many political children.
He said, “If in the estimation of Lamido, who became a political elder at 50 years, 57-year-old Wike is still a “small boy”, we wonder what he (Lamido) has become 36 years after he became an elder?”
They noted that Lamido was fond of disparaging various political leaders, alleging that “the way he is disparaging Wike now was the way he has disparaged former presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, as well as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
“Two years ago, Lamido publicly said ‘Obasanjo was an unknown prisoner when PDP was formed.’ Ironically, he went on to admonish Obasanjo to stop talking down on people publicly.
“In 2019, it was Atiku that Lamido described as his junior in politics, saying that he was in the House of Representatives in 1979 when Atiku was still an employee of Nigerian Customs Services.
“As a sitting PDP Governor, Lamido was everywhere disparaging President Jonathan, calling his government ‘a failure’. Even out of office, Lamido has not stopped disparaging Dr Jonathan.
“Therefore, we are not surprised that since Lamido and others deceived Atiku to lose the 2023 presidential election, by making him to see himself as president-in-waiting.
“More than seven months before the election, he has been venting his frustration and anger on Wike, just because he, alongside other governors like Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi refused to be treated like children in a their own party.“
