Stop attacking Tinubu over your removal, Group warns Gwarzo

The Kano State Coordinator of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors Forum (RHAF), Comrade Danjuma Usman Gwale, has warned the former Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi T. Gwarzo, to cease attacking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu following his removal from the federal cabinet.

It will be recalled that Hon. Gwarzo and four others were relieved of their duties last month due to concerns about their performance in implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda for their respective ministries.

It will also be recalled that in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service on Saturday, Gwarzo claimed that his removal was politically motivated.

He questioned President Tinubu’s appointment of Hon. Yusuf Abdullahi Atta as his successor and specifically suggested that the President should have appointed Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the APC’s 2023 gubernatorial candidate in Kano State, instead of Atta.

Gwarzo also shared details of his private conversation with the President regarding his removal.

In response, the Renewed Hope Ambassadors Forum described Gwarzo’s remarks as insulting to President Tinubu and the presidency, asserting that his statements revealed he was unfit for the ministerial position.

Comrade Gwale, in a statement, expressed dismay that Gwarzo had indirectly questioned Section 171 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which grants the President the authority to hire and fire ministers.

According to him, “We viewed the BBC interview of the sacked Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi T. Gwarzo, as an insult and an attack on President Tinubu, who has the constitutional powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

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“For someone who has served as a minister to disclose private conversations with the President publicly is not only unfortunate and ridiculous but also unbecoming of his status. It indicates that he cannot be trusted.”

He further said, “This behavior is an insult to both the President and the presidency. He should understand the implications of sharing confidential discussions with the media, particularly those involving the President. In the first place, he may not even be qualified to be a minister.”

The forum further characterized the interview as an attempt to undermine the President and warned Gwarzo to desist immediately or face appropriate consequences.

“No former minister in the history of this country has ever behaved so ignorantly as Gwarzo. The usual practice for those who are knowledgeable in the practice of democracy is to thank the President for giving them the opportunity to serve and then move on with their lives, just like the rest of the ministers recently dropped by President Tinubu did.

“His utterances are capable of undermining the President. Why is he now recommending Gawuna rather than doing so when he was nominated as a minister in 2023? He should have declined his nomination if he believed Gawuna was the right choice.

“We don’t know who told him that defeated APC gubernatorial candidates must be appointed ministers. His level of hypocrisy is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it,” they stated.

But Gwarzo feels that his appointment as a minister was at his own request, not at the president’s behest, as enshrined in our constitution.

“We believe that Gwarzo needs someone to lecture him appropriately in this regard.”