Northern Leaders Want To Destabilize Tinubu Govt, Alleges Jonathan Vatsa

There is a Northern plot to destabilize Nigeria and make it ungovernable for President Bola Tinubu, according to a Minna-based social critic, Jonathan Vatsa.

Vatsa made the revelation in a telephone interview with THE WHISTLER on Monday while responding to questions on the state of the nation.

He condemned northern leaders who are speaking against President Tinubu administration’s policies, and asked why they did not find their voices during the 8 years of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“I have said this severally that the foundation of Nigeria is faulty, our foundation is seriously faulty because we are not operating as a nation; we are not yet a nation and we are a nation so called, a nation based on region, so Nigeria is a regional nation.

“When Buhari was there and was misbehaving, the northerns who are speaking now, where were they during his time? Did IBB make statement? Did Abdulsalam make a statement? Where was the Sultan? Why didn’t they speak against the government then? The northern elders, did they make a statement? The Katsina elders, did they make a statement?  

“They didn’t for the fact that he was their own. So, when somebody else is there now, Nigeria will scatter! You know why? In the north, the source of their wealth is the government, the moment you block the river from flowing, then the dam will explode.

“They’re talking now because they’re not getting free money like they used to have, they don’t have lands to sell in Abuja because Wike is there. The Minister of FCT must be somebody from the north because, it’s their birthright because that is the only way they make money. They sell plots without passing through any budget, they don’t take memo to the council, they just dash them lands and they sell in billions. They push the minority tribes in the north into slavery,” he alleged.

Vatsa, whose elder brother, late General Mamman Vatsa was killed for allegedly planning a coup against the military regime of IBB, said he was killed because his colleagues envied him.

The outspoken critic said the same northern conspiracy that killed his elder brother has reared its head again in the north.

“The game of conspiracy is everywhere now, there is northern conspiracy now against Tinubu. Nigeria didn’t start spoiling today, it started spoiling since the days of IBB, they are the people that bastardized this country, they don’t want to speak the truth,” he said.

Speaking further on northern leaders, he said they never wanted Tinubu to be president, adding however that Tinubu was too much for them to contain.

He said, “The difference between northern politicians and Asiwaju is that while Asiwaju was busy building bridges as governor, the northern political leaders were not building bridges, they were building dynasties. If you come to the north, it is only their families and their cronies they are building. Asiwaju was picking men from Osun, Ekiti and other states, but northern leaders were picking their families and friends. One thing about dynasties is that they collapse. Empires collapse.

“From day one, they didn’t want Tinubu; he bamboozled his way in because he is loaded. If you want to fight a capitalist, one thing you need is not talk, it is money. If you don’t have money, you can’t fight a capitalist and just keep quiet, they were unable to push Tinubu around because he is loaded financially than them.

“Give me some money, I will put Nigeria into confusion for you; it is very easy to do but you and I cannot do it because we are thinking of how do we settle our children school fees, have we eaten today? Have you settled your landlord today?”

On what President Tinubu should do, Vatsa said, “all of them are the same, Tinubu knows them more than you and me, he knows what to do, he doesn’t need us to tell him what to do. They are all the same members of the same cult.”

Last Saturday, Vatsa addressed a press conference in Minna where called on the government to revisit the coup allegation that led to the execution of his elder brother in 1986.

Asked why he wants the issue revisited now, Vatsa said the family believed he was innocent of the allegations because two of the tribunals set up found him innocent before a third one convicted him.

 He said further that late General Domkat Bali, who announced Vatsa’s execution, allegedly confessed his innocent before he died.

He said the matter can be revisited if the government is interested in doing so.

Northern Leaders Speaking Out

Many leaders in the north are speaking out against the policies of the Tinubu administration.

On February 12, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Bayero, told the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, to press her husband, President Bola Tinubu, to address urgent issues like hunger, starvation, and insecurity plaguing the country.

The emir spoke when Tinubu’s wife visited him in Kano. He said, “Although we have several means of communicating to the government on our needs and requests, your way and means is the surest way to tell the President the actual happenings in the country,” Bayero, who spoke through an interpreter, told the First Lady.

Two days later, while addressing the Northern Traditional Council, warned that rising poverty, hunger and insecurity in the country will force people to revolt against President Bola Tinubu’s government very soon.

Several other northern leaders are talking on social media, with some ridiculing President Tinubu for the policies of his administration.