President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently holding a meeting with members of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) at the State House, Abuja.
The ongoing meeting between the president and council is coming just about 48 hours after the President of SCSN, Sheikh Abdur-Rasheed Hadiyyatullah, expressed regrets for supporting the Tinubu-Shettima same-faith ticket last year.
On Tuesday, Sheikh Hadiyyatullah, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, provoked a fresh controversy on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election, which he said, has fallen short of expectations.
He said despite the enormous support received by the President during the election, Nigerians have not enjoyed dividends of democracy since he came to power.
Recall that Tinubu, who was the presidential candidate of the ruling APC, adopted the Muslim-Muslim ticket when he picked Kashim Shettima as his running mate, despite national outcry, especially from Christian faithful.
He defeated his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
Hadiyyatullah said the reason many Nigerians supported the same faith ticket was to see how it could engender development to the country, adding however that nothing has been achieved for the past seven months.
He said, “The Nigeria of today is too bad. What we are buying at N200 before is N2000 now. We have scarcity of Naira and unemployment is escalating. Nigerians are not enjoying the new government at all. I don’t want to go personal but the Sharia Council helped the Muslim-Muslim ticket to be successful. We campaigned and supported this government until it came to power, but we are suffering.
“Some of the Ministers are siphoning and looting the treasury. I don’t want to mention any name but we have all seen and read it. Nigerians have been suffering since the last seven months when this government came to power.
“We are not making any progress. The reason for the Muslim-Muslim ticket was to progress, triumph, succeed and to have a good government but we didn’t have anything.”
The cleric advised Ministers who are not ready to work for the good of the nation to resign and allow honest Nigerians take their place.
Hadiyyatullah said, “See how Nigerians are suffering. No money. No progress. We have not enjoyed anything since seven months of this government. We are sympathetic with this government but the way forward is for some of these Ministers to go home and rest and we will find other people who will be honest with themselves and the country, those who are there to work not to loot the country.”
END.