‘Buhari’s Ministers Are Billionaires’ — Kano Businessman Speaks On Why Atiku, El-Rufai Visited Ex-President

A Kano based businessman, Abdullahi Yahaya has given insight into why some politicians in the north have been visiting Nigeria’s former president, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Last Saturday, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, visited Buhari in Daura ostensibly to pay salah homage.

Less than 24 hours later, ex-governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-rufai, who has been accused by the Kaduna State House of Assembly of embezzling N432bn during his eight years as governor of the state, also visited the ex-president.

Yahaya, who is the CEO of Megawatts Publishing and Printing Company, told THE WHISTLER in an interview that the politicians visiting Buhari are targeting his friends and relatives who served under him as ministers.

He said Buhari has no political relevance in the north anymore and those seeking his support are doing so to get the support of his friends who are now billionaires.

“To be honest with you, Buhari has no political relevance again in the north, and those visiting him are going to him because of his friends and relatives who served in his government as ministers because they’re billionaires now,” he said, adding that Buhari pauperised the north as president.

Speaking further, he said any politician Buhari endorses in 2027 will be rejected by the people, stressing that Buhari won in 2015 because he was marketable at the time.

“Buhari has never been politically relevant in the north; he won election in 2015 because he was marketable and they marketed him and they’re all billionaires now,” he said.

Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, in a post on his X handle on Sunday, said the visit of the northern politicians to Daura was part of the plot to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 by using him as a rallying point.

The former Kaduna Central senator said they’re planning “to resurrect Buhari’s political charm and fanaticism and mobilize the gullible to another hollow and bewildering end.”

Among those who served as minister under Buhari, only Hadi Sirika, the former Aviation minister, is facing corruption charges along with his daughter and son-in-law.