Malam Jay

Allahummagfirhum warhamhum waafuanhum.

Former NHIS boss and public commentator Professor Usman Yusuf has vowed that “the Muslim north, northern Nigeria will interrogate Peter Obi’s tenure when he was the governor of Anambra state.” Speaking on Trust TV’s Daily Politics program, Yusuf alleged, “What he did to northerners in 2022. We all know that. He deported them. He even made them have ID card, their names, where they are from, what their occupation is, in this Nigeria that we live.” When the journalist noted reports that the claims were exaggerated, Yusuf insisted: “It is the same, it is the same Kwankwaso that have had to fly to Awka… I say be careful. I have more Igbos in Kano living in peace more than northerners throughout the southeast.”

Yusuf dismissed Obi’s economic pitches for the North, saying, “I’ve seen the world more than he’s seen. He’s done his governance, he’s a businessman. Every one of us, I know the north more than he does. He cannot come and tell me about the north… In the north, he does not understand what ails us. He doesn’t, at all.” He cited a recent Daily Trust front-page report: “24 killed in Jikamshi, where I’m from. Does he know anything? The biggest thing that ails us in the north is insecurity. What does he know about insecurity in the north?”

Referencing Obi’s frequent use of foreign development models, Yusuf said: “I’ve seen him come and give you all those bogus numbers. In Bangladesh, this, in Malaysia, this means nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing to our people. Nothing… Oh yeah, in Bangladesh, they do this, in Malaysia, we don’t care.” He added that Obi “will come to the north now and explain to us and that is why Kwankwaso is the vehicle to sell him to the north,” but maintained, “We have his record to interrogate what he did to northerners when he was the governor.”