No fewer than 10,000 bags of rice bearing the name of former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, have been taken to Internally Displaced Persons in Maiduguri, Borno State, and shared to the IDPs.
The Borno State House of Assembly, led by the Speaker, Abdulkarim Lawan and thousands of the IDPs taking refuge at various camps on Thursday received the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obasa, for donating and transporting the bags.
Newsflash Nigeria on Monday had reported how Tinubu’s rice bags hit Kano State and residents jostled for the rice which has the inscription, “Jagaban – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Flagging off the distribution in Borno with officials of the State Emergency Management Agency, the Borno Speaker said the intervention was the first of its kind since the Boko Haram crisis, while calling on other individuals to emulate the Lagos lawmaker.
He noted that the donation came at the right time, considering the economic hardship faced by traumatised IDPs in the state.
Lawan said the state governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, the National Emergency Management Agency and other humanitarian agencies had been in the forefront of alleviating the plights of IDPs in the state, but unfortunately, due to devastating effects of the Boko Haram crisis, there is much concern on meeting the economic demands of the displaced families and those living in host communities.
“We in Borno State, especially members of the Borno State House of Assembly are happy and very appreciative to the Speaker Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obasa for donating 10,000 assorted bags of rice which we are distributing today,” he added.
Days ago in Kano, an Instagram username @mansurah_isah of Today’s Life Foundation had uploaded pictures of the event with a caption appreciating Tinubu’s foundation for the food items.
These developments in Kano and Borno states come amid claims that Tinubu is nursing presidential ambition ahead of 2023 although he has not publicly confirmed it.
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The action further stretches what many believe to be calculated steps taken by the former governor to get the support of the North.
The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress had last month celebrated his 69th birthday in Kano State.
The decision had generated various comments but Tinubu claimed the move was to prove that Nigeria is one.
In December 2020, he met with some scholars who threw their weight behind his “2023 presidential ambition”.
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Tinubu had also been to Kaduna and Katsina states, which are among the states with the largest voting populations in the country.
He had also recently donated the sum of N50 million to victims of a recent fire outbreak at Katsina Central Market in Katsina State.
This was even as he paid sympathy visits to traders and other victims of the fire outbreak in company with the state governor, Aminu Bello Masari.
