A senior chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina State, Hon. Muktar Abukur, has categorically rejected recent calls for the removal of Dr. Bello Muhammad Matawalle as Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, describing the agitation as misguided, politically motivated, and devoid of factual or moral justification.
Abukur made the remarks on Friday during a media briefing in Katsina, where he argued that the calls reflected envy and internal political sabotage, rather than any genuine assessment of the minister’s performance. He maintained that Matawalle has remained focused on his statutory responsibilities while consistently advancing and defending the security agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to Abukur, demanding the removal of a serving minister without substantiated allegations of misconduct constitutes an abuse of public discourse and undermines national cohesion.
“Those clamouring for Dr. Matawalle’s removal must clearly articulate the offence he is alleged to have committed,” Abukur said. “It is deeply unfortunate that whenever a Northerner attains national prominence, certain elements within the region hasten to discredit him. This pattern is neither principled nor progressive; it is rooted in envy and political short-sightedness.”
He warned that such conduct erodes collective political leverage and weakens the North’s voice within the national framework, noting that other regions demonstrate stronger internal solidarity in moments of political contestation.
Addressing allegations related to Matawalle’s engagement in dialogue with armed groups during his tenure as governor of Zamfara State, Abukur stressed that reconciliation strategies were neither unprecedented nor peculiar to Zamfara. He recalled that similar approaches were adopted in Katsina State during the administration of former Governor Aminu Bello Masari, without attracting comparable condemnation.
“Dialogue with non state actors has been utilised by several administrations as a conflict-management tool,” he said. “It is intellectually dishonest to criminalise a policy retroactively simply because of who implemented it. Such selective outrage exposes the political undertone of the accusations.”
Abukur further stated that the reconciliation initiatives in Zamfara at the time yielded observable security gains, arguing that current attempts to recast those efforts as acts of complicity amount to deliberate misrepresentation.
The APC stalwart also urged Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State to publicly resist what he described as a sustained campaign of misinformation against the minister, emphasising that Matawalle remains a son of the state whose reputation should not be subjected to unchallenged vilification.
“An attack on a citizen of Zamfara is, by extension, an attack on the state’s collective image,” Abukur said. “The governor should not remain passive while false narratives are weaponised against one of his own.”
In his concluding remarks, Abukur called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to disregard the calls for Matawalle’s removal, insisting that they lack empirical basis and are driven purely by personal and political jealousy.
“These campaigns are animated by envy
nothing more,” he said. “They should not be allowed to distract the President from the critical task of strengthening Nigeria’s security architecture.”