The Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Bello Mohammed Matawalle, has been a diehard politician and reputed for keeping in constant contact with his people, especially when he served as the governor of Zamfara state between 2019 and 2023.
He was, however, allegedly rigged out of office by the then cabals in Aso Rock just because he fought the attempted unlawful naira swap policy which he jointly challenged along with two of his colleagues (former Kaduna governor, Nasiru El-Rufa’i and former Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello) and defeated the federal government in court where the Supreme Court ruled by halting the swap policy.
Matawalle’s position as the North-west Presidential Campaign Council Coordinator ensured that the APC won a landslide in the 2023 presidential election in the Northwestern zone of the country where he served with dedication, transversing wider campaigns in the zone for Tinubu/Shettima ticket.
This earned him respect and more recognition from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who later appointed him as the Minister of State for Defence as the administration kick started the business of governance.
He officially moved to the federal capital, Abuja to serve as a National Executive Council member representing Zamfara state despite the desperate opposition staged against him in his home state of Zamfara by his successor and other callous elements within and outside the state.
As a former governor, the minister stayed away from the state in order to maintain political peace but at the same time, he kept in touch with and saw his people either by proxy or they would go to Abuja to meet him while he also assisted many people cutting across party divide especially those affected by human and natural disasters, with his support sometimes coming even before the arrival of state government intervention.
The situation remained so until after many pleas by the people of the state particularly APC members that he should come to the state, that Matawalle finally yielded last Friday, December 21, 2024, for a six-day official/private visit by visiting banditry and other disaster victims, inspecting some military formations and meeting party members and relatives.
Driving by road from Abuja to Gusau through Kaduna, the minister stopped over at all the military check points along the road where he encouraged personnel to be more committed to their assigned responsibilities assuring them that the federal government has made adequate arrangements to provide more sophisticated weapons and other benefits to ensure the complete elimination of the criminals by the incoming year 2025 with the military on their part hailing the federal government over the information.
On arrival in Gusau, the Zamfara state capital, the minister was received by an overwhelming crowd of party supporters, party faithful, well-wishers, party leaders and other stakeholders who made a beehive of activities around the former governor’s GRA residence with traders of various wares making brisk business while entertainers and praise singers chose their acquaintances to raise money.
Following his declaration that his six days stay will positively impact the people, the minister made sure that anyone who came smiled back home.
Addressing the crowd of supporters, Matawalle implored them to continue to be law abiding, peaceful, and prayerful so that APC’s leadership with him as governor will return to the state.
He explained that he would be coming to the state very often, hence so that they would be strategizing for a greater Zamfara.
The minister also continued to meet and interact with APC leadership ranging from SWC, state exco, local government party chairmen, elders, youths, women, and other critical stakeholders where he explained more about the reforms of the Tinubu administration which are not anti-North but aimed at improving the standard of Nigerian citizens economically, socially and politically without denying any region.
He explained the security measures being put in place to restore peace in the North-west and the country as well as in providing all the needed support to security agencies especially the military to fight banditry that is bedevilling the North-west and assured that the government will ensure that in the coming year 2025, all forms of banditry and other criminalities are eliminated.
He said the current military operations in the zone is yielding positive results because of the deployment of committed and patriotic military personnel in most of the flash points as large number of bandits were being neutralised and some are on the run, he appealed to the citizens to support government and security agencies with genuine intelligence that will lead to success.
Matawalle also said that security is everybody’s concern and the need to take every person and property’s security serious and urged citizens to support the troops with prayers for success rather than condemnation.
The minister’s home visit has created more awareness about President Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda and a lot of people have changed their perception.
APC is honoured by the minister’s visit because he exhibited a high sense of belonging to all party members and supporters at all levels.
