Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Libya, Professor Dandatti Abdulkadir said no one has met with him on President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 ambition and he does not expect anyone to do so.
The former ambassador, who was reacting to the purported inclusion of his name in a list of 151 Northern elders said to have been drawn up by Jonathan’s 2015 campaigners to be consulted to support the aspiration, said he felt slighted by the development and warned that his conscience does not have a price tag.
Abdulkadir, a former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano said he first read about the said list in a national daily and was scandalized by it.
“I was not consulted before my name was included in any such list. No one obtained my permission before he added my name to it, and no one has spoken to me since then about supporting President Jonathan’s or anyone else’s aspiration. It is an insult to those of us who have been in public service for so long to suggest that our conscience could be bought for $50,000 or any other amount of money”, he said.
Dandatti, who was a close associate of the late NEPU/PRP leader Malam Aminu Kano, said his previous involvement with politics and politicians was purely ideological and principled and could not have been driven by financial returns.
“It is too late in life to depart from that time-honoured path”, he maintained.
It would be recalled that Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) and Niger State governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu was the first to publicly raise the alarm over a list containing the names of about 400 prominent northerners, who the presidency reportedly shortlisted to be “settled” in exchange for their support for Jonathan’s candidacy in 2015.
The presidency has since denied the allegation and described Gov. Aliyu as a rabble rouser, who was in the habit of making frivolous allegations against the president but always chickens out whenever he is challenged to show proof to back up his claims.
This man is full of himself. Are you bigger than Nigeria? You are not even bigger than your small family. You need special invitation from the presidency? It was the presidency that made you whatsoever you are thinking you are with all due respect prof. I will tell the presidency