Yari’s rebuke of Nigerians

Senator Abdulazziz Yari must be a very hardworking man. Indeed, he must be the epitome of a hardworking citizen, at least, in the context of Nigeria. Evidence of his diligence abound. Yari is currently the Director General of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign council.

Before he took up the campaign assignment, or, actually, on top of it, Yari has been the senator representing Zamfara West in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At the commencement of the 10th Senate, he aspired to be president of the Senate. He made quite a spirited effort but his ambition did not align with the political architecture of the present regime as designed by its owners.

In fact, it was reported at the time Yari was pursuing his Senate president ambition with all seriousness, such that anti-graft agencies had a few meetings with him. Subsequently, he quietly took his seat at the Senate. Not too long after, he became a major supporter of President Tinubu, manifestly expressing his loyalty through sponsoring front page adverts in newspapers to congratulate the President any time opportunity called for such.

Prior to becoming a senator, Yari was governor of Zamfara State for eight years. He was first elected on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) but ended up in the All Progressives Congress (APC) much later, as many governors, past and present, have tended to do, to have peace.

Along the line, Senator Yari became the man behind MA’AM Energy Limited, the hitherto largely unknown firm that acquired the equity of Amperion Power, the major stakeholder in Femi Otedola’s Geregu Power. The deal was reported to be about $750 million (well over a trillion naira) in late 2025.

A hardworking man hardly comes bigger and better cast than Abdulaziz Yari. The senator and former governor has a private jet, the least of the toys that hardworking men acquire in Nigeria.

Not too long ago, Yari’s son flew in his father’s jet into one of the Nigerian cities, with his cortege. The arrival of the young Yari was a sight to behold and online publications feasted on it. The vicinity of the arrival section of the airport was abuzz. The posse of the young Yari were happy, comfortable young men who were clutching and working their mobile telephones, grinning from ear to ear all over the place. The online video clip spoke of the arrival of the son of the DG of the President’s re-election campaign and his entourage.

Neither the online video clip in reference, nor any other news report has dwelt on the profession or occupation of the young Yari. It may not be necessary, really. One thing is for sure; he too must be a hardworking lad, like his illustrious dad.

Somehow, however, since Yari assumed the duty of heading the Tinubu campaign group, virtually everywhere he has gone in his home state, Zamfara, or elsewhere in the North, ordinary people have tended to be unenthusiastic about his merchandise. Yari has recorded several rejections lately. When he offered gifts to the people on one of his campaign stops in the North recently, they spurned him.

When he gathered imams to pray for the success of his principal, the people turned uncharacteristically hostile to the imams. In one reported instance, some of the religious men were even taken hostage. But Yari plods on. He has a job to do.

Last weekend, in Port Harcourt, in one of President Tinubu’s rare campaign outings, Senator Abdulazziz Yari, determined as always to do his job, took the campaign, literally, to the next level. The man in charge of Tinubu’s re-election bid had a few true words to ell Nigerians. He did not deny that there is hunger in the land.

Yari looked Nigerians in the face and told them that the government is not responsible for the pangs of hunger confronting the people. His message was brutal; there is hunger currently prevalent in the country because the people are lazy. In his words, “you are hungry because you are lazy. If you work hard, you will not be hungry”.

The senator and campaign director gave a background to his assertion. In the past generations, he said, citizens worked on farms in the morning and had food to eat in the evening. That no longer happens. He noted that, presently, young Nigerians prefer to spend time on mobile phones then turn around to blame government, hardworking government, for their economic difficulties.

In case the people do not yet know it, Yari told his shocked audience, hard work was what it would take for citizens to overcome poverty. Such was the discourteous message of hope from Abdulaziz Yari, Director General of the Tinubu re-election campaign.

Yari governed Zamfara State for eight years, an agrarian state, almost entirely. Progressively through his tenure as governor till date, farmers of Zamfara have lost access to the farmland, driven away by bandits and terrorists whose links to elements in the various governments remain as muted as they are poorly concealed. Which farm is Yari asking citizens to go to?

Yari’s rebuke of Nigerians is not new. It conformed to a pattern that has become commonly identified with the APC since it became the ruling party in 2015, but more so in the last three years of the Tinubu presidency. If the party and its governments stopped only at abusing Nigerians materially, maybe citizens can count their losses and move on. But, no, Yari’s party abuses the citizens materially, psychologically and verbally as well. It is unconscionable.

Nigerians lazy? Which Nigeria is Abdulaziz Yari living in? If his Port Harcourt presentation as the director of the Tinubu campaign represents the government’s reading and the prognosis of the prevailing economic calamity in the country, there is, indeed, no hope.

Hapless Nigerians should be spared further deceit in an empty slogan of renewing a hope that does not exist. Yari and the campaign team he leads must be very uncharitable to beleaguered Nigerian citizens who are not only known globally to be hardworking, but have managed, in spite of obvious policy deficits, to keep the country going.