Senator for Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani has berated Hafsat Abiola, daughter of Bashorun MKO Abiola, for comparing her father with Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
She made the comparison on Sunday while explaining her decision to serve as Director-General, Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Hafsat Abiola said that one of the similarities between her late philanthropist father and the Kogi governor was that they both refused to have political godfathers.
This, she said, was responsible for the persecution the governor had faced by different interests and the controversies around his administration.
Read Also: Why I accepted to lead Yahaya Bello’s campaign organisation – Hafsat Abiola
She added that another similarity was that the late MKO believed in a United Nigeria, just like Bello, noting that he also treated everyone around him with respect regardless of their social standing.
“These are the same qualities I have seen in the Kogi governor.. He dared to contest, not minding that he was from a minority tribe in Kogi and won, and he has come out again. My father did the same, when it was believed that a Yoruba man could not be President.
“Yahaya Bello is the best man for the job. And you know me, I’m not driven by pecuniary considerations. I do what I believe in. In the next seven weeks, we will be working hard, and when we emerge, we will deliver a Nigeria of our dreams,” she said.
She said her father would have been happy to see that a young, courageous man like Bello had done everything to bring back his Hope ’93 in Hope ’23, with the same person that did the manifesto on board – Sen. Jonathan Zwingina.
Meanwhile, Senator Sani faulted Abiola’s daughter for the comparison.
“The profile of Sister Hafsat in the struggle to sustain the legacies of her father is unquestionable; but comparing Bello to Abiola is oddly unconscionable and bogus,” Senator Sani wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Taking to the comment section of the tweet, another Nigerian, Jimmy Lomak supported Senator Sani.
“That Yahaya Bello is a man that surprises me day by day. The man has no business in politics but keeps on getting backing by some broke elite who their reputation is at stake and have no other option than to look up to him, but she went too far and that is a prove that she knows little or nothing about her late father’s legacy to compare him with Bello.”