Special Assistant on Public Communication to President candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 25 general elections, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, has described the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN, as a ‘jobless’ minister.
Shaibu said this, in a statement, while reacting to Keyamo’s statement wherein he accused the opposition of planning to truncate democracy.
Atiku’s aide said Keyamo should be sanctioned for dereliction of duty “having abandoned his primary job” as a minister to be the spokesman for Tinubu’s campaign organisation even after the polls had ended.
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According to Shaibu, “Festus Keyamo’s primary duty is to serve as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“But this is a man that has put his personal interest ahead of the country. He took up a job as Spokesman for Tinubu’s campaign while lecturers were on strike for eight months.
“Rather than negotiate with lecturers and get innocent students back to class, he asked the parents of students to go negotiate with ASUU instead. After the strike, he remained the Spokesman for Tinubu’s campaign and abandoned his duties completely.
“Today, the Nigeria Labour Congress is threatening to embark on a nationwide strike over the naira scarcity. By virtue of his job as labour minister, his primary duty is to avert industrial action.
“But rather than try to intervene in a strike that could bring the country to its knees, this indolent minister is busy with politics and issuing frivolous statements over an imaginary plot.”
Shaibu argued that Keyamo is currently lobbying for another top position hence his bootlicking.
Atiku’s aide, however, said Keyamo and others like him would be disappointed after their electoral victory is overturned.
He added, “Keyamo’s job as campaign spokesman is officially over since the campaign has ended. But he is currently lobbying intensely for another appointment. With Senator Ovie Omo-Agege’s failed governorship bid in Delta State, many from the APC in Delta have in their delusion shifted focus to the central government that will soon be de-legitimised by the Judiciary.
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“Keyamo, who is a paperweight politician, is afraid of being sidelined and is now sucking up to Tinubu. His latest vituperation is not borne out of patriotism but is part of his desperation to get an appointment from a government holding a stolen mandate that will soon be retrieved.”
Shaibu said it was unfortunate that Keyamo, who rose to fame as a human rights activist, had completely destroyed everything he worked for on the altar of politics.
Atiku’s aide said Keyamo’s time in public service was evidence that some people are only good at talking but when they are in the ring, they turn out to be failures.
He added, “Keyamo was a government critic for several years but under his watch in the labour and employment ministry, Nigeria has faced its worst unemployment crisis in history at over 33%.
“Keyamo in an interview he granted back in 2014 described former President Umaru Yar’Adua as a man with a half brain and half liver. He was never sanctioned back then. When he was representing Niger Delta militants, he defended their rights to protest.
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“When Keyamo was detained by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and pushed for his release. Today, Keyamo is among those suppressing the rights of others. He is the one writing frivolous petitions to the DSS because he now holds government power.
“Keyamo is now the spokesman for Tinubu who used thugs to suppress voters in Lagos and engaged in ethnic profiling of even Delta indigenes. Rather than speak up and defend the rights of victims of electoral violence, he continues to rub salt in the wound. Why hasn’t Keyamo called for the arrest and prosecution of MC Oluomo, Femi Fani-Kayode and Bayo Onanuga?”
Shaibu asked Keyamo to turn a new leaf and follow the example set by Gani Fawehinmi who Keyamo had once described as his mentor.