“Within Two Years, Natasha Has Performed Better than Ndume’s 22 Years In NASS” – Presidency

By Adesina Soyooye

Daniel Bwala, President Bola Tinubu’s Adviser on Policy Communications, has rated suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan better than Senator Ali Ndume in terms of performance.

Speaking on a Channels Television’s interview programme, Sunday, Bwala rated Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s performance in less than two years at the Senate, better than Senator Ali Ndume’s 16 years in the Senate, and before then, four years at the House of Representatives.

Note, however that Ndume and the Presidency have been at each other’s neck over the Senator’s strong criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s Government, especially, in recent times.

In response to some of the criticisms against Tinubu by Ndume, Bwala literally dismissed Ndume’s 22 years stay at the National Assembly as a waste. He said that Ndume has never sponsored a successful bill, and even questioned how he always managed to go to the Senate because, according to Bwala, the Senator has never won in the Party’s Senatorial Primaries. “He has never won any Primaries. It is usually handed over to him”, Bwala said.

Bwala dismissed as a lie, Ndume’s claims to sponsorship of the bill which established the North East Development Commission, NEDC.

Bwala: “This is a Senator who has been a Lawmaker for the past 22 years; four years as a House of Representatives Member and about 16 years as a Senator. Yet, 120,000 of his Constituents are still in Cameroon as Internally Displaced Persons.

“If you like, I can give you the figures of the money allocated to Southern Borno for Constituency projects, but there is no single project to show for it.

“He has never had a bill passed. 90% of his Bills don’t even make it past second reading. They are dismissed outright, not even brought up for debate.

“He goes about parading himself as the sponsor of the bill that established  the North East Development Commission. It’s a lie. It was Senator (Murtala) Nyako  who sponsored the bill.

“He has never won a primary. It is always handed to him. He hides behind the Governor during visits. In fact, he was stoned in his village in 2023.

“He should be using the Media to call on the President to help bring his people back from Cameroon.

“This Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has spent less than two years in office, yet, she has done far more for her Constituency than Ndume has in 22 years. I challenge him to come out and tell us what he has done. Even the House of Representatives Members from his Constituency have done better than him.”

For the records, Tinubu and Ndume are of the same Political Party, APC. Ndume was, months ago, stripped of his position as the Majority Chief Whip of the  Senate after one of his stinging criticisms of President Tinubu.