Photo caption: Chief Whip of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume
Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, has hit back at the Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, who claimed that the President is unaware of the hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Ndume, a member of the All Progressives Congress, representing Borno South, had lamented that the President is “not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa.”
He said this on Wednesday at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, saying, “Mr. President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. Many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him.
“Now, they have stopped him from talking, and he doesn’t have public affairs managers, except for his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements. Nigerians are getting very angry.”
The Senate Chip Whip also called out the Federal Government to find lasting solutions to the rising rate of hunger ravaging the nation.
“The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity, and it needs to act urgently. We don’t have food reserves. A food crisis is the worst crisis any nation can encounter. If we add that to the security crisis, it will be severe,” he said.
In a reaction on Friday via his X handle, Ajayi debunked Ndume’s allegations, saying they are “baseless and unfounded.”
The President’s aide noted that Tinubu is working earnestly to ameliorate the situation.
He wrote, “He made baseless and unfounded allegations against the President that he is cut off from the reality of Nigerians. This President is well aware and fully abreast of the current material conditions of Nigerians and he is working very hard to deal with the challenges.
“The economy is still facing headwinds but things are gradually turning in the positive direction. A President who gets daily briefings from his team, and receives a cross-section of Nigerians from all strata of the society almost every day – from business leaders to religious leaders, socio-cultural groups and professional groups can’t be falsely accused of being removed from the realities of the people.”
