ADC’s Nnenna Ukeje Explains Why She Turned Against Tinubu Despite Past Admiration

(ADC member Hon. Nnenna Ukeje. Phot by Daily Post)

ADC member Hon. Nnenna Ukeje has explained her decision not to support President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 election, despite previously holding him in high regard for his political accomplishments in Lagos State.

In a recent interview, Ukeje described growing up admiring Tinubu as an opposition figure who stood up to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and helped lay the groundwork for Lagos State's transformation a legacy she acknowledged was carried forward by former governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.

She said Tinubu successfully sold Nigerians the vision of Lagos as a model for how he would govern the entire country inclusively.

However, she said his presidency has fallen short of those expectations, stressing that her feelings are not of anger but of disappointment a sentiment she attributed to having believed strongly in his potential.

The experience has reinforced her view, she said, that leaders who excel at the regional level do not automatically translate that success to national leadership.

Among her key criticisms is what she described as a lack of inclusiveness in the Tinubu administration, alleging that the president has surrounded himself with a close-knit Lagos-based circle, giving the government the feel of a Lagos State administration transplanted to Abuja.

On her preference for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Ukeje cited the calibre of politicians around him including David Mark and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as individuals with strong democratic credentials.

She also pushed back against criticism of Atiku's record on security, pointing out that following the Chibok schoolgirls' abduction, he enrolled some of the rescued girls at the American University of Nigeria in Yola a gesture she framed as both an act of support and a direct ideological challenge to Boko Haram's opposition to Western education.