Disenchanted Buhari’s Man, Senator Mamora Rejects Unbefitting Appointment

Disenchanted President Muhammadu Buhari’s staunch supporter, Senator Olurunnimbe Mamora, has rejected his appointment as the Chairman of the Abuja Investment and Infrastructure Centre, which he sees as not befitting the role he played in bringing Buhari to power.

Mamora, who was the Deputy Director-General of the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation during the 2015 presidential election, had been nominated for the job by the President but during the inauguration of the board of the AIIC a few weeks ago, a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in the 2016 Ondo State governorship election, Mrs. Jumoke Ajasin-Anifowoshe, was named the chairman.

Ajasin-Anifowose had since been sworn in by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Muhammad Bello.

According to the Punch an aggrieved Mamora later met with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and expressed his displeasure with the appointment.

A source told the newspaper that Mamora, a former Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker and senator who represented Lagos-East senatorial district from 2003 to 2011, felt the appointment, which is the equivalent of a state parastatal, was not befitting.

Mamora was quoted to have said that people who never participated in the process that brought Buhari to power were occupying the front seats of government.

Mamora was listed to be the Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority in 2016 but was edged out by some powerful people in the system, the source said.

The source added that Mamora was also nominated as an ambassador in late 2016 but his name was suddenly withdrawn for unknown reasons and was not even contacted before his name was dropped.

Aisha, wife to the president, had once alleged that a cabal, who never worked for her husband’s emergence as president, had hijacked power.  In an interview with the BBC in Oct. 2016, she threatened not to back her husband’s reelection unless he shakes up his government.

Up till now, nothing shows that Buhari has done that.