Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed, Foreign Affairs Minister Tuggar almost came to blows in presence of VP Shettima

For the first time in weeks, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has opened up on the dispute between him and the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed.

The Minister and Governor Bala Mohammed had at an event attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima attempted to exchange blows.

The incident occurred on Friday, April 19, when Kashim Shettima was on a visit to Bauchi State.

Tuggar, in an interview with the BBC Hausa shed more light on what caused the disagreement between them that led to their confrontation.

The minister said that unlike what some are saying, it was actually the governor who started the argument when they were travelling with the vice president in a bus during the vice president’s visit to the state.

“We were traveling in a car accompanying the Vice President on a visit to Bauchi State. The Vice President spoke to me, and the governor sitting next to him intervened in the conversation,” he said.

He added: “After that, he insulted my father, my father has been dead for over twenty years, and on top of that, the governor stood up and said he would slap me, which I thought if we were allowed, I didn’t see how he could beat me or slap me, so I also stood up and tested his height.”

“After that, his deputy ran from behind the bus, saying he would also come and slap me, but he couldn’t even get close to me, because don’t forget that the Vice President was in that bus,” the Minister said.

He said that the security personnel present there were not from Bauchi but were brought in from Abuja.

Tuggar added, “We didn’t have any physical contact with the governor, he just said he would slap me, but he himself saw where the slap would lead and raised his head in the air, so that’s the end of the matter, but there is a boy of the governor who wants to interfere and enter politics, he is the one who took the news and posted it on the internet saying that the deputy governor, Auwal Jatau slapped me.”

“He himself and the deputy governor, who saw that it had no effect on them, spread the news again that no, he did not hit me,” the minister said.

Ambassador Tuggar is said to have ambition to run for governor of Bauchi State, which is the reason of tension between him and the governor.

“Whether I have ambitions or not, if you look at my history, you will see that when it is time to speak the truth, I speak up and what is happening affects my local government and my town of Udubo,” the minister said.

Ambassador Tuggar said the differences they found were in the way the Bauchi state government is run.

He said: ”Everyone knows how farmers and herders are being robbed of their farms and the land they use to graze and are being given to companies, and these companies are coming and asking for loans under the pretext that they will come and farm and invest there.

“What is happening is unfortunate because if their farms are taken away or if a herdsman’s grazing land is taken away, some of them will go and engage in this act of terrorism,” the minister said.

He said, if this is being done for the development of the state as is being portrayed, “then why have we not yet seen Bauchi State producing more grain or cattle than any other state? Rather the situation is still going backwards?”

Tuggar and Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Auwal Jatau, hail from Bauchi North Senatorial District, a region that has not produced a governor since the state returned to democracy in 1999.

And although Tuggar has not declared his intention to run for governor in 2027, there are strong indications that he is eyeing the seat.

Observers believe that the Minister of Foreign Affairs will compete with his counterpart, the Minister of Health, Professor Ali Pate, who has stated that he is ready to serve the people of the state, in seeking to contest for the APC.

Whoever gets the ticket to run for governor on the APC ticket in the 2027 election will be competing against the one Governor Mohammed supports to succeed him as the PDP candidate.

State political observers believe that the deputy governor could be the one to receive this privilege from the governor.