Moses Ofodeme
A renowned finance expert and Director of Statistics of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Mohammed Musa Tumala, has collected his Nomination Form at the All Progressive Congress (APC) Secretariat in Abuja to formally express his interest in the 2023 Senatorial elections in Borno State.
Tumala, in a chat with journalists shortly after collecting his nomination form, said that his returning to politics was informed by the need “for professionals to get involved in reversing the increasingly worrisome socio-economic hardships of the people in communities in the State through motivating the appropriate levels of ambition in youths and women, and build egos to help them find their purpose in life”.
The aspirant, who though commended the efforts of the state governor, Babagana Zulum, for investing in critical infrastructure and capacity building of the youths in recent years despite insecurity challenge in the state, stressed that there remained much work to be done to “really help the traumatized population by building a community of youths that could create a future for themselves and take full responsibility for their own fate, that will not only survive the challenges of today but prevail, succeed, and thrive. We want our youths to be prepared to identify opportunities and productively utilize luck”.
He explained: “As we say, leadership is about service to the led. So, my interest to go back to politics after my career in the CBN is to demonstrate to the electorate in my senatorial communities that after darkness, there will be light.
“I have been there before to help them in terms of leading by example politically and I am now better prepared and more determined to proof that politics is about serving the interests of the people by using the opportunity availed by political authority to transform lives of the ordinary people, especially the poor and socio-economically excluded in our communities.
Lending credence to the aspirant’s promises, a young man from Dr. Tumala’s constituency who simply identified himself as Mallam Mustapha, told the journalists that “this is not the first time that our leader, Hon. Mohammed Tumala, is indicating his interest to serve us politically. He was elected before into the House of Representatives and he served us to be best of his ability.
“Our people are still talking about what he did then till today. So, our joining him to collect his nomination form is to show we are strongly behind him and will cast our votes for him come 2023, insha Allah”, Mustapha assured.
It would be recalled that Dr. (Hon) Tumala had earlier been elected into the House of Representatives in 1992 and served until 1994 when the democratic regime was truncated by the military. Before then, he was a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri for 19 years.