Umar Ardo, former Special Assistant to ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Local Government and State Affairs, has disclosed that the former Prime Minister of Nigeria, Tafawa Balewa and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, died poor.
Ardo said they died poor because they were building their communities to be wealthy.
He noted that their conduct is a far cry from modern day politicians who after getting into office, use public funds to become wealthy.
According to Ardo: “We (North) hold political power, but southerners hold economic and bureaucratic power. And that is where everything is in the economy and in the bureaucracy.
“Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa and the rest, they died poor, they were poorer than their communities. They were building their communities to be wealthy and they were poor.
“But conversely, our politicians of today, from national to state, look at all of them, they are wealthier than their communities. While they are getting wealthier, their communities are getting poorer.
“The people that were elected into office, at the time of their election, they were in a rented house, today, they are the ones having estates and renting it out.
“Those that have been elected, at the time of their election, they never went to Kano or Lagos. Now they are moving all over the world, they are taking people to Jerusalem, taking people to Mecca.
“The people that have noted maybe two, three, four, five houses, you put them into office, today they have aircrafts, private jets, and then opening universities, opening houses, they have become obscenely wealthy.
“The society that they are supposed to lead to get out of poverty have moved from state of poverty to state of destitution. And what are you talking about? And most of them are Northern Nigerians.”