Fiery critic and Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, dies at 73

 

Fiery critic and Second Republic lawmaker, Dr Junaid Mohammed, has been reported dead. He was aged 73.

Mohammed an arch critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari government, according to news reports, died Thursday night in his house in Kano.

His son, Suleiman Mohammed, was said to have confirmed the death Thursday night. Suleiman said his father took ill about three days ago and eventually died at his residence in Kano around 10pm.

Dr Mohammed, a renowned social critic, was Minority Leader of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, elected to the Federal House on the platform of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), led by the late Aminu Kano.

He trained as Medical Doctor in the Soviet Union and specialised afterward in the United Kingdom as a neurosurgeon.

Daily Trust reports that the deceased elder statesman will be buried according to Islamic rites on Friday.

READ: ‘Buhari has failed woefully, Nigeria will never know peace under him’

In one of his last major criticisms of the Buhari government, following the killing of 43 rice farmers in Zabarmari, Borno State, Junaid Mohammed had declared that Nigeria would never know peace for as long as Buhari remained in office.

“As long as this same Buhari, this government and party (APC) are in power, Nigeria will never know peace because clearly, the task of governing Nigeria is beyond him. He cannot do it.

“He has failed woefully. Because of the hypocritical nature of Nigeria, tribal, sectional and religious politics, everybody is pretending so that Buhari will be seen to be doing something.

“He’s doing nothing. He cannot do anything. And any attempt to prolong his tenure indefinitely will only leave Nigeria into more and more nightmare,” he had affirmed.

He also came down hard on the dethroned Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, at some point.

He had said concerning Sanusi in an interview: “To invoke the lies and the shameless attitude of the former Emir of Kano is unfortunate because I have known him for the past 40 years. I knew him; I knew his father and mother. I also knew his grandfather. So, you should be very careful about what you say otherwise you will push some of us to go public with what we know he exemplifies because I do not believe he has any right to assume that seat and I don’t believe he can be something holier than thou.”