The Nigerian presidency said on Friday it never awarded any national honors featuring the name of popular activist, Aisha Yesufu.
Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity stated this on Friday.
Sunrise reported that President Tinubu on Thursday conferred honours on many Nigerians and rights activists.
One of the recipients of the President’s honours include Shehu Sani, a popular Nigerian activist and former parliamentarian.
Meanwhile, activists Aisha Yesufu does not support the All Progressives Congress, APC, and has frequently said that Tinubu is not her President.
She has remained an ardent follower and supporter of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi.
Yesufu believes that the ideologies being championed by Peter Obi are what Nigeria needed for a better country and has openly criticised the current administration at any given opportunity.
She is even of the opinion that the 2023 presidential election was won by her candidate, Peter Obi but was allegedly rigged in favour of the APC and its candidate, Bola Tinubu.
For these reasons and more, there was confusion over one Aisha Yesufu whose name featured in the honours list, with an X user calling the attention of the Bring Back Our Girls activist, saying, “It’s your own Aisha Yesufu. It is a reward for years of supporting the APC. You have Tinubu to thank. Buhari ignored you despite voting and supporting him. But Tinubu has rewarded you. Thank him and stop being an ingrate.”
Aisha Yesufu responded saying, “God forbid!
“It can never be this Aisha Yesufu. Thank you”
Providing clarification to the viral list of an extended awardees, Temitope Ajayi, wrote on X, “The story on a viral list of national honours featuring the name of Aisha Yesufu and others credited to the Leadership newspaper is fake news. It should be ignored.”
He went on to explain that President Tinubu did not award fresh honours to Nigerians apart from the ones contained in the President’s Democracy Day speech at the National Assembly.
