By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The hues and cries against the approach of President Muhammed Buhari’s government received another voice from within as a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Olisaemeka Akamukale, has cried out to the President to do something urgently about the hardship facing the country, saying most Nigerians were losing patience with the party.
Akamukale, who is also an APC caucus member from Delta State, alleged that about three serving Ministers in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet never believed in him.
Speaking in an interview with journalists on Wednesday at the national secretariat of APC, the party’s founding member also raised alarm that “If by 2019 the dream is cut short by Nigerians, many people you see today, some who are ministers and others will go back but some of us will still remain, many people will go back and look for a new government to take positions. They will tell you that they are technocrats because they have nothing to lose.”
He said: “If you really ask me, I think Nigerians are becoming impatient with us because it is now about two years to this government, so it is for Nigerians and not about me or about APC members but for Nigerians to know what this government will benefit them”.
He however suggested that “beyond what Buhari should do to APC members, this is not about APC members, it is about Nigerians, what is the percentage of APC members? How many of us voted? The percentage of real APC members couldn’t have made Buhari a president. So, it is actually Nigerians. So, I think the president should bring on board those who believe in the change mantra, those who yearned for change that could assist Mr. President in delivering the dividends of democracy to the masses of this country because at the end, the people that lose or gain are the Nigerians. Nigerians voted for us and there are things they are expecting from us.
“First, there are key areas that must be addressed, we are addressing some of them but when there are a lot of people on board, take for example in housing, there is no Housing Authority to implement anything, the Minister of Housing cannot be everywhere, and so on like that.”
Akamukale also said: “I agree that it is painful, when you see people, especially I know about two or three ministers who are serving today who told me Buhari would never be President of Nigeria. Today they are benefiting from the Buhari’s government, but it is only them that have their shame, because it is only a dog that goes back to his vomit, I have nothing against them, Nigerian people would tell you after government, after party you talk about governance, these are political jobbers. They tell you go for technocrats, you are not a technocrat, what is technocrat? Who is not a technocrat? I know my profession,” he said
Commenting on allegations that APC is behind the crisis rocking the PDP, the APC chieftain said: “The only problem with PDP is that they always want to go to where they did not sow.
“We don’t need a crisis in PDP to win landslide election again in 2019 because I will tell you something, instead of PDP to put their houses in order, what they have done is to inflict more injuries on themselves. Who is Modu Sheriff? You people also forget that Modu Sheriff has lost the grassroots of Borno. So, who actually needs him? He contested as a sitting governor in 2011 for Senate and lost.
“So, what do we need him for? All I thought that PDP should do is let them take a clue from APC, do what we did. Let the name PDP die because Nigeria no longer wants to (reckon with the name). That umbrella has torn. They should go back and form a new party, not using wasted pipelines, because some of the politicians that are even jumping to PDP are those that are rejected in APC, Modu Sheriff included.”
