Senator who represented Kogi East from 1999 to 2023 Chief Alex Kadiri and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called out his party over the shoddy manner it is currently been run like a one man enterprise
Speaking with newsmen on Saturday in Abuja, the elderstatesman faulted the party’s process of recruiting its Chairmen, with specific reference to the emergence of former Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje whom he said does not showcase any integrity for the party.
“One painful thing is the way my party is being run. I have the right to complain about the way it is being run. I have done that through the civil methods by complaining to the party twice and the party is setting up two different reconcilliation committees to look at our case and up till the time I am talking to you the party has not written me or called me to inform me that my complaints were not genuine, neither did they say they have taken action about the coplaints because things are getting from bad to worst.
“To crown it, I was not part of the process that picked Ganduje as the new chairman but as a member of the party I think we are taking Nigerians for granted, that we can do anything and get away with it.
“If Abdullahi Adamu nust be removed can’t we get somebidy else with clean record to lead the party, a national party of the size of APC? I beleve that Ganduje is the wrong person and I have said it times without number, they said they were going to expel me but uptil now they have not done that. “I don’t know what they are waiting for because as long as I am a member of the party and I see things that are wrong and I keep quiet God will not forgive me at my age.
“Secondly, look at the rot going on between Nyesom Wike and the governor of Rivers State. Again my party is involved, Wike is serving Tinubu who is a product of APC whom I voted for. If all we are hearing, if all of them are true then it is a disgrace for Wike as Minister.
“If he is breathing down on the neck of his successor, picking commissioners for him, picking Chief of Staff for him and asking the fellow to be removed. Are we practicing democracy? Why are we killing our country slowly? And the President is aware of all these and has not called Wike to order, is it right? Is it not a bad image for the APC?
“That we can take in anything and contain anything? We believe that Nigerians can’t do nothing? I think it is wrong.
“I dont know if you have seen a recent video clip by a commissioner in Zamfara State who alleged that the former Governor used to habor Bandits in government House and that he bought vehicles for them.
“It is my party that we are talking about and I am still a member of this party, I have not died yet and I will keep talking.
“Look at the cost of living, a bag of rice is now N62, 000. What is the salary of a civil servant with wife and four children? How can he cope? I go to Garki also twice a week and I look at the faces I see there coming to work and going back home in a week, that is almost half of the salary they get in the hospital.
“So they kept grumbling everyday because the money is not just enough to take them to and from work in 30 days, not to talk about school fees, medical attention.
“Where are we going in this country. The thing that pained my heart is what is going on in Kogi State. I have said it openly at the APC national secretariat, I have said it in press releases and the party does not care. As we are talking my party is fielding a candidate to succeed Yahaya Bello. I think it will be a tragedy if my Party wins the election on the 11th of this Month.
“What have they done to justify being reelected? What we have is bloodshed, shooting, killings left right and center and all the security are just looking, nothing, nobody has been arrested or apprehended.
No gun has been retrieved or recorvered.
“Before they used to shoot in the night but now they shoot in broad day light, nobody is apprehended, people are dying and we want to say we have won election on that platform and you ask people to go to the Tribunal, which tribunal?
“I think this party is taking Nigerians for granted too much. It is unfair, we have not conquered Nigeria, Nigerians are being treated like conquered people. Unfortunately with this system that we have, criminals are in charge left right and center. Criminals have all the means, they have all the funds.
“I think it is not right, this country is dying slowly, please do not kill it.
“I want to be alive to see things change for the positive but things are getting worse, getting extreemly bad while I am still watching
He expressed delight that Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan won at the court of Appeal saying,
“I like Natasha’s case, she is a dogged fighter. She used to be a school mate to my last daughter in the University. I have not seen or spoken to her in the last two years but I like her fighting spirit, though she actually won her election Tribunal or no Tribunal.
“Denying somebody victory is wrong. And all these people go to church on Sunday and go to Mosque on fridays, they pray to Jesus and Allah and we are all hoping to get to heaven after all the bad bad things they are doing.
“God is a very patient God
It will be tragic, it will be a major tragedy if APC is seen to win the next election in Kogi State because there is no basis, nothing that they have done to justify being reelected.
“I can not ban my party from participating but if I have the power APC should be excluded from the next election because the havoc they are causing everbody in Kogi State.
Abuja people may be happy, we are all here whether they kill themselves, whether it is only three people that are left on the election day, assuming that the APC wins they are happy but that is not all, the people dying in large numbers are Kogi people. The people terrified in Abuja, Lagos who can not go home are Kogi people, nobody wants to die prematurely. I told you I am ready to die. I have even dug my own grave, so if you kill me they will just push me in there and corver it but I will say what I am saying now until I die as long as things do not change in this country.
“This country must change for God’s sake, the countries that have died, this is how they start.”