Why APC Must Not Make Mistakes Of PDP, By Senator Kadiri

Senator Alex Kadiri, a former PDP stalwart who joined the APC last year following what he termed injustice meted out to him by his former Party, bares his mind on why APC should not make the same mistakes that led to the abysmal performance of PDP in the just concluded general election. 

Worried by the tendencies of some leaders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to toe the same part that led to the failure of the PDP in the 2015 general election, a chieftain of the Party in Kogi State, Senator Alex Kadiri has warned the party. He said having performed well in the elections, he would not like the APC to replicate all the bad things that existed in the PDP.

Senator Kadiri said countless scenarios abounded in PDP causing anger in people. He said the usurper just arrived on the scene and took glory for what people had been laboring for over the years. “APC must stay clear of that. All of us cannot converge in Abuja to be climbing the back of Tinubu, climbing on the back of Oyegun or on the back of Kwankwaso or Saraki.

“The voter in Nguru, Yenegoa, Sokoto are equally important and all of us cannot converge in Abuja. So this party must change ways it does things so that it can survive.”

He said it was important for the party to have a clear head from the beginning because if they jump into making the same mistakes from the beginning, then it will die.

“I don’t want it to die, I want it to survive, that is the imminent danger I foresee. It happened to PDP, when a lot of political jobbers were hanging in Abuja while at home they were nothing. APC must not encourage people to gather in Abuja for lobbying as individuals.

“The party should take cognizance of the work done by people at the grass roots so that we don’t have to transfer ourselves to Abuja before we can be anything.

He said it is very important because it was one of the reasons PDP lost everything. “Those who had access to Abuja, to ministers, the President became something.

“Those that actually worked and delivered the votes for the party but laid back hoping that the party would reward their efforts only suffered for four years, some for eight years and eventually walked out of the party. APC must stay clear of that.”

On the reward system for APC he said it must be different from the reward system in PDP.

“The party has won election, so it must now sit round the table to determine what should go to State A and what goes to State B.

“They must go back to the capital of that State to decide how it should be given out, not that any charlatan should stay in Abuja and decide how it should be given.”

According to him when PDP was holding sway in Edo State 90% of all patronage of the Federal Government went to Edo Central where Tony Anenih comes from.

“The Benin man is as livid against the PDP as I am in Kogi whereas the others are more in number, they produce more votes but they get the least patronage from Government.

“I don’t want that type of thing to happen in the APC because that is one quick step to death.”

“Things must be taken back to where the voters are to the point where people voted for this party not in Abuja.

Coming home, he said the party did very well at the Presidential/National Assembly election but he indicated that their performance was receded at the State Assembly election, because most of the candidates were not produced through proper process of primaries.

“That is a fact, Let us not run away from this. INEC recognizes this fact. They were selected at the personal House of Abubakar Audu in Lokoja here.

“If you notice those that won elections, they were sons of notable individuals, like in Ankpa it was the Son of Alhaji Siaka the most prominent politician in that place. People had no choice but to vote for him.

“You saw that Lawal A. T. Ahmed’s son won in Okene. Those are the ones that could win election under any circumstance. The others fell by the way side.”

He said in Kogi West where Smart Adeyemi lost to Dino Melaye the party could not produce two members for the State Assembly. “The same thing in the Kogi Central where they voted for Ohiare for Senate and Bello for House of Representatives but for the House of Assembly everything went flat only A T Ahmed’s son could bring result.

“The same thing in the East Senatorial zone. It is because of the way APC is being ran in Kogi State. This party will die if Abubakar Audu is allowed to continue to function by imposing people.

“APC must discourage the character that PDP used in doing things so that APC can continue to survive. When a former PDP chairman said PDP will continue to rule for 60 years, people laughed.”

According to him, no party can be in power for 60 years doing wrong things, people will react, adding that it was what happened in the last election.

Senator Kadiri pointed out that APC will go the same way if they continue to do things the way they are currently doing, advising that such behavior must be stopped.

“We must salvage this country, Buhari won this election in his personal integrity, people believed that when he comes there would be no corruption.
“They believe with him there would be discipline and he will tackle corruption but if he is surrounded with people who are corrupt, then the Government is dead on arrival.” Kadiri said it is exactly what they want to avoid.

He canvassed for the Press to encourage the President-elect to remain who he has always beensaying that if he is corrupted by corrupt people thenthe Government would naturally die. “Like I started saying, politics should be played from the bottom up. “Because the voters are at the bottom they should not wait for trailer loads of rice every four years to vote. “Let them see that there is a government in place which touches their lives everyday so that they can remain faithful.

According to the former Senator, In terms of appointment he doesn’t want the party to fall inside the same Web as the PDP.

“Take Kogi State for example, before we finished the election in 2011 we suddenly head of one Muhammed Adoke as minister representing Kogi, nobody knew him in this State, he was a lawyer in Kano. “He was recommended for that job by a former chief justice of Nigeria who has nothing to do with the Kogi electorates. In his words, “Adoke may be a nice man but that doesn’t concern me, we are talking about politics. “The Electorates had no hand in how he became minister and since the last four years he had been on the saddle he had not enter into Kogi State up to three times. I mean it is acomplete insult on the state.”

Let me say this Kogi APC has not sat anywhere to appoint anybody leader of the APC, there was nowhere and no time.

“If you take a look at Ahmed Tinubu, he assumed the position of the leader of the APC at the national level. Everybody can see that he performs like a leader.

“80% of the resources of this party comes from him or through his resources, he performed in Lagos. He campaigned for councillors in Lagos. He campaigned for Buhari nationally, but for our so-called leader here he was not in his area 24 hours to the Presidential election that produced Buhari.

“But today he is claiming success over the victory when he was not in his constituency in good time for the election.

He said no group of politicians appointed him as leader of the APC.

“As of today Buhari has a coordinator in Kogi State, the party has a chairman in Kogi State. Those are the two people I recognize.

“There is a party Chairman though I was not part of those that elected him but I recognize that he is my chairman. Whether we like it or not this State has an APC chairman.

“If he talks I listen because he is the head of the party in this State. GMB appointed a coordinator in this State if he talks I will listen because he is answerable to the President elect all the others are just grandstanding.”

On whether he has reached out to the national leadership of the party he said he was also talking to party leaders at the national level.

According to him he went to the party secretariat to see the chairman and all the deputy national chairmen when he asked that they should reconstitute the leadership of APC in Kogi State.