Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial District has come down heavily on his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), accusi
Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial District has come down heavily on his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing it of failure and bad leadership. Melaye who made the submission on Tuesday after he was conferred with the Legislator of the Year 2017 at the Daily Asset Newspaper maiden annual awards and lecture in Abuja took a swipe at the party on whose wings he rode on to become a senator. He attacked the APC for failing to meet the expectations of Nigerians, many of whom he said defied the odds to vote for Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president in 2015.
“2019 is around the corner again. Many of us are lackadaisical about the future. The APC government has become Public Complaint Commission. I say this without fear or favour. We have more complains in the APC and even in the Presidency than service rendered. We cannot as a people continue like this. The President said two days ago we should all embrace peace but I want to say without fear that there can be no peace without justice. There is hunger in the land, there is poverty in the land, and there is unemployment in the land. A lot of decision has not been taken; yet we say we want peace. The primary objective of government is the security and welfare of the people. There is no security, there is no welfare.”
Melaye charged Nigerians to conquer fear by rising up to ask critical questions on governance and service delivery. Continuing, he said, “Nigeria is not only sick presently but equally suffers from regretful congenital abnormality. There is therefore a serious need for amelioration, palliation and correction. The question is: are you going to be part of that correction? I want to say that in an unjust society, silence is a crime, and every one of us here today is the reason Nigeria is sick. It is not about the leadership, it is the inability of the followership to check the leadership. Today Nigerians have become indolent, we are suffering and smiling. We are not reactionary. We are not asking questions and that is why we are where we are. Democracy will continue to be government of the people by the people for the people but what we have today is ‘greedocracy’ which is government of the greedy by the greedy and for the greedy.”
Melaye also warned those in positions of authority not to forget that their failure to make the most of their offices in the interest of the people could turn out to hurt them, arguing that not even the rich would be immune from the disaster that looms in the horizon.
“A time will come when it will be difficult to drive your expensive jeeps and cars on the streets. A time will come when it would be difficult to switch on your generator because everywhere around you is dark. Will you be the only one having light? There was no kidnapping before, and kidnapping is seen as the redistribution of both ill-gotten and legitimate wealth. People now take from the rich and they now appropriate to themselves.”
He therefore urged the masses to be wary of the elites whom he accused of polarizing the rest of the populace.
“The elite have divided us using tribal sentiments. When you go to the hospital, there is a column for religion on your call card, a column for tribe and local government as if this will in any way facilitate your recovery. We have become too ethnic conscious. I sponsored a bill that is about to go for a second reading. The bill is saying that we should abolish state of origin and in its place, we should have state of residence. This is when we will have a true Nigeria when you will not need a Senator’s note to get job with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,” he added.
