The national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has beaten his chest, narrating how the immediate past Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki was completely uprooted from Kwara State politics.
“Remember I was saying that Saraki must be removed; people would say how would I do it? I said okay if he resists removal then we would uproot him. We went to Kwara; we did Otoge and we uprooted Saraki…and you cannot commend me for this? You know who Saraki is?
“If you are talking of the smartest political player, seasoned smart guy, he is. But for every smartness he has, I have a superior smartness. At the end of the day who won?”
Oshiomhole, who spoke to news men today, July 29 shortly after a private audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, stressed: “we uprooted him as senate President, we uprooted him as senator, we uprooted his nominee for governor, and senators; we put our own. Today, he doesn’t have one senator in Kwara; he doesn’t have one House of Representative in Kwara. Everything in Kwara is APC and you can’t commend me for that? If you don’t then I will be like lizard – I will praise myself if you, the state house correspondents don’t praise me.”
The APC boss made a jest of Nigerians who are criticizing President Buhari’s ministerial nominees and saying that most are enjoying political patronage but not credibility, asking: “how credible are some of those who are talking? The point is that I don’t know if there is a Nigerian who knows every Nigerian. Even as I can say that I have worked for Nigerian people at all levels; as a worker in a factory, as President of the NLC, as governor of a state and now as a national chairman of a party, there are too many Nigerians I will never be able to know.
“The screening process (for the ministerial nominees) is meant to enable those watching; it is not for nothing that it is televised. It is to enable Nigerians see who these people are. But you will find that people started dismissing the list even before the saw it, just like some other things that Nigerians dismiss without knowing the meaning.
“So, what you and I should insist on is that in the president’s second term, in this next level, our party, our government at the center, state and local government level must deliver. That is the entry point for every Nigerian.
“And when you talk of patronage, should we appoint…have you heard of Americans pointing Russians because they are experts to go and preside over their MDAs? Even in your newspapers do you invite me as APC chairman to come and write your editorial?
“Patronage can be positive or negative but if there is one man who has shown the capacity to patronize all including where he did not win election, it is President Muhammadu Buhari. Otherwise, where we got less than five percent, I saw two ministers coming from that state, inspite of the fact that he got less than five percent there. That speaks volumes about a large heart, to accommodate, appreciate and to have an all inclusive government.
“I am very optimistic that these ministers coming all of us working together, the party, the executive which the ministers belong and the National Assembly where we have overwhelming majority, we have what it takes to take Nigeria to the next level and the next level we are going there.”
