Senator Ighoyota Amori (PDP), Delta Central Senatorial District says it is inexcusable that President Muhammadu Buhari has not achieved anything since his administration. According to the Senator, the President had wasted most of his time on probes.
In an interview with DAILY POST’s Samson Atek’ojo Usman in Abuja, the lawmaker expressed that it was the United States of America that helped push PDP out of power in the last general elections and that was why President Buhari had to pay a ‘thank you’ visit to the country with a large entourage, against the popular notion that he went there to seek international cooperation. The lawmaker is of the opinion that the current government was taking credit for the achievement of the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
Excerpts:
Please, can we meet you?
I am Senator Chief Ighoyota Amori representing Delta Central Senatorial district on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
We have seen hundred days of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and despite that you are of the Peoples Democratic Party, what are your views on the government of the day in terms of meeting up with its campaign promises?
Well, first as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, my interest is for the whole of the federation and not just a PDP Senator. The interest is that which represents the interest of the entire nation, so when I talk, I talk as a Nigerian for the interest of Nigeria. But so far, it takes time for a government to stabilize and as far as I am concerned, not much activities and progress have been made by the present administration. I’m yet to see any action that has been taken that one can take it to the bank as success made in the last 100 days. But hopefully and with time, development can take place, but so far, there is nothing yet. Government is being run without executives, we don’t have Attorney General, and we don’t have Minister of Finance. There is no federal executive council, and in the executive, development comes with memos presented by various Ministers and parastatals to the executive council for approval before execution. When you don’t have executive council, it becomes difficult for memos to be approved by the Federal Executive Council and it takes time. And for that, the government is zero and they know that they have done nothing. They may take their time to select angels, and to appoint Popes and Imams to become their Ministers. Since May 29th till date, it has been one man show and there is no way one can develop the country without the Federal Executive Council because memos for development are channeled or approved through Federal Executive Council.
The other one is the issue of insecurity. Well, the government is still continuing from where former President, Jonathan stopped, but I have not seen any progress yet. The progress has been on paper and in the media by Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Adams Oshiomole and partly from Rochas Okorocha who have turned themselves to Minister for Information and Defence under Buhari’s Administration and particularly Oshiomole who is now the Minister of Information. In fact, he works like a security agent as he now has figures of what happens in America, what happens in Britain and everywhere. He knows all the corrupt people and he has suddenly turned himself to EFCC and Minister of ‘Attack’, on behalf of the government. Just like somebody described him as Villa sycophant, so he is. He has been a governor of Edo State for 7 years and he is just waking up from slumber, taking advantage of the government not having Minister of Information and Defence, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, no Minister of ‘Attack’, hence Oshiomole has created that for himself. We are watching him. He has forgotten that one day; he will leave that place to come around. When Jonathan was President of this country, he benefited so much from him, Jonathan helped him and the Peoples Democratic Party helped him to become governor of Edo State. They helped him again to be returned as governor for the second tenure. Today, he has turned against Jonathan, he has turned against PDP, and he has turned against the people that helped him. Remember that Oshiomole never won elections. He jumped from Labour Party to ACN and was moving here and there and he was packaged by PDP because of internal disagreement in the PDP. Of course, he maintained that relationship with PDP until PDP was out of power, before he turned against all those that helped him, even the hierarchy of PDP in Edo State.
Today, he is a villa sycophant, praising Buhari, tomorrow; you will hear what will happen again. That is a character of a man who never appreciates what his people have done for me. Today, he is an un-official Minister of Information and if you consider his attack on the past government of Goodluck Jonathan, tomorrow, he is going to be an ex-governor. The same way he attacks, he would be attacked. For now, let’s allow him to enjoy his villa sycophancy. Besides, let us look at this government in the last three months though this government has four years, except am reminded of what it has done, if not, I can say with all sense of seriousness that in the last three months into this administration, nothing concrete has been achieved. I have not seen the foundation of any project being laid, I have not seen road construction going on, I have not seen any housing projects. I have not seen any improvement in the insurgency war, apart from ‘we will, we shall’ which we keep hearing from Buhari everyday. He said they will wipe out insurgency within three months, but one month has gone remaining two months and there is no end in sight as we speak.
Another highlight of President Buhari’s administration was his thank you visit to the United States of America for the assistance they gave him and his party (APC) in winning the election in the last polls. To whom much is given, much is expected, so I don’t see anything wrong in going to the US to thank them for the support given to him when he went there with large entourage. He did that because US helped him to push out the Peoples Democratic Party from power in Nigeria and apart from that, nothing has been achieved by this government.
In democracy, the world over, legislative arm carries out the functions of checks and balances and in the last three months into this administration, capital budgets for the year is not being implemented and if what you are complaining of is anything to go by, why is the National Assembly not calling the Executive Arm of government to order in this regard and particularly what is the opposition (PDP) doing?
I do not see myself as an opposition because I want the government to succeed. When government succeeds, Nigeria succeeds and it brings happiness to the people. My own as a Senator is to provide a platform for the country to move to the next level and that is my ultimate. So how do we collectively move the country to the next level? It is not being in opposition and sometimes, it is normal to encourage opposition because you cannot see everything. Somebody must have a third eye to see what you are doing wrongly to point out to you. Opposition must be constructive. You tell yourself that if I do this, will it enhance or improve the Nigeria state? I am not talking as a PDP Senator. I am talking as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am sincerely saying this from the bottom of my heart that if there are Nigerians who don’t feel agitated about developments , that when you vote a government out of power and another government comes in, you expect the new government to be on the fast track. Something unusual should happen for people to applaud from day one. In your manifesto, you do something that the previous government was not doing. These excuses now are not acceptable to Nigerians. It may be for good intention, but the expectation of people is so high, which is normal. In 1975 I think so, when late General Murtala Mohammed took over government and within the six months he governed, people saw that there was a new government because every day was eventful within those six months. That is why Murtala Mohammed died a hero and people mourned when he was killed because people were close to their Television waiting to hear the next line of action. Though that was a military regime, but that was not the only military regime and it is the same high expectations Nigerians are having on this administration right now. When PDP was in power for 16 years for one reason or the other and they have achieved something in their own right, play it down as if nothing have been achieved by that administration and reposition yourself so that in the first 100 days or more, do something better so that you build confidence in people by your action and when they are expectant, they feel relaxed. But today, whatever hope we have is still a carryover of Jonathan’s achievement because nothing concrete has happened on the side of Buhari or APC administration. This is a statement of fact, let nobody pretend. If you say there is improvement in electricity, has Buhari awarded any contract on power generation since he came to power?
The second achievement of Buhari is probe; probe this, probe that and you know probe buys time and is purely diversionary. What Nigerians are expecting is not probe. You know nothing will come out of probe, no matter what. Think of it, since you were born, all the probes by government, what has come out of it? Nothing! At the end of the day, you say you recovered money from this, recovered money from that and even recovered money from yourself because we are all Nigerians. That is all the noise and then, you are now tying the failure of your administration to probing the previous administration.
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