The comment by Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, in the build up the nationwide protest tagged #EndBadGovernance has been perceived as provocative and inhuman by some people who described his statement, “those who want to protest can do so while we continue to eat” as insensitive. In this interview with DANIEL ATORI a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism in Niger state, Hon Jonathan Tsado Vatsa, called for his immediate resignation as Senate President

Sir, for about 10 days now, there have been protests across the country as there are calls for certain demands to be met by the current administration, what is your take on that?

You see, Nigerians have the right to have peaceful protest to demand for their constitutional rights and for things to be done correctly. As for the demands, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government has called for dialogue and has given some palliatives to ameliorate and savage the situation. Unfortunately, some hoodlums hijacked the protest in some states and destroyed public and private properties. As for the demands, I do not want to dabble into that because Mr. President addressed the nation few days ago and I can only appeal to Nigerians to give our President the benefit of the doubt.

In Niger state, the protest did not hold in Minna but held in Suleja, Bida and Tafa local government areas. What went wrong despite the appeal by the state government?

Well, in Niger State, most stakeholders including youths, religious and traditional leaders, civil society organisations, students and so on, all agreed that, in our state, our Farmer Governor, Umaru Mohammed Bago has been up and doing with various developmental projects ongoing and Nigerlites are beginning to see a new era of progress and decided not to join in the protest. Those who protested in Suleja and Tafa axis are those who are either ignorant of what is happening or hoodlums who planned to take advantage of the protest to steal and to destroy. I can tell you that, Niger State is peaceful, the state capital, Minna is calm and everyone understands that the challenge is a nationwide one and not a state problem.

But Nigerlites are are also affected by the cost of living, there are feelers that the people were compelled not to join in the protest…

No, that is not true, nobody compelled anyone, we had a stakeholders meeting and every- one saw the reason not to join in the protest. Security reports came in that some hoodlums were planning to hijack the protest and thank God we are wiser In Niger.

At the national level, some of our leaders tend not to see reasons with Nigerians and the hardship being experienced, what is your take?

Truly, some of our leaders at national level are callous in their statements. I will talk about the Senate President, Godswill Ak- pabio, who made an insensitive statement recently. It was so nau- seating and if we were to live in an ideal and decent society, by now he should have been made to re- sign his position as Senate Pres- ident immediately and equally tender an apology to protesting youths over his utterances on the nationwide #Endbadgovernance protests. Senator Akoabio has not only embarrassed the APC, his constituency and the red chamber but the entire Nigerians with his utterances. It is time for Akpabio to go. It is unfortunate that while some eminent and distinguished Nigerians were busy appealing to the protesting Nigerian youths to give peace a chance and embrace dialogue with the government over the current economic hardship in the country, Akpabio decided to go the comedian way. It was a very callous and regrettable comment especially coming from the number three citizen of the country.

Sir, but he is your Party member…

As far as I am concerned, he is a political survivor. Left for me, Akpabio shouldn’t have been made the Senate President in an APC controlled government. It is a huge error and a disservice to this country to make someone like Akpabio a Senate president in APC government. That is why this government can never get it right.

Are you saying, the APC made a mistake in the emergence of principal officers at the National Assembly?

Take this from me, APC as a party has been hijacked by those that Nigerians were fed up with and decided to embrace Change in 2015. They have been eating and they want to continue eating like Akpabio made Nigerians to believe. I said it before and I will repeat it again that it is sad that we are giving red carpet reception to those we initially accused of looting this country with reckless abandonment, so how can we get it right. The same ‘eating’ Akpabio ate for 16 years under PDP government, he still wants to continue to eat under APC government. This is a tragedy of a nation.

But sir, before his emergence, he was already an APC member…

So many criteria disqualified him from holding the position of the Senate President under APC controlled government. He is from a state controlled by opposition party and therefore shouldn’t have been allowed to occupy the seat of the Senate President. So, our party leadership could not find a competent person to be Sen- ate President despite the calibre of intellectuals in the South East and South South.

Sir, you seem to be hammering on the Senate President alone…

Why not, if I have my way I can go on and on to drag him. Recent- ly, the same Akpabio publicly in- sulted a married woman on the floor of the Senate by comparing her with night club girls, only for him to turn around and began to tender a belated apology. The sins of Akpabio so far as a Senate President is worse than that of Ali Ndume which earned him suspension. I therefore call on the Senate President to immediately resign his position as the Senate President in other to restore the dignity of our great party.

What is your call on the APC as regards his actions? This APC must begin to redeem its image and build confidence in Nigerians before 2027. This must start from Akpabio’s resignation to let Nigerians know that we are serious as a party.

Sir, as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Private Partnership what are the hopes and programmes lined up for investors?

I am optimistic that Governor Umar Mohammed Bago will realise his administration’s urban and rural transformation agen- da through the Public Private Partnership initiatives. There are numerous partnership arrangements so far entered into by the governor and his recent engagements with various development partners towards driving this administration’s transformation agenda. The farmer governor is on the right course in his development drives. No government can achieve a genuine development without partnering with development partners. A number of public and private organisations have signified readiness to partner with the state in various areas of development which include transport, agriculture, roads and health care delivery. We are also addressing the issue of climate change by planting one billion economic trees across one million hectares of land in Niger State. This project is not only an environmental endeavour but also an important step towards improving the forestry sector within the region. And we believe the trees will significantly contribute to carbon sequestration, which involves capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide to combat global warming. It will equally boost the forestry sector, create new job opportunities and promote economic development in Niger State.

Sir, with the pricing of fuel, are there plans to reduce the cost of transportation?

Already talks have reached an advance stage with a private company, through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to bring in no fewer than 500 vehicles to be distributed to different commercial transport operators in the state. Sanson and Rakiyat Project Limited has agreed to partner with the state government in the area of transportation and will be bringing in 500 different brand of vehicles including Suzuki and Toyota to boost the transportation system in the state. The targeted beneficiaries will be the National Union Road Transport Workers, (NURTW), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Association of Commercial Motorcycle Operators in the state with the government providing the enabling environment. (Saturday Telegraph )

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