Former interim Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, has warned the party to beware
of defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party in order not to allow
them to kill the ruling party.Akande, who described those defecting
from other parties especially those from the PDP as parasites, said if
allowed, they would destroy the APC the way they destroyed the PDP.
Speaking with journalists at his
residence in Ila Orangun on Saturday on the day he clocked 77 years,
Akande said parasites usually kill their hosts and look for new hosts
after the initial hosts might have died.
According to him, the influx of new
members to the ruling party appears good but the party must watch it so
that what killed the PDP will not destroy the APC.
He said, “We in the APC should be
careful, the defection is not a strange thing but I know it is always
done by parasites. I have always remained in one line of politics. I
have never defected and I will never defect; I will remain in that
progressive polity.
“But those who are defecting from one
party to the other, by nature, they are political parasites. They have
killed the original host, which was the PDP, and they are now coming to
the APC, which is the new host. It is for the APC to gird its own loins
and prevent the parasites from killing the party, because a parasite has
no root of its own but feeds on the little food that the host has.
“So, running away from the PDP to the APC looks good but the APC must be careful in dealing with those parasites.”
Akande, who is a former governor of Osun
State, said he had remained in the progressives’ camp since he was
introduced to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He condemned politics
bereft of clear political ideology, saying that was responsible for
defections.
Akande blamed the missing budget at the
Senate on the indiscipline of its leadership. He said he was not
surprised that such a story was coming from the Senate because its
leadership was not a disciplined one.
“Only the budget of the Senate was
missing, so that leaves a complication into what is happening. You know,
it is borne out of the same indiscipline that led to the hijack of the
National Assembly. When the foundation of an assembly is indiscipline-
until you remove the cause, you will continue to have this kind of
problem in your hands.
“That assembly was not constituted the
way my party planned it. It was by hijack and indiscipline which
constitutes the way it is. So, you can expect any kind of
dissatisfactory stories from such an assembly.”
Speaking on the agitation for Biafra,
the former governor recommended a dialogue for any part of the country
that wanted to break away from the rest of the country.
He said he prayed that what befell the first Biafran secessionists would not befall the new set of Biafrans.
On the arms deal scam, he said, “The
major problem of Nigeria is corruption. They used to do cover-up with
inflated contracts and so on, but in this one, the fund was taken from
the CBN and shared. It is a phenomenon in corruption in Nigeria.
“We need to be very ready for the fight
against corruption, and the government alone cannot do it. Let the
Nigerian people support the government in fighting corruption, because
if this monster called corruption fights back, the whole country is
likely to be in trouble. The extent of corruption in the country is
unimaginable and very frightening.”
Akande also exonerated Governor Rauf
Aregbesola from the financial crisis in the state, saying the state was
not viable because of its absolute dependence on the allocation from
Abuja to run its affairs.
“As of today, about 26 states cannot pay
salaries. So, it is either they close shops and pack up or they
negotiate with neighbouring state and merge. They may continue to
struggle. And that is what we may continue to have because until you
have money, you won’t be able to run the government. Let us not forget
tha t it is the constitution that created the basis for all these
acrimony and confusion that we have,” he added.
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