Fani-Kayode: Nobody can stop defectors into APC – Party chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi state and state chairmanship aspirant, Hon. Hamidu Saidu Sani, has said no one can stop anybody from decamping to the ruling party from another party.

The APC chieftain was reacting to outrage following the recent defection of former Avaition Minister Femi Fani-Kayode into the ruling APC.

Saidu made this clarification in an interview with newsmen Tuesday in Abuja, saying whoever is desirous of joining the party should be ready to abide by the rules and regulations of the party.

He also said the recent loan being sort by the President Buhari has justification for it if not the two arms of the national assembly would not have approved it.

According to him: ” This PDP people are Nigerians. And APC is a Nigerian party. So you cannot stop anybody coming into the party. And whoever comes in will have to abide by the rules and regulations of the party.  

“Well, it is your suggestion. Besides there is no justification. We have the two arms of of the national assembly with our representatives.  They have seen the justification in it and that is why they approve the loans”, he said.

On the issue of the naira that used to be 160 to 1 dollar and today, it is now 500 to 1 dollar, the chairmanship hopeful noted noted that it is not only Nigeria who is experiencing the fall in naira but other nations. He said there is nothing strange happening as covid19 has affected lots of economic fortunes including Nigeria. 

” You can call it that but you see even the powerful countries in the world have suffered this covid19 pandemic, so , you suffer according to your level. But, in Nigeria now if you will be realistic, and say the truth, during this covid19, if it was before, how do we do? We were locked down for months.

” But here we are doing our thing. Is it not a great achievement to the country?If you go buy the importation rate now, we are almost feeding ourselves.  And things will soon be alright. So it is a great achievement”, he noted.

The retired Civil Servant stressed that it is unfortunate that most of the efforts of the Bauchi state government have been solely concentrated on urban areas saying the people in the rural areas are seriously alienated from real developments. 

He said  there is no offense against anybody using escorts so long as they have approval in view of the security challenges. 

” As a citizen of the state, really what the PDP is doing are just concentrated in one place. The rural masses or people who voted them to power have been neglected. In the federal system, if people say APC has neglected them, it is just their view. The APC government has done a lot. You see, it is we the masses that are not using judiciously what we are given by the government.  

” If you can see as it is now, this anchor borrowers, that the government came up with, has affect everybody. 97% of Nigerians are peasant farmers.  You can see the money that the APC government has pomp into it. And you can see markets women being rendered different assistance. There is no government that has ever emerged in Nigeria that gave money to state governments to solve their problems than this government. I feel that the APC government is doing a lot only that some people are feeling that way for no reason. 

“Bauchi people have been abandoned because there is no development.  And it is only in the state capital. Or in the zonal headquarters. But the rural population, if they were given infrastructure in their locality, it will minimize the explosion or migration of the youths from the rural area to cities. There is no doubt that the PDP government has neglected the people. 

” I think that the president has made it clear that they should withdraw all that since. Even you now if you want to move around, in the country you have to go and pay for escorts.  There is that provision… it is not only the politicians”, he said.