Rep Alphonsus Komsol (APC-Plateau), immediate past House of Representatives member, Shendam/Quaan-Pan/Mikang Constituency, has said the performance of President Bola Tinubu within record time will surprise many people.
Komsol expressed his confidence in the President’s ability to radically turnaround the fortunes of the country in all ramifications in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday.
He said that given Tinubu’s rich political pedigree of great achievements and the actions he has taken within his first month in office, there is no stopping him from achieving success in office.
The former lawmaker said that Nigerians should expect a great deal of transformation from the President, and urged them to support and pray for him to enable him to succeed.
He said, “The Asiwaju that I know is a great achiever in all walks of life, he is always the first among equals, he is a go-getter, a man who knows his onions, an incredible headhunter, who has an uncanny ability to select the best team that would fit into his cabinet as round pegs in round holes.
“From the few steps he has taken in the past one month, I believe that unprecedented development and sanity are coming to this country. All Nigerians across political parties, ethnic and religious lines should therefore rally round President Tinubu to move Nigeria forward.
“President Tinubu is a man with the proverbial midas touch, who has literally turned everything he lays his hands on into gold, be it in politics or private business, and Nigeria needs his midas touch. He is a man of his own words, who will not let Nigerians down.”
Komsol described Tinubu as a mentor of mentors, an elder statesman, who is uncompromising, passionate and patriotic about Nigeria’s development and place in the international community.
According to him, Tinubu, who is an accomplished businessman, political activist, democrat and unifier, all rolled into one, is God’s choice and indeed the Messiah right now to lead Nigeria out of the doldrums.
“Look at how he transformed Lagos State’s economy and security challenges when he was Governor, and has made it a mini-country of sorts that is now the envy of everyone. I see him replicating same at the national level seamlessly,” he added.
Fielding a question on the simmering crisis in the Plateau State chapter of APC, he described the alleged plan and threat to suspend him and some of the party’s stakeholders as a joke.
Komsol attributed the crisis to the “politics of exclusion, family and friends,” adding that, over the years, the then ruling party and government deliberately excluded some critical stakeholders from the party’s major activities and decision-making.
He said that most of them were not carried along in the affairs of the party, they were given the leper’s treatment and relegated to the background due to the politics of exclusion.
“Prior to the general elections, for instance, to the best of my knowledge, no caucus meeting was ever held. On the few occasions that party meetings were held, usually in Government House, it was only for state government appointees to be given strict marching orders on whatever the government wanted.
“Throughout the four years that I was elected to the House of Representatives, never was any caucus meeting of the party ever held. Even right now, about four months now since the party’s depletion and comprehensive losses in the 2023 elections, nobody has called us to a meeting.
“An urgent reconciliatory meeting is needed in order to do a post-mortem or an appraisal of the situation to chart the way forward. While we have been waiting expectantly for such a meeting to be called, there is no such initiative, we are faced with a situation that I’ll describe as an uneasy silence of the graveyard,” he said.
Komsol said that the recent plan to suspend some prominent stakeholders from the party will further throw the party into deeper irredeemable crisis, adding that it is an ill wind which will do more damage than good.
The APC stalwart explained that the targeted stakeholders are those who went and paid a solidarity visit to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen George Akume, following his appointment by the President.
The ex-lawmaker listed the targeted stakeholders as ex-Gov Joshua Dariye, Chief Amos Gizo, Dame Pauline Tallen, Sen Hezekiah Dimka, Sen Nora Daduut, Rep. Alphonsus Komsol, Rep. Lumumba Adeh, Alh Dasuki Nakande, Comptroller Victor Dimka, Chief Danyaro Sarpiya, among others.
He said, “For God’s sake, Sen Akume is one of our own, from the North Central and the defunct Benue-Plateau State. When he was appointed, we expected the state chapter of the party to immediately congratulate him and arrange for the state’s APC stakeholders to pay him a solidarity visit but there was no such move.
“As such, some of us decided to do the needful by paying Akume the solidarity visit, which triggered the latest round of turmoil within the state chapter of the APC. Their grievance is that the person who they wanted to be appointed SGF lost out to Akume.
“So, immediately after the news and photos of our visit went viral, we started receiving all manner of attack and threat from our opponents within the party.”
According to him, the solution to the party’s crisis is for the immediate past Governor of the state, who is still the leader of the party in the state, to summon a meeting of critical stakeholders.
He said that it will enable them to do some critical stock taking, to look at their lapses, know what went wrong with a view to learning lessons, making corrections, ironing out their differences and rebuilding the party.
Komsol said that no matter what happened, the party stalwarts have to meet and jaw jaw in order to resolve their differences, adding that other states have done their reconciliations but the party leadership in Plateau State seems to be asleep.
“It would surprise you to know that while I was still serving as the House of Representatives member representing the sitting governor’s Federal Constituency, at some point, for over six months, I tried to see the Governor to no avail.
“We are politicians, we cannot fold our hands and watch the APC crash permanently in Plateau State. We are President Tinubu’s die-hard supporters, we have to do everything possible within our means to bring back the party to galvanize support for him down to the grassroots level in our state,” he said.
The APC chieftain disclosed that he is one of the few politicians from Plateau State, who are trusted allies of the President, adding that he has known the President for almost twenty years now, ever since he was the Governor of Lagos State.
Komsol said that his first encounter with Tinubu and what he did instantly amazed him so much that he had vowed to be his disciple forever.
He said, “It was during the arrest and detention of Simon Lalong, the then Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly and immediate past Governor of the state by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Former Gov Joshua Dariye had dispatched me and a few others to Lagos to do everything possible to secure Lalong’s release but the bail conditions were very stringent.
“However, Tinubu who was then Governor on the platform of an opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy, came to our rescue and even gave us the title documents of properties for Lalong to be released after he had spent about 40 days in EFCC custody.
“So, for me, when Tinubu declared his interest in contesting for President,it was a very easy decision to make, that is, to support him to the end, no matter whose ox is gored, even if I was going to be the last man standing!”
Komsol said that whenever he hears some Plateau State APC stakeholders claiming that they are Tinubu’s supporters, he just laughs because of their sheer hypocrisy, stressing that they are latter day converts.
He said they were doing so simply because they had seen that food wad ready, and were looking for political relevance and appointments.
According to him, the original and genuine diehard Tinubu supporters and stakeholders from Plateau state are his humble self, Chief Amos Gizo, Dame Pauline Tallen, Alhaji Dasuki Nakande and a few others.
Komsol also disclosed that as the President’s faithful disciple, he played some prominent roles to ensure the victory of his principal during both the presidential primary election, and his eventual emergence as President.
“During the elections, I was the Plateau State Coordinator of Tinubu’s Independent Campaign Committee and a prominent member of the Tinubu Support Group, as well as the Planning and Strategic Committee.
“I was also a member of the Presidential Campaign Council and Secretary, Contact and Mobilization Committee, North Central of the Tinubu Campaign organogram.
“In fact, I was targeted, sacrificed and denied the APC’s second term Reps ticket by the APC at the state level because of my unwavering support for Tinubu prior to the presidential primaries,” he said.
During the primaries, Tinubu’s most conspicuous supporters in the state were myself and the few like minds, who I mentioned earlier. We were able to convince some of the state’s delegates to cast their votes for Tinubu, in spite of the fact that most of the state’s delegates were already brainwashed to vote for Amaechi, due to the influence and support of the then Gov Lalong for Amaechi.
The former National Assembly member said that he had bequeathed unprecedented legacies during his four years tenure, which will remain unmatched for decades to come.
He said knowing that most of his constituents are rural farmers, he procured 10 trucks of fertilizer yearly and distributed it to them for free to enhance their farming activities yearly.
“I also facilitated the construction of a N500 million rural road, a N250 million Model Secondary School in Demshin, both in Shendam LGA.
“I also built and equipped a state-of-the-art ICT Centre in each of the three LGAs of my constituency, as well as gifted out over 500 motorcycles, many cars, as well as women and youth empowerment facilities to my constituents.
“Throughout my four years, I offset the JAMB registration fees for the students of my constituency and facilitated employment opportunities and educational scholarships for many of them in both local and foreign universities, among many others,” he added.
