Senator Ighoyota Amori is the Political Adviser to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus. In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he speaks on the controversial statement made by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nigerian youths, alleged looters list and other issues. Excerpts:

What is your take on this statement made by President Buhari that a lot of Nigerian youths are doing nothing while waiting for the government to provide basic amenities for them?

It is an unfortunate statement by the president. Though Nigerians are not surprise because each time Mr. President travelled out of the country the expectation is that he will aspersions on the country through demarketing utterances. Nigerian youths are not lazy. It is the president that is lazy in solving the problems of this country three years after coming to power.

Your party recently apologised to Nigerians but Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at his 10th annual Colloquium said Nigerians should not accept the apology offered by your party. He also said PDP will never come back to power. What is your take on that?

I believe that the apology from the national chairman of PDP is the right thing to do. Even the Holy Bible recognizes the fact that to err is human and to forgive is divine. There was no way a government of P DP which presided over the affairs of this country for 16 years couldn’t have erred in one way or the other. We seized the period of the Easter celebration to atone for our sins and tell Nigerians that ‘for 16 years, you gave us your mandate to govern this country. Along the line in this 16 years, we may have erred one way or the other, for the ones we know and for the ones we do not know. Please forgive us’. To me, I believe this is the right thing to do. For Asiwaju Tinubu to say Nigerians should not accept our apology means that the man is ungodly, very ungodly. Tinubu could even be part of our apology to Nigerians because we know the kind of relationship we had with him in the past.

Why should he be part of your apology?

We know very well the issues we had with Tinubu along the line, probably it was a mistake on our side. Nobody can say today that they do not know the role Asiwaju had played in Nigerian politics. He can play for, he can play against. So, when we apologise, our relationship with him could also be part of our apology to Nigerians because Tinubu is part of the calamity that is befalling Nigeria today. If for any reason, we incorporated Asiwaju and that became our undoing, of course we apologise. But now, we are now wiser. You can’t be wrong and right at the same time. You need to fall before you can rise. We have experienced a fall, we are now rising. We not only apologised for whatever we might have done that made Nigerians turned against us, we also apologised for whatever others did while we were in government, even though it is not done by us. So, I think our apology should be accepted by Nigerians except those who do not have forgiving spirit.

Some have also claimed that the apology is not genuine and it is only a strategy for PDP to come back in 2019. What is your perspective on this?

We are sincere in our apology to Nigerians. I believe we were the ones who brought this hardship on Nigerians today because we allowed APC to win the election. If we had done well enough, Nigerians would not have seen APC as an alternative. For 16 years, we governed this country, we have never experienced this kind of hardship, insecurity, worsening economy, or herdsmen attack. Look at fuel scarcity last year. It lasted for about four months into Christmas and New Year. We never experienced it under PDP. So, if by we not winning the election, either by our own internal wrangling which the present regime took advantage of to come into power and unleash hardship on Nigerians , we have the right to apologise to Nigerians for handing them over to APC. We promise them it will never happen again. I believe Nigerians have accepted our apology and they can compare the first three years of APC to PDP’s first three years from 1999 to 2002. The difference is clear. Every department of life under APC is full of one problem or the other and we cannot allow these problems to continue.

Were you surprised when the FG recently released looters list?

The APC- led federal government is a vindictive administration. They have nothing to show. All they have in their kitty is propaganda, and nothing but propaganda. When they release the list of looters, they just sit down say ‘Who are these PDP leaders? Let’s start from the head and get some money attached to his name as looted funds’. So, they attached N200m to Uche Secondus, Olisa Metuh N1.4b , Raymond Dokpesi N2.1b. In a civilised society, Lai Mohammed should have resigned his appointment as Minister. First of all, he is the Minister of Information and no longer the spokesperson of the APC. He should be equipped with all his facts before reeling them out but that is not so in this case. So for him to be lying I am not surprised because he is living according to his name. How can somebody just wake up and compile names of politicians who you consider as opposition to the government and tell Nigerians that they are looters? 80 percent of people in APC today are PDP members. Infact, in APC today you are not worth a pinch of salt if you don’t have a root in PDP. The few people who were not PDP members in APC today are President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu, who though not a card carrying member of PDP has a strong bond with PDP. We also have Adams Oshiomhole who is more or less a PDP governor. He became governor under Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) but deep inside him, he knows he was a PDP governor. It was PDP that installed him and funded him 100 percent. I know what I am saying and even Oshiomhole himself knows what happened. He knows all those who funded him and how he became governor. Of course, he equally supported PDP during the presidential election but he played along as APC governor. If you know who Oshiomhole is before he became governor and the mansions he has everywhere now, his salary for life as a governor cannot build a boys quarters. Where did all the money for the mansions come from? In a civilised society, Oshiomhole’s source of wealth should be questioned and this is a person telling the president to deal ruthlessly with looters. Look at Tinubu who has in a way captured all the resources of Lagos. We knew how he was before he became governor but now half of the wealth of Lagos today belongs to Tinubu. And these ones will be making noise about corruption in the society. It is very unfortunate. The way PDP government favoured Tinubu and Oshiomhole, I don’t think it favoured any PDP member like that. When you look at the list and you can’t find a single member of APC there, even those who spent 16 years in PDP government and only joined APC yesterday, their names were missing on the list. They are now saints.



Read more https://independent.ng/tinubu-oshiomhole-unfit-to-talk-about-corruption-in-pdp-amori/

PDP's case is saddening because they are so ill-prepared for this 2019 elections, they had all the time to get their house in order to present an opposition as credible as the President. They have have failed therefore now they are scavenging on any opportunity to discredit the President and throwing half baked lies.

But Tinubu wasn't allowed to run with Jonathan as VICE PRESIDENT.....

so he didn't have all he wanted under Jonathan

Who addresses this man as a senator?somebody that stole his way to the Senate,my country self.

NO MATTER YOUR SIN... once you are in APC, all your sins are forgiven...

If you know who Oshiomhole is before he became governor and the mansions he has everywhere now, his salary for life as a governor cannot build a boys quarters. Where did all the money for the mansions come from? In a civilised society, Oshiomhole’s source of wealth should be questioned and this is a person telling the president to deal ruthlessly with looters.

APC is The Biggest Scam in the History of Mankind.

roundman:
Who addresses this man as a senator?somebody that stole his way to the Senate,my country self.

Rainfall and voter apathy helped a great deal

Osho is the most corrupt man i know

nairavsdollars:
Senator Ighoyota Amori is the Political Adviser to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus. In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he speaks on the controversial statement made by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nigerian youths, alleged looters list and other issues. Excerpts:

What is your take on this statement made by President Buhari that a lot of Nigerian youths are doing nothing while waiting for the government to provide basic amenities for them?

It is an unfortunate statement by the president. Though Nigerians are not surprise because each time Mr. President travelled out of the country the expectation is that he will aspersions on the country through demarketing utterances. Nigerian youths are not lazy. It is the president that is lazy in solving the problems of this country three years after coming to power.

Your party recently apologised to Nigerians but Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at his 10th annual Colloquium said Nigerians should not accept the apology offered by your party. He also said PDP will never come back to power. What is your take on that?

I believe that the apology from the national chairman of PDP is the right thing to do. Even the Holy Bible recognizes the fact that to err is human and to forgive is divine. There was no way a government of P DP which presided over the affairs of this country for 16 years couldn’t have erred in one way or the other. We seized the period of the Easter celebration to atone for our sins and tell Nigerians that ‘for 16 years, you gave us your mandate to govern this country. Along the line in this 16 years, we may have erred one way or the other, for the ones we know and for the ones we do not know. Please forgive us’. To me, I believe this is the right thing to do. For Asiwaju Tinubu to say Nigerians should not accept our apology means that the man is ungodly, very ungodly. Tinubu could even be part of our apology to Nigerians because we know the kind of relationship we had with him in the past.

Why should he be part of your apology?

We know very well the issues we had with Tinubu along the line, probably it was a mistake on our side. Nobody can say today that they do not know the role Asiwaju had played in Nigerian politics. He can play for, he can play against. So, when we apologise, our relationship with him could also be part of our apology to Nigerians because Tinubu is part of the calamity that is befalling Nigeria today. If for any reason, we incorporated Asiwaju and that became our undoing, of course we apologise. But now, we are now wiser. You can’t be wrong and right at the same time. You need to fall before you can rise. We have experienced a fall, we are now rising. We not only apologised for whatever we might have done that made Nigerians turned against us, we also apologised for whatever others did while we were in government, even though it is not done by us. So, I think our apology should be accepted by Nigerians except those who do not have forgiving spirit.

Some have also claimed that the apology is not genuine and it is only a strategy for PDP to come back in 2019. What is your perspective on this?

We are sincere in our apology to Nigerians. I believe we were the ones who brought this hardship on Nigerians today because we allowed APC to win the election. If we had done well enough, Nigerians would not have seen APC as an alternative. For 16 years, we governed this country, we have never experienced this kind of hardship, insecurity, worsening economy, or herdsmen attack. Look at fuel scarcity last year. It lasted for about four months into Christmas and New Year. We never experienced it under PDP. So, if by we not winning the election, either by our own internal wrangling which the present regime took advantage of to come into power and unleash hardship on Nigerians , we have the right to apologise to Nigerians for handing them over to APC. We promise them it will never happen again. I believe Nigerians have accepted our apology and they can compare the first three years of APC to PDP’s first three years from 1999 to 2002. The difference is clear. Every department of life under APC is full of one problem or the other and we cannot allow these problems to continue.

Were you surprised when the FG recently released looters list?

The APC- led federal government is a vindictive administration. They have nothing to show. All they have in their kitty is propaganda, and nothing but propaganda. When they release the list of looters, they just sit down say ‘Who are these PDP leaders? Let’s start from the head and get some money attached to his name as looted funds’. So, they attached N200m to Uche Secondus, Olisa Metuh N1.4b , Raymond Dokpesi N2.1b. In a civilised society, Lai Mohammed should have resigned his appointment as Minister. First of all, he is the Minister of Information and no longer the spokesperson of the APC. He should be equipped with all his facts before reeling them out but that is not so in this case. So for him to be lying I am not surprised because he is living according to his name. How can somebody just wake up and compile names of politicians who you consider as opposition to the government and tell Nigerians that they are looters? 80 percent of people in APC today are PDP members. Infact, in APC today you are not worth a pinch of salt if you don’t have a root in PDP. The few people who were not PDP members in APC today are President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu, who though not a card carrying member of PDP has a strong bond with PDP. We also have Adams Oshiomhole who is more or less a PDP governor. He became governor under Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) but deep inside him, he knows he was a PDP governor. It was PDP that installed him and funded him 100 percent. I know what I am saying and even Oshiomhole himself knows what happened. He knows all those who funded him and how he became governor. Of course, he equally supported PDP during the presidential election but he played along as APC governor. If you know who Oshiomhole is before he became governor and the mansions he has everywhere now, his salary for life as a governor cannot build a boys quarters. Where did all the money for the mansions come from? In a civilised society, Oshiomhole’s source of wealth should be questioned and this is a person telling the president to deal ruthlessly with looters. Look at Tinubu who has in a way captured all the resources of Lagos. We knew how he was before he became governor but now half of the wealth of Lagos today belongs to Tinubu. And these ones will be making noise about corruption in the society. It is very unfortunate. The way PDP government favoured Tinubu and Oshiomhole, I don’t think it favoured any PDP member like that. When you look at the list and you can’t find a single member of APC there, even those who spent 16 years in PDP government and only joined APC yesterday, their names were missing on the list. They are now saints.



Read more https://independent.ng/tinubu-oshiomhole-unfit-to-talk-about-corruption-in-pdp-amori/