APC flays Ndume over comment against Tinubu

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed as outlandish, claim by the Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been held hostage by certain forces in the Presidency.

Speaking with journalists last Wednesday in Abuja, the Senator representing Borno South has alleged that President Tinubu has been caged in the Presidential Villa and was not aware of the economic challenges facing Nigerians as a result of his policies.

He said: “The President should wake up, it seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening because he has been caged off. He has been fenced off by plutocrats. He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth. Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him.

“I am very worried not only for the President himself but myself.”

The APC in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, maintained that “President Tinubu meets and interacts regularly with citizens, officials and guests from all walks of life, as his schedule permits.”

The party accused Senator Ndume of a wrong sense of entitlement and urged him “to exercise restraint and quit his penchant for unhelpful attention-seeking media posturing.”

The statement reads in part:” The latest outburst in the media by the senator representing Borno South, and Chief Whip of the 10th Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, claiming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been “caged” and unaware of existential challenges in the country is as haughty as it is unnecessary.

“As a Senator of the Federal Republic, Ndume has a platform of the National Assembly to raise and address matters that he may consider to be in the national interest. He also has access to the entire machinery of the federal government of Nigeria. Senator Ndume did not explain the use to which he has put this enormous access in seeking solutions to concerns that he may have.

“It is understandable if Senator Ndume feels frustrated by his suggested inability to access the President. But that does not warrant or justify his outlandish declaration that the President has been caged in some way or ensconced from the reality of conditions in the country. Senator Ndume’s heedless comments smack of an indulgent sense of entitlement to see the President on a whim.

“The President is busy doing the job for which he was elected by the Nigerian people. He is the head of government of which there are many critical parts equipped with power to process and deal with a wide range of simple to complex social, economic, political or security challenges. The president’s time is required to be used judiciously in attending to important matters of state.

“Just about nine days ago, on July 4, 2024, the President inaugurated the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) and launched the Economic Stabilization Programme to ensure food security, improved power supply, enhanced social welfare, healthcare, increased energy production and general economic transformation.

“Further, a couple of days ago, President Tinubu was in an important meeting with leaders of organised labour on the issue of the new minimum wage.

“President Tinubu meets and interacts regularly with citizens, officials and guests from all walks of life, as his schedule permits. He has continued to superintend the formulation and implementation of policy and programme measures aimed at mitigating prevailing economic conditions and boosting availability and price access to food and other essential commodities.

“In similar vein, President Tinubu recently signed an Executive Order aimed at reducing the high cost of drugs; approved tax waivers for the importation of some food items in the bid to crashing prices and ensuring food sufficiency; directed the Armed Forces to combat and defeat resurgent of acts of terror, among many other important engagements that speak eloquently to his command of the situation in the country.

“As a senior Party man and Senator of the Federal Republic, we urge Ndume to exercise restraint and quit his penchant for unhelpful attention-seeking media posturing.

“Our dear country needs all hands to be on deck on the cusp of national transformation, each doing their part to remake the social, economic and security conditions in the best interest of our people.”

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