Immediate past Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has flayed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to which he belongs, for failing Nigerians.
Speaking in an interview with the Hausa section of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Dalung said the APC government had not fulfilled its promises to Nigerians.
The Cable reports that he said despite being a member of the APC, it was his responsibility to speak out if things were not right.
Lamenting the high rate of insecurity in the North, the former Minister said the situation was such that people fast and pray for days before embarking on a journey.
According to the Plateau State-born politician, farmers have to pay gunmen before going to the farm, and nobody has ever experienced this kind of situation before now.
“In the North, if you are a Muslim and you want to travel, you must pray, fast for days before embarking on the journey. If you are Christian and you want to travel, you must fast and pray for days before you travel.
“Even if the journey is successful, you will still go to the hospital because of high blood pressure arising from fear during the journey. We have never experienced this kind of situation.
“Imagine in the North, before you go to your farm, you will have to pay gunmen to allow you farm. If you want to harvest your farm produce, you will still have to pay gunmen before they allow you to harvest.
“So how can there be farming in the North? We have never experienced this kind of situation. It is our APC government, but this government has not addressed the needs of Nigerians. It is our government, but if we are not doing the correct thing, it is our responsibility to speak out because we spoke against some people in the past and we need to speak to ourselves too.”
He said the failure of the APC government is so glaring that “everybody knows”; and that he was not afraid to speak out, insisting that even if he is the president he will still speak out if things are not going well.
“You know me and everybody in Nigeria knows me. Whether I am still a Minister, even if I am the President, whatever I see that is not right, I must speak out, not because of myself, but in the interest of the generality of the people,” he added.
Dalung was Nigeria’s Minister of Sports from 2015 to 2019.
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