The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, Adam Ohiomohole, has stated why his opponents were putting pressure for him to stand down as the party boss.
He boasted that under his watch, the party had made good progress, wondering why people still want him out with all he had achieved with the party.
He said that it was only a tree that bears fruits that attracts stones, citing a string of victories recorded by the party at recent elections and challenged those who think otherwise to contradict his claim.
His words: “You also know this proverb: ‘It’s a tree that bears fruits that attracts stones.’ You hardly see people throwing stones at a dry tree palm tree.
“But if you see a mango tree when it is its season, people throw stones at it when passing. I think that is my lot; but my report card is also very, very clear.”
While appealing to the media to evaluate his performance based on the results from elections, he said, “In my own case, and I challenge anyone to say that any of these things are not true. We the executive members of the party were sworn in on the 3rd of June 2018, at about 6 pm. Two weeks later, we went to Ekiti election against a PDP incumbent Governor Fayose and we won. And Kayode Fayemi today is the governor of that state.
“Few months later, we went to Osun State, we contested a by-election, we won and we had the Osun State governor elected for his first term.
“Then we went for the national elections, you know all the tensions in the country at the time, the gap between President Buhari and the former candidate of the PDP, Abubakar Atiku, was about four million voters.
“The one between President Buhari and former President Jonathan in 2015 was about three million. So, under my leadership, this president has more votes than the first runner-up.
“We would like to claim credit for that because if it went the other way so we would be crucified.”
On the criticism that has trailed the President’s New Year message, Oshiomhole said that the critics were myopic in their assessment of the administration.
He recalled how many Nigerians could not afford to travel for the Yuletide season on an account of fuel scarcity.
He noted that the ongoing revolution within the agricultural sector had resulted in local rice being available everywhere in the country.
His words: “We decided at the level of the National Working Committee to pay a New Year visit to Mr. President and to congratulate him on what we have been able to accomplish last year and also to commend Mr. President for the renewed hope as captured in the New Year message that was delivered to Nigerians.
“I think it was particularly important that it was published in print media so it’s not like the usual New Year broadcast that if you missed it, you missed it. But this one you can take it, you can analyze it, evaluate it and see how it affects you or how it affects your community, your location or your business.
“We think that was quite significant but like you know, in Nigeria when good things happen they don’t command good headline news. For example, consistently under this President, people are now used to going for Christmas without having to worry whether or not there is petroleum product in the market.
“Few years back, people were always afraid of what will happen during the Christmas season, all your money, all the little money you are saving to take back home to celebrate with your people, you end up patronizing ‘Black Market’ to buy a liter of PMS at two, three, or four times the value and sometimes it is adulterated.
“And we saw pictures of people who were stranded across the country because they cannot access PMS.
“Again, these are things we are now able to with pride, take for granted. I also think that we ought to celebrate the fact that we are able to celebrate Christmas and New Year and people have rice everywhere that were not imported from other countries- Nigerian made rice.
“I bought some quantities of rice to share in line with the tradition and all these were Nigerian made rice. They taste better, they are not expired, they are more nutritious and for me, this is how a nation grows and eventually becomes self-reliance, self-sufficient.
“Now if we can sustain this policy for another one year or two years, and Nigerians get used to eating Nigerian rice and our farmers get a ready market for rice, obviously, that aspect of food security would have been put behind us.
“I thought it was something that we should commend the President for what he has done and the courage to put Nigeria first before any other sentiment. So we can say that we can see a gradual revolution taking place in the agricultural sector.”
.Sun
