By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor, Lagos
Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former, Vice Chairman, Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Segun Sowunmi, has flayed the All Progressives Congress (APC) over what he described as the party’s over-exaggeration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s trips, particularly the latest one to China. He said that there was nothing special about the trip to China as other Nigerian presidents visited China, signed agreements and came back quietly without much noise. He also accused the APC of suffering from ‘‘excessive desire to over-exaggerate and play on sentiments’’.
He made the observation during an interview session with Channels television programme: Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
Sowunmi said that only time would reveal the ineptitude of APC governance, insisting that the party ‘‘has no new creative ideas to offer Nigerians and sadly easily mesmerised with foreign trips.
‘‘They have failed abysmally to solve critical issues confronting them with governance of the nation: They have not been able to know what to do with the budget and time is running out, we don’t have power they mouthed so much to give Nigerians; it is even worst now. We still cannot buy petrol, every conversation and explanation they have given, the bottom line is that even when we are prepared to pay it even at a higher rate you can’t still find it,’’ he noted.
He said that just as Nigeria needs China, China is equally interested in Nigeria because of benefit from the country’s unique size’’
He lamented: “There is nothing in their (APC) immediate past history that suggests that they can be consistent with their words as they are used to propaganda.
‘‘In the past when the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, went there (China) all these alliances were quietly signed, looking at the rail sector, looking at construction and some other forms of collaboration and when we came back to the country Mr President immediately went straight away to do the local content bill which seeks to protect Nigeria from the over drive of some other economies.
‘‘Don’t forget China is one of the big markets and it’s a big producer of goods and services and so it needs a market for itself but it hardly pays Nigeria. We need to get an arrangement that benefits both parties. Now to get a bit excited about the trip that has not been fully consummated worries me. There are diplomacy and public policy challenges that government always has to balance.
‘’For instance, Nigeria, because of our location within the globe, we are closer to the Europeans and the Americans in terms of localisation and our history. Chine has its own agenda in the world and it deserves to come and obviously increase its own role and presence in the world. Therefore, there is a way you balance these things. When you now have people that are easily mesmerised with foreign trips, go to China and come back and begin to behave as if our entire foreign policy is now going to dovetail towards China at the expense of our more reliable and perhaps more supportive partners in the areas of Europe and America you just know that is a play out of the way they have been running government.
‘‘They (APC) leave issues and chase shadow and when they finally get one red heard or something they think Nigerians can be excited about they go to excessive level of exaggeration. Let me remind you, when they visited America they gave the impression that immediately after their observing the guard that was mounted for the President the next morning their dollar will come down for our sake but after months now what do we see? Now they have gone to China to do currency swop and they are behaving as if China is going to be the international clearing house for Nigeria and that the dollar will no longer be relevant, you know that that is childish.
“The devil is in the detail. Let them sit down and do the job they were elected to do. Nations of the world first take care of activities at home and get their own self-reliance a bit and then go to the world and the world can respect them. Do you know how difficult it has been for the APC to admit that something was done by the previous government? It is good they have finally put paid to their own lies and propaganda by saying that we never did anything, that our government was clueless and don’t understand governance.
“We thank God that the Senior Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adesina, has admitted that government is a continuum and that they are continuing from what the PDP government put on ground in China. We took over government from the military and we did not start lamenting or spent all the time screaming all the wrongs of the military, we simply sat down to run the government but what do we get now? Always blaming Jonathan. It shows the APC has nothing new to offer Nigerians, they have no new creative ideas. Their excessive desire to over exaggerate and play on sentiments. There is nothing in their immediate past history that suggests that they can be consistent with their words.
