By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and former Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday said he is not contesting the National Assembly to become a Senator sharing motor bikes, Keke Napeps and grinding machines to youths and widows as constituency project
He said he is going to the National Assembly to change the nation’s budgetary system so that budget will work for the people.
Oshiomhole said this yesterday during the flag-off of APC presidential campaign and senatorial election at Auchi, Edo State.
“I am troubled by the way we manage our budget at the National Assembly. I want to go there and argue on the floor of the Assembly that we should change our budgetary system. Our budget must work for the people”.
“I want to be a Senator, not a Senator sharing grinding machines for widows, buying motor bikes or Keke Napeps for 10 out of 10,000 youths. I don’t need to be a senator to support windows and youths. I have done that and I am still doing that, today I am paying school fee for people who don’t have money to go to school”.
He said if he can fight on the street for the ordinary Nigerians, he would even fight harder on the floor of the Assembly to ensure that Edo North Senatorial district and Nigeria benefit more from the national Assembly.
“I can’t have N500 million for constituency project and go and buy Keke napeps motor bikes and grinding machines, that is not lawmaking” he said.
“The minister of work told me that the problem why road constructions are not completed is that the National Assembly will take half of the money budgeted for a road and approved four other roads on that approved fund, this is why we have unfinished roads all over Nigeria”.
He said he would use the floor of the Senate to ensure that when the executive brought a budget, you don’t start new road when the existing one are not completed.
He urged Nigeria to vote for a person with track record of performance in his previous position held in his political careers, noting that among the those contesting for president, the candidate of the APC, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu stands out as a great performance.
“Tinubu is the most suitable person for the president in 2023, They are throw stone at him because they have seen that they can’t dispute his performance. They said he didn’t go to school but they say he was the treasurer of Mobil oil company. Will an oil company employs someone as chief accountant or treasurer if he didn’t go to school”.
“You have seen how Tinubu transformed Lagos, when he see a performing young person, he mentored and grow him to become a leader. That is why he has produced governors, senators, ministers among others. So Tinubu is the one who will bring up young Nigerians and mentor them”
According to him, the candidates of the Labour Party Peter Obi and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar can’t unit Nigeria, adding that they are serial defectors who can’t be entrusted with Nigeria.
He said Atiku doesn’t believe in the unity of Nigeria as he had said in Kaduna state that northerners should not vote for a Yoruba and Ibo man as president, saying that a man who doesn’t believe in other tribes can’t unify Nigeria and can’t be voted for as president
“Atiku defected from the PDP to the ACN, when he lost the election, he decamp to the PDP, he contest and lost and defected to APC, he again defected to the PDP and contested with Buhari and lost and now he still contesting. Can you vote for such candidate’
Oshiomhole urged Nigerians to be careful of Peter Obi as a man man who can’t develop and grow the economy of Anambra state as a governor can’t develop Nigeria
“Obi own the biggest shopping mall in Abuja and all the items sold there are imported, so if he is selling imported wines, clothes and other items, he is contributing to why Nigeria is going down because he is creating job abroad and importing unemployment to Nigeria” he said.