By Chris Nomjov
Senate Majority leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume says many PDP Senators will soon defect to the APC, contrary to allegations that APC Senators would soon jettison the party, for the PDP.
Senator Ndume made this point, in an interview with Leadership, while denying claims that many APC senators will in the future defect to PDP for political tickets to higher political offices.
Opposition party, PDP has not had it rosy in recent times; losing the Presidential elections and most of the National legislative seats in the April general elections. Recent rulings from election tribunals have also not gone the way of the party, that had ruled Nigeria, for the past 16 years.
The Senate Majority leader maintained that, contrary to this opinion, PDP senators will be moving en-mass to their party because their party is currently in a coma…
“Yes, because PDP is in a coma and only God knows when it will recover. As you can see now, they do not have any doctor or pharmacist and the only nurse is Olisa Metuh. I am part of some of the APC members trying to convince some of them over to move over to our side and they will soon move in their numbers in the Senate. So, when you tell me that APC members are going over to the PDP, it is strange to me because like I said earlier, I am trying to convince some of my colleagues over to the APC. And you know that electoral shock is worse than electric shock. That was what PDP suffered and they had a relapse again by the decisions at the tribunals so, we do not know when they will get out of it” he said.
Similarly, Ndume also justified the action of the APC senators against the motion seeking to pay N5,000 allowance to unemployed Nigerians, as promised by his party during their campaign period
“I think that there was a political ambush there, if not, how would the senators of the Federal Republic tell the president to start the implementation of payment of N5000 to youths who are not working. I was of the opinion that if they were serious and patriotic about it, and that is why I wanted to amend the motion, that the Senate would have asked the president to bring a supplementary budget to cover such expense. That what I wanted to amend but that would have been a better prayer to ask Mr President to bring to the National Assembly, a supplementary budget that will be approved to enable him to start implementing the payment of N5000 to indigent people. The president cannot just pay such monies, where will he get it from without Appropriation? So, the National Assembly cannot be part of that unless the resources were appropriated for and the president says he has only about 30 million in the bank. You cannot use that to pay people. PDP wanted to use that for a cheap blackmail but that did not work, Nigerians are more educated than that. But the president is still serious about it and we are looking for all avenues to be able to raise resources to be able to execute the project which is laudable. I am sure that by 2016 when the budget is brought room will be made for it. Also, you have to build a data base because if you start paying, who will you pay to? The first thing now is for the government to be able to have the statistics of all those concerned, the indigent, the unemployed, the elderly and then you know where they are including their data before you start payment”he said.
