Former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung on Sunday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of failing Nigerians.
Speaking with the BBC Hausa, Dalung lamented the crisis in the party and the insecurity that has plagued the nation.
He said despite being a card-carrying member of the APC; he had to express his dissatisfaction in the interest of the public.
“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 a Christian and you want to travel, you must fast and pray for days before you travel,” he said.
“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.”
Dalung continued that it was necessary for him to call out the failures of his party because he was a staunch critic of the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said: “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.
“If for example, Solomon Dalung collapses and die today, without speaking out against what is happening today, don’t you think God will question me for abusing Jonathan and not speaking out on our failure? That is what I am afraid of, not anybody.
“Our party, the APC, is like a dying party because, as I am talking to you right now, they have dissolved the party completely, it has no members, even the President is not a member.
“The caretaker committees are the members of the party, the party has no members because membership of everybody has been dissolved. So, right now, we are not members of APC until they bring membership cards for us to join the party, like army recruitment.
“So right now, even the President is not a member of the APC until he appears before this committee.”
