From John Adams Minna
Former Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State, Jonathan Vatsa, has called on Godswill Akpabio to immediately resign his position as Senate president and tender an apology to the protesting youths over his utterances on the ongoing protests.
Vatsa said the senate president has not only embarrassed the APC where he has ‘come to continue eating’ after 16 years of eating in the opposition People Democratic party (PDP), his constituency and the red chamber, but also the entire Nigerians with his utterances.
The former publicity secretary of the party in Niger State, in a statement in Minna, yesterday, titled, “Time for Akpabio to go is now,” said it was unfortunate that while eminent and distinguished Nigerians were busy appealing to the protesting Nigerian youths to give peace a chance and embrace dialogue with the government over the economic hardship, Akpabio decided to go the comedian way.
Akpabio, in the build up to the EndBadGovernance protest last week said those who wanted to protest could do so while he and other persons loyal to President Bola Tinubu would continue eating from his administration.
“While you protest, we shall be eating,” Akpabio was quoted to have said, an utterance Vatsa described as callous and regrettable, coming from the number three citizen of the country.
Vatsa said in an ideal situation and in a decent society, Akpabio should not have been made the Senate president in an APC controlled government, stressing that “these were the same group of people that we accused of looting this country for 16 years.
“It is a huge error and a disservice to this country to turn around and make someone like Akpabio a senate president in the APC government. That is why this government can never get it right.
“APC as a party has been hijacked by those that Nigerians were fed up with and decided to embrace change in 2015. They have been eating and they want to continue eating like Akpabio made Nigerians to believe.
“I said it before and I will repeat it that it is sad that we are giving red carpet reception to those we initially accused of looting this country with reckless abandon, so how can we get it right?
“The same eating Akpabio ate for 16 years under the PDP government, he still wants to continue eating under the APC government. This is a tragedy of a nation.”
Aside from this, Vatsa said many criteria disqualified Akpabio from holding the position of the Senate president under the APC controlled government, stressing that “Akpabio is from a state controlled by the opposition party, therefore, he shouldn’t have been allowed to occupy the seat of the Senate president.”
He expressed regrets that the party leadership could not find a another person to be Senate president despite the calibre of intellectuals in the South East and South South, stressing that “recently the same Akpabio publicly insulted a married woman on the floor of the senate by comparing her with night club girls, only for him to turn around and began to tender a belated apology.
“The sins of Akpabio, so far, as a Senate president is worse than that of Ali Ndume which earned him suspension. I, therefore, call on him to immediately resign his position as the Senate president in order to restore the dignity of our great party.
“This party must begin to redeem its image and build confidence in Nigerians before 2027. This must start from Akpabio’s resignation to let Nigerians know that we are serious as a party,” he noted.