Solomon Dalung, Nigeria’s former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, has lambasted the All Progressives Congress (APC) for lacking a definitive political philosophy.
Dalung, who served under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, said the ruling party has failed to deliver on its promises of “Change, Next Level and Renewed Hope.”
Dalung stated this in an exclusive interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, where he shared his thoughts on the country’s state of insecurity, economy, corruption, and governance.
He said; “The APC has not given Nigerians a credible covenant of mandate. In 2015, we campaigned with the change mantra, immediately we came into office, Lai Mohammed, in response to the inability to quickly fix the problems of the country as expected from Nigeria, he came up with ‘change begins with you’ and then, in 2019, we had not successfully accounted for the change, we scaled it up to next level.
“From the Next level which left the country worse than it met it, we are today talking about renewed hope. So, there is no categorical political covenant that the APC as a political party is committed to and is pursuing.”
Dalung also accused the people working in the presidency of prioritising the image of the President rather than addressing the genuine concerns of Nigerians.
“What I have been trying to do in recent times is to try to place in proper perspective, the attempt to change the narratives from the real issues affecting Nigerians to mere propaganda and cyberbullying, because the president’s men are instead of being a source of strength to contributing ideas and knowledge as to how to deal with escalating frustrations of Nigerians about the high cost of living, they tend to invest more energy on bullying anybody who has anything to offer or lend his voice to the increasing echoes of concern.
“I begin with the national security adviser who has no business to champion a campaign of blame game because he introduced this. That signifies that he has something to hide from Nigerians that he is trying to over protect. There are people who have made the presidency inaccessible. The president is fortified by a group of people who do not allow alternative opinions to filter across,” he said.
Dalung urged President Tinubu to listen to the voices of the people, especially the youths, who have been protesting against bad governance, insecurity, and police brutality.
