The All Progressives Congress has
described the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), as a “rogue elephant” who lacks
respect for President Muhammadu Buhari...
The party, in a statement on Monday,
accused Sagay of displaying arrogance and contempt for everyone but
himself in a recent interview published in a national daily.
Sagay, in his reaction, however,
described the leadership of the APC as a bunch of hungry people who were
undermining the progress of the party by attempting to appease corrupt
elements.
In a statement by the National Publicity
Secretary of the APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party alleged that
the professor of Law cast aspersions on the party and its leadership in
the interview.
The APC spokesman said, “In the said
interview, Sagay described the leadership of the APC as “the most
unprincipled group of people” who are “encouraging and accepting rogues”
in the party.
“He (Sagay) said, ‘When I say rogues, I
don’t mean stealing. In literature, when you say someone is a rogue
elephant, it means people who are running riot and destroying the
party.”
Abdullahi added, “The Webster Dictionary
defines rogue elephant as ‘one whose behaviour resembles that of a
rogue elephant in being aberrant or independent’.
“Clearly, if we have today anyone in our
government or by extension, the party who feels accountable only to his
own ego; who does not feel the need to bridle his tongue for the sake
of anything that is higher than himself; who feels independent of
everyone and every institution; that person is Professor Sagay.”
The APC argued that Sagay’s insistence
that he could go ahead to talk even if the President, who is his
employer, asked him to stop talking, was like saying “no matter what is
at stake, he would rather resign than obey the President if the
President tries to restrain him. This is the quintessential rogue
elephant behaviour.”
The statement added, “In his sheer
arrogance, he forgets that it is impossible for him to call out the
leadership of the party as ‘weak’ and ‘unprincipled’ without indicting
the President, who is the leader of the party and has the fundamental
responsibility to build the party.
“If Sagay had any iota of respect for
the man who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and put him in a
position in which he now feels superior to everyone, he would channel
his opinions and advice to the President on how to make the party
stronger and more principled.
“It appears however that Sagay does not
have anything constructive to say about anything. He only knows how to
tear down and assault everyone and everything.”
The party reminded Sagay and all other
appointees of government that the only reason they occupied their
current positions today was because the APC won the 2015 elections.
In his reaction, Sagay said he was an
accomplished man long before any appointment, describing his attackers
as ‘‘come and chop’’ politicians.
The senior advocate added that his
loyalty was to the President and not to the party which he believed had
continued to fail under the leadership of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
He said, “To start with, I am not a
‘come and chop’ person as they are. I did not come to ‘chop’; so they
are not doing me a favour. They are the ones that come to ‘chop’.
“Secondly, my criticism of APC is not
against President Buhari who I think is a man of great honour, integrity
and whom I admire and who inspires me.
“I took this job because of Buhari and
Osinbajo, who I admire greatly. The people I am referring to in my
criticism are John Odigie-Oyegun and one Bolaji Abdullahi, who is
(Senate President Bukola) Saraki’s Man Friday. They are dining with the
devil who wants to destroy the party.
“They are appeasers, who are acting the
way (former) British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, appeased Adolf
Hitler and in the process, they will destroy the party because they are
weak and unable to confront evil and they will end up helping that
Hitler to destroy the party.
“What is APC without Buhari, Osinbajo
and Tinubu? The Oyegun-led executive, which is doing a policy of
appeasement, will destroy the party.”
No comments: