Former Minister of Works, Sen. Adeseye Ogunlewe has described the reconciliation committee set up by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as belated and not in tune with the aspirations of Nigerians.
Ogunlewe made this known in an interview with Sunday Sun.
He said that instead of pursuing reconciliation this late into the life of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the party should concentrate on delivering on its promises to Nigerians during the 2015 campaign.
Recall that Buhari had penultimate week set up a reconciliation committee headed by a National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to bring party members together and settle existing differences.
He said, The reconciliation they are talking about is too belated. What are they reconciling? Since Buhari came into power in 2015, he has refused to make appointments into the boards of parastatals and agencies. Many of those who worked for the success of the party have been abandoned. They don’t know what is going on in the government. They have no say in the affairs of the government. A lot of them spent their money to campaign for the party with the aim that they would get contracts from the government, but they have been sidelined. I know of someone who put down a huge sum of money even without the knowledge of Buhari to fund the campaign. But today, he is worse off because there is nothing for him. These are the people they need to reconcile with. The reconciliation Nigerians need now is more than individual reconciliation.
Poverty level, out of school children about 15 million of them in the Northeast alone, rising unemployment, education for the middle class, health service delivery, fundamental rights of Nigerians as entrenched in the principles of state policy are some of the issues we need to consider at this point in time and reconcile ourselves with, not individuals. In my view, it goes beyond individuals. The entire structure of governance has collapsed. We need to think of what the people can benefit from this democracy. For now, they have not benefited anything from democracy.
They just vote, after the voting, that is the end. Those are the areas we must reconcile.