It
is now very possible for private organizations and individuals to hire
the presidential jets according to the National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun has revealed that the president jets are now up for hire.
He said this during an interview with Punch.
When asked why his party criticised former President Goodluck
Jonathan for running the largest presidential air fleet and the APC
promised to cut down on this, yet hasn't.
He said: "I think this has largely been cut down. Besides, I
think they are even available for hire in case you want to use any of
them (general laughter). Don’t forget, from the very first day, even the
vehicles being used by Mr. President were exactly the same vehicles
used by his predecessor."
When asked about the boastful outburst of Minister of Power, Works
and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola during his time as governor, who
said any serious government would fix the power situation in six months
and why he has failed to live up to expectation.
Oyegun said: "We were not unfair. It was not just about
Jonathan but the PDP as an institution. Sixteen years of the PDP
administration and $18 billion was spent on the power sector, we haven’t
got a single additional kilowatt of power. So, any such criticism is
very, very deserving. Of course, in the interim, a lot of other issues
like we discussed earlier, cropped up like the Niger Delta Avengers,
otherwise, power was stabilising already but the minute the power
station cannot get gas to power it, then you are in deep trouble and
that is what is happening now. Otherwise, what he said was correct. We
were firstly going to stabilise the system, strengthening the
transmitting and distribution network, build captive power plants in
areas of high intensive use like industries and so on, bringing on
stream power stations that were virtually ready. Some were waiting for
connection to the gas station, some were waiting for final installation
of turbines that were imported and were already in the country. All of
these were being done, then came the Niger Delta Avengers. You cannot
but escape the impression that there is a powerful group intent on
sabotaging. I want to assure them that they won’t succeed."
On the issue of selective fight against corruption and why none of its members are being persecuted, the APC chairman said:
"Prosecution depends on evidence. Once there is evidence, if anyone has
evidence, let him provide it. This generalised rumour is not basis for
serious action of that type. And in any case, there are a few APC
leaders who are being called to question. It is not as one sided as it
seems and it is not something to be apologetic for. When the then
National Security Adviser was disbursing funds from his Automated Teller
Machine, he did not call an opposition person to say take money. So,
it’s a natural course of events. This administration- if anybody can
read; the President will not mind whose ox is gored so long as justice
is done. It just happens that as at now, those whose hands are found in
the till happen to be preponderantly in the PDP. But you can see that a
lot of other investigations are ongoing and quite a few involve some APC
leaders."
He also confirmed the fact that the popularity of the APC has waned over its failure to fulfill its campaign promises.
"All governments worldwide in between terms lose some degree of
popularity; no question about that. We are having harsh economic times,
no question about that and that does not increase the popularity of any
government. It only diminishes it to some extent. What is different is
that, in our case, in spite of the harsh economic realities, the people
still have full confidence, trust. I think that is the proper word, in
President Buhari, that he will do his very best to improve their lot and
I think the proof of that was the reaction to the threatened strikes by
the labour unions. You can see that even though people are unhappy,
they refused to come out because they understood. They are in pain but
they understood why the pain was there and they trusted the President
that he was doing everything within his power to ameliorate their pain.
So yes, there is a lot of grumbling all over the place, but also there
is a lot of trust in Mr. President." Oyegun said.
COMMENTS