By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
A former governor of Ekiti state and Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Engr. Segun Oni, has declared that if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had returned to power in 2015, Nigerians would have turned to refugees in their fatherland.
He also alleged that the incessant herdsmen attacks across the country were being sponsored by money-bag politicians bent on destabilising the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking in an interview with newsman at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, Oni noted that Nigerians were right to expect ‘magic’ from the APC-led government, “but the right thing is there is no magic way out of the problem on ground for Nigeria.”
He said: “The economy was traumatised by a government which only agenda was to win another round; therefore, everything that they could put into trying to win a second round, even bastardising the economy, were all done and we are all here.
“Now, unfortunately for them, I would say, they are not there any longer. The reality on ground is that if the previous government was in power by now, Nigeria would have virtually packed off; maybe many of us would have been refugees by now. So, it is very easy not to
remember where we are coming from. Yes, we were elected to do the impossible; we will do our own best; I just want to plead that people should give us more realistic expectations.”
On the famers/herdsmen clashes, Oni alleged that some money-bag politicians were sponsoring the herdsmen attack on farmers to destabilise the present government.
“These, herdsmen attacks, personally worry me because these gunmen have suddenly become so notorious invading villages and so on. But my guess is that many of these are sponsored by people who have so much money and want to create instability.”
On Buhari’s resolve to treat the militants like the Boko Haram, he said: “I think it is a warning; you know at times a father would also warn his child not to cross this line so that I would not be hard on you.
“I think it is a warning; let us also see it in good stead; let us try and calm nerves because the President is the president of everybody and it is in his interest and in our own interest that
things must run normal. I believe that such warning, such body languages and so on, would also have a way of encouraging people who genuinely want to see peace to go after it.”