From Fred Itua, Abuja and Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Senate Chief Whip and Senator representing Borno South in the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume has maintained his earlier position that the economic hardship in the country might trigger more trouble, warning the government against possible malnutrition in the country.
Ndume in an interview with some journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State on Friday said he was right that Nigerians are hungry and suffering.
“God is always with the person that speaks the truth. So, I know I am not wrong. The people are not wrong by speaking the truth and I expect the president to look at what I have said and take appropriate measures to alleviate the suffering of the people,” he said while reacting to the backlash from his All Progressive Congress (APC) party over his July 10 interview with BBC Hausa service.
In the interview, Ndume had alleged that President Bola Tinubu was inaccessible by some ministers and key National Assembly members who would have provided update to the presidenty on the current economic situation in the country. He said the food crisis was persisting for too long.
“We are afraid one day a person may go to the market and be confronted with a situation where there won’t be food to buy,” he said in the interview.
Ndume said he has reviewed the interview several times, shared with friends, associates, elders and leaders across the country after the reaction from the party, insisting that he was right.
“Therefore, I say I stand by all my statements in the interview I granted,” he insisted.
Quoting a former American President Franklin Roosevelt, Ndume said it is unpatriotic to stand by the president when things are going bad but patriotic to stand by the truth.
“People are suffering, people are hungry and not happy,” he stressed.
He also said he bore no ill feeling about his party’s directive for his removal as Senate Chief Whip. He said he was happy about his election as senator and his removal as an act of God through APC.
Earlier in Abuja on Friday, Ndume had told newsmen that he had declined the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Tourism, arguing that he lacks the experience and exposure to lead such a sensitive group.
The lawmaker said he was given the chance to choose which committee to serve as the vice chairman having successfully led the campaigns that brought about the emergence of Akpabio as President of the Senate.
On the charge to resign from the APC, the senator said as a founding member of the party, he was one of the 22 senators from the PDP that formed the APC when the current national chairman of the party Abdullahi Ganduje was a deputy governor in Kano State.
He, however, stated that when former President Muhammadu Buhari, in the company of President Bola Tinubu ordered him to sign a document to join APC at the Imo House in Abuja, he informed his people before going public. He noted that as such, he would consult his people before deciding on whether to leave the APC or not.