Former acting Chairman of People’sDemocratic party, PDP who crossed over to the All Progresives People’s Congress APC, Alhaji Kawu Baraje was on Monday 25th, 2017 booed at the 52nd Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) Annual National Conference in Ilorin.
Also booed at the conference in what could be likened to bad outing were the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State were on Monday jeered at by attendees at the 52nd annual conference of the
The top political leaders were ostensibly booed on account of unpaid salaries of local government workers, astronomical increase in the tuition fees of Kwara State Polytechnic as well infrastructure decay in the state.
Though both Saraki and Ahmed were not physically present at the ceremony, which held at the Forecourt of the Palace of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, their representatives were slammed when it was their turns to deliver speeches on behalf of their principals.
NationalNEWSBEAM observed that the representative of the Senate President, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, when called to deliver the message of his principal acknowledged the numerous challenges in the society especially non paymet of salaries of workers and the general hardship in the society.
In the course of his speech, however he passed the buck of the challenges on poor management by the state government, saying “we know what our people are passing through, we put this government there and something would be done very soon.”
No sooner than he started his speech that audience began to take him to the cleaner, blaming him for the challenges residents are undergoing.
It was same scenario when the representative of Governor and the state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Engineer Musa Yeketi, delivered the message of the Governor.
Upon mounting the podium for his message, the audience asked him to leave the stage, saying they were not ready to listen to him.
A source close to the emirate said that the emirate was angry at the lack of respect for the body in that Sakai was alleged to have been around for a political meeting on Saturday and Sunday querying why he should send a representative instead of attending the meeting in person.
The source also added that the Governor should not have sent Engineer Yeketi to represent him adding that he is not competent to stand in for Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.
At a separate interview, with a handful of the Press, Alhaji Kawu Baraje vented his anger on the APC party on the situation in the country.
Baraje said “I belong to the group that is not very satisfied with the performance of the party; not only because the Senate President is having a very serious political issue, but because there are other cases and instances where we are not happy with the performance of our party.”
He further stated “I am not a prophet of doom, neither am I a political prostitute. Are you happy going to queue up for up to two to three hours at filling stations to buy fuel? Are you happy that electricity is not functioning well and people sleep in darkness? “What we are saying is that majority of Nigerians are not happy and we need to make them happy.”
“Majority of Nigerians are suffering and we need to make our impact felt by addressing the suffering of the masses.”
Baraje also threatened to leave the party, saying the APC lacks focus and is distracted.
Baraje said, “The PDP made me. I was the National Secretary and later become the National Chairman of the PDP. I made my mark. If I have to be grateful to any political party, I think, it is the PDP.
“So, if I can leave that party, then you will know that the party had gone contrary seriously against my principles of life.
“If I can leave the PDP because of impunity, lack of respect for the rule of law; then do I want to continue in another party that way? But it has not got to that level. That is why we are sounding a note of warning that gradually some of these problems are creeping into the APC. And we must warn ourselves.”
Baraje buttressed his point by citing posts that litter the social media where Nigerians express frustrations and regrets support for APC and the Buhari led government.
____________________________________________________________________________________
For News, Articles, Opinions, write-ups, advertisement, and other related issues or Invitation to cover your events, please contact The Editor, newsbeamonline@gmail.com or nationalnewsbeam@gmail.com OR call 07011172166(WhatsApp), 07088886879, 08022433068, 08038472758 (WhatsApp) or NATIONAL NEWSBEAM on Telegram
