The elites have divided us using tribal sentiments - Senator Dino Melaye

macfranc007 February 28, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Omotayo Yusuf

Senator Dino Melaye hs claimed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which he belongs to has failed Nigerians.

Vanguard reports that the Kogi senator spoke when he was named the Legislator of the Year 2017 at the Daily Asset Newspaper maiden annual awards.

Melaye said Nigeria was not practicing democracy but what he called ‘greedocracy’.

He said Nigerians were suffering and smiling while the elite continue to divide the citizens along ribal lines.

He said: “If you speak the truth, you die. If you lie, you die. I, Dino Melaye has decided to speak the truth and die,” the fiery Senator wowed the audience with his vitriolic against his own party, which he likened to the Public Complaint Commission, apparently due to its penchants for blaming past administrations for its inability to deliver on some of its electioneering campaign promises.

“The APC government has become Public Complaint Commission. I say this without fear or favour. We have more complains in the APC and even in the Presidency than service rendered. We cannot as a people continue like this.

“The President said two days ago we should all embrace peace but I want to say without fear or favour that there can be no peace without justice. There is hunger in the land, there is poverty in the land, and there is unemployment in the land. A lot of decision has not been taken; yet we say we want peace. The primary objective of government is the security and welfare of the people. There is no security, there is no welfare,” he said. According to the federal lawmaker,

“Nigeria is not only sick presently but equally suffers from regretful congenital abnormality. There is therefore a serious need for amelioration, palliation and correction. The question is: are you going to be part of that correction? I want to say that in an unjust society, silence is a crime, and every one of us here today, is the reason why (sic) Nigeria is sick.

“It is not about the leadership, it is the inability of the followership to check the leadership. Today Nigerians have become indolent, we are suffering and smiling. We are not reactionary. We are not asking questions and that is why we are where we are.

“Democracy will continue to be government of the people by the people for the people but what we have today is greedocracy which is government of the greedy by the greedy and for the greedy.

“2019 is around the corner again. Many of us are lackadaisical about the future. I delivered a lecture recently at the University of Lagos and some students from very wealthy homes, two of them said they didn’t care who the president of the country is and that it was none of their business because their parents were very successful. I said to them that when the poor have nothing to eat, they will start eating the rich.

“A time will come when it will be difficult to drive your expensive jeeps and cars on the streets. A time will come when it would be difficult to switch on your generator because everywhere around you is dark. Will you be the only one having light? There was no kidnapping before, and kidnapping is seen as the redistribution of both ill-gotten and legitimate wealth. People now take from the rich and they now appropriate to themselves,”

“The elites have divided us using tribal sentiments. When you go to the hospital, there is a column for religion on your call card, a column for tribe and local government as if this will in any way facilitate your recovery. We have become too ethnic conscious. I sponsored a bill that is about to go for a second reading. The bill is saying that we should abolish state of origin and in its place; we should have state of residence. This is when we will have a true Nigeria when you will not need a Senator’s note to get job with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC

Meanwhile, a report by The Nation indicates that the Senate might sanction 10 senators over their position on the amendment of the Electoral Act.

The amendment of the Electoral Act led to changes in the 2019 election sequence. In the new arrangement, the Senate and House of Representatives elections will take place first, followed by governorship and House of Assembly polls. The presidential election will come last.

Following the adoption of conference report on the amendment, 10 senators rejected the changes, describing it as unconstitutional and exercise in futility.

NAIJ.com special report on Anambra governorship election on NAIJ.com TV