Former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has said that the inability of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to give President Muhammadu Buhari structural support was responsible for the non-reflection of the President’s good intentions to Nigerians.

Opening up on the problems bedevilling the party, Rochas urged President Buhari to adopt hire and fire mechanism to the governance of the country should he want the dividends of democracy to rapidly get to the grassroots.

He spoke when members of the APC non-National Working Committee, National Executive Committee (NEC) Integrity Group paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, blaming the problems of the party on the selfishness of the party leaders.

Okorocha, representing Imo West senatorial district in the National Assembly, endorsed the sacking of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC, stressed that wheels of governance could move much faster if persons in sensitive positions are rewarded or sacked for inefficiency.

He, however, called on the leadership of the APC to urgently return the party to how things were at the formation stage, quipping that APC has become a party where right is wrong and wrong is right.

He equally expressed disappointment over the party’s continued loss of some states to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) especially the recent loss of Edo state, insisted that it is painful that the party is not in charge of any state in the entire South-south geopolitical zone.

“You asked me what has gone wrong in our party. My answer is that what is wrong for the party is that the right has become wrong and wrong is now right. And if it continues we may not be finding solutions to the challenges facing our party. But there is still light at the dark end of the tunnel if we can revert to how it all started and where we started from.

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Emphasizing that Buhari’s good intentions do not reflect the practical realities on the ground, he said: “what it means is that our party the APC leadership and all those concern have not rendered the necessary support to President Buhari in achieving his heart desires for this country.”

Defending his directive to President Buhari to fire and hire, he said: “I must say here that what works in most developed countries is hire and fire which brings discipline in the system. There is nothing as bad as persons who occupy government positions and are not working but are kept for sentiment basis.

“They should be fired to create room for those who can perform. There is nobody on earth who is Alpha and Omega, if you can’t do the job, be sure that someone can do it.

“That is why I endorsed the sacking of the past leadership of the NWC led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

“But when you know you can’t be fired If you messed up, you tend to mess up the more. So, I suggest that our party should begin the issue of hire and fire. That is why I commend the decision to remove the leadership of APC. That is how it should go if you can’t do the job we show you the way out. I will urge our part the APC, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari imbibe the spirit and fire so that people can sit up and do the right thing.”

“The problem of the party is the selfishness of the political leaders. We no longer have what I term collective responsibility, rather we have selfish responsibility where leaders are busy thinking the next election and what positions they can occupy instead of thinking about the dividends of democracy as it should affect the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We, therefore, come back to the root of the problem in our party because the very people who worked for the success of the party, are the ones that have been neglected, rather, those who came yesterday have taken over. This is why there is so much anger from the ward level to the national.

“Those who have been empowered, have refused to empower others from the ward to the national level. The issue of empowerment is empowering one person so that he can empower others, but those who have been empowered now have new friends and neglected the foot soldiers and at the end of the day, it is President Buhari that takes the brunt.

“This is why I advise that we go back to the drawing board and some of these laudable projects should be extended to the party. I do not see any ward chairman and his 26 members who cannot farm under the Anchor-Borrower program. So, the policies of our government are just hanging and do not get to the grassroots. Owners of our party are not participating in the running of the party,” he lamented.

Earlier, the leader of the Integrity Group, Sadiq Abubakar, who led the delegation, insisted that the crisis currently bedevilling the party is the lack of a concrete reward system for loyal party members.

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Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said those insinuating that graft and corrupt tendencies are more prevalent under the Muhammadu Buhari administration are being political and petty.

Lawan said this on Monday while addressing State House Correspondents after the second National Summit on Diminishing Corruption and launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The Senate President noted that when prosecution of a case of corrupt practice drags into years, such is an indication that something is wrong and tacit support for corruption.

According to him, no government in the history of Nigeria has hinged its campaigns on fighting corruption like the present administration.

Lawan said: “I don’t know who they are and I don’t know what their facts are. But I will not speak to speculations; I speak to facts. I want to see the facts that there’s more corruption in this administration than the previous administrations.

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“You will recall that in a particular former administration, we know that somebody once said that what people accused the government of corruption was simple stealing. This administration does not see anything that appears like corruption or thievery and leaves it untreated. So, I believe it depends on who is talking.

“If you have opposition, it is likely the opposition will tell you there’s so much ‘persecution’ of the opposition, that there’s so much corruption in this administration than the previous one. But we know the previous administrations.

“Let me be a bit more decent and maybe non-political. But I want to tell you that this administration has done so well because we campaigned on the basis of three pillars of anti-corruption, the fight against insurgency and insecurity across the country and the revitalisation of our economy.

“So, no administration or political party, in the history of Nigeria that fought its campaigns on the basis of fighting corruption in Nigeria. In fact, there were administrations that never mentioned corruption in their entire tenure.

“This administration has stood firmly, trying to fight corruption, and I want to believe that those who are saying there’s more corruption in Nigeria today than before are simply trying to be partisan or petty.”

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