Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, has said President Bola Tinubu may have a distorted perception of his administration’s performance due to the wave of defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on Soni Irabor Live, a programme on News Central, Momodu stated that party-switching in Nigeria is not underpinned by ideology and only fuels public resentment.
“If you are joining a new party, you should be able to tell us what that party has done for the people and then it becomes a lot easier for us to follow you so that even the doubting and unbelieving Thomases can follow you and say ‘oh, this party has done extremely well’,” he said.
“But everywhere you turn in Nigeria, people are crying. I have never seen this level of bitterness and I hope the president is taking this criticism in good faith.
“I hope people are telling him the situation of things out there because there is no way he can feel or know it. He who feels it knows it.”
Momodu said Tinubu might not fully understand the severity of Nigeria’s current challenges.
“So I am not sure that the president actually knows what is going on because if you see all the governors decamping to your party, won’t you think you are the greatest thing that happened to Nigeria?” he asked.
“You can’t blame the man if he feels that way.”
Asked about the legal position on defection, Momodu said Nigeria’s constitution has long been ignored.
“But you know that we’ve thrown our constitution to the Atlantic Ocean long ago. The constitution has been thrown overboard, which is unfortunate,” he said.
“The constitution says clearly that if somebody elected on the platform of the party decides to decamp, then he would have to vacate that seat.”
