APC is like Jehovah’s Witnesses church….. we go round to recruit members—-Ajibola Basiru, APC National Secretary

Ajibola Basiru, national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has likened the ruling party to Jehovah’s Witnesses — a Christian group famed for its door-to-door evangelism.

The politician also described the opposition in Nigeria as unserious and inactive.

Basiru, a former senator who represented Osun central, spoke on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television, on Wednesday.

He was reacting to claims that the APC and the Bola Tinubu-led federal government are steering Nigeria towards a one-party state due to the wave of defections to the ruling party.

“The country is not our making. The politics of the country is not our making,” Basiru said.

“I think the problem with Nigeria is that we don’t seem to have people who are very serious in opposition and who take their job seriously.

“You will not want a ruling party to do this work for you. And I want to challenge your journalists. Tomorrow is a working day. Go around the headquarters of all other political parties and see whether you see any activity going on.”

Basiru commended the leadership of the APC and said the party actively engages the grassroots.

“I must first and foremost give credence to the sagacity of not only the president, but the progressives governors’ forum and the leadership of the national working committee of our party,” he said.

“We go round, we are like Jehovah’s Witnesses, apology to those who belong to that religious organisation… we go round and proselytise our own party in all nooks and cranny.”

He said one of the key policies under the leadership of Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the APC, is to build a functional and efficient party structure at every level in the country.

“That is what we are doing. We cannot do the work of opposition for them,” he said.

‘OPPOSITION SHOULD STOP LYING TO ITSELF’

Basiru recalled the role Tinubu played when he was in the opposition, noting that the former Lagos governor remained resilient in the face of probes.

“When we were in opposition, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for instance, in the south-west, was the only surviving governor after the 2003 election,” he said.

“Even with what somebody was saying about harassment, the now NSA said that then-governor Bola Tinubu was the most investigated governor by the EFCC.

“After he left government, he was here in Abuja, arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and he went through a whole trial in that place.

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“He did not abandon the ship. We were moving from one state to the other trying to expand the scope of our activities.”

Basiru said the opposition must take responsibility for its challenges instead of “lying to itself”.

He said the argument about harassment by the ruling party lacks merit, citing the defection of lawmakers from various parties who have no cases with anti-graft agencies.

“Before today, at least 15 members of the house of representatives from Labour, SDP, PDP, NNPP had decamped to the APC,” he said.

“Some of them are first-timers. Have they even served for two years? Do they have any problem with the EFCC?

“Three senators, including the late Ifeanyi Ubah, also decamped to the APC. Today, Hon Oluwole Oke from Obokun/Oriade constituency has also decamped.

“All these people — do they have any problem with the EFCC or ICPC?”

On Wednesday, Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta state, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.

“We came to the inevitable conclusion that moving out of the PDP is very, very necessary for us to be able to collaborate with our kith and kin and build that state that every Deltan will be proud of,” Charles Aniagwu, Delta state commissioner for information, announced.