Bayelsa APC Elders Decry Jonathan’s Alleged Attempt to Nominate Minister

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

Aggrieved elders from the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have condemned relentless attempts by former President Goodluck Jonathan to nominate the state’s ministerial slot in President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.

The stakeholders under the auspices of the Bayelsa APC Elders Council wondered why Jonathan was angling to produce a minister after actively and openly supporting the candidate of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

Speaking in Yenagoa, the state’s capital, Chairman of the council, Chief Michael Adomokeme, yesterday, said it was wrong for Jonathan to be trying to reap where he did not sow.

He said Jonathan was treading the path of unfairness and injustice, insisting that his desperation could be likened to someone seeking to receive salaries from ‘Company A’ after working for ‘Company B’.

Adomekeme, however, expressed confidence that Tinubu as a known rewarder of hardwork would not allow a situation of ‘monkey work, baboon chop’.

“People shouldn’t try to reap where they have never sowed. Some of us have been here since the early days of this party, when it was considered to be a taboo just by being a member. You all remember, APC in Bayelsa was called either Islamic party or Hausa party by these same people, I mean, Jonathan and his people.

 “Fast forward to the 2023 elections, President Jonathan did everything to make sure we failed, but we didn’t as God would have it. What right has he to suddenly want to now nominate the minister from Bayelsa State?’

“He was president for six years. He personally nominated dozens of ministers. Why is he now so interested in just the single we as a party in Bayelsa want to get? Is it to truncate the APC’s visible path to victory come November?’

“It is even an aberration and very demeaning for a former President to go cap-in-hand begging for a single ministerial slot. It ridicules and relegates the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’

“He has been dubbed a statesman and hero of democracy. Fine and good, let him continue being that and not being a statesman by day and a political lobbyist by night,” he said.