Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman hopeful, Otunba Segun Showunmi has taken a swipe at the Federal government over ongoing power outage that has paralysed parts of northern Nigeria and thrown millions of households into darkness, thereby crippling businesses and livelihoods.
Showunmi a former gubernatorial aspirant in Ogun State in 2023 in a statement he made available to newsmen, including Veracity Desk (veracitydesk.com) on Tuesday described Nigerians as their own problem adding that at the heart of the country’s challenges is a combination of senseless politics and a lack of patriotism.
Read Showunmi’s release in extenso as reproduced hereunder:
Blackout in the north!!!
We are our problem in this country and at the heart of our challenges is a combination of senseless politics and a lack of patriotism.
One needs to know why Mal Nasir Elrufai is not the minister of power given the serious level of background work I know for a fact he had done before our brand of myopic politics would not clear him but in their wisdom clears jokers and confirmed average Joes.
When you need an outlier who will take no prisoners to get the power situation fixed, I know because I am not just in opposition, I am passionate about getting our country to work.
So why are we jumping about like Neanderthals
when clearly after oil, the world knows that electricity is the new frontier? Are we unaware of the direction the world is going even after attending countless international summits and conferences? Are we equally unaware of the direction technology is going and the importance of bringing our power sector to meet technological demands? So careless were we to miss out on the oil revolution we are again showcasing a nonchalant approach to new frontiers?
Quite unfortunately we sacrifice our collective development at the altar of crass egoism and myopic outlook we lean more towards senseless politics than national development hence a prepared-for-the-job and fit-for-purpose minister of power is Nasir El-Rufai jettisoned.
In the meantime, northern leaders must rise to the urgency in the North as the issue of insecurity has gone on for way too long. This is not the time to parade around in fashionable Babaringa while the roof is on fire. It shows a lack of understanding or appreciation of the dire situation this problem left unchecked holds for the region and country. When such monumental problems exist which threaten nationhood, leaders take jackets off and roll their sleeves for the task at hand. It is that time for these leaders to roll out of Babaringa and get to work tackling head-on not only insecurity but the socio-economic issues in the region.
Otunba Segun Showunmi
