By Abiola Olawale
Senator Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South senatorial district of Borno State at the Senate, has dropped a political bombshell, revealing that he has attended coalition meetings and is on the verge of ditching the All Progressives Congress (APC) if President Bola Tinubu doesn’t turn things around.
This is as Ndume expressed frustration with the APC’s leadership and Tinubu’s alleged inability to address pressing national issues.
Ndume made this known during an interview with Arise TV.
He said: “I’m aware of the opposition coalition. I went to several of their meetings. I still believe this president can fix these things, but failure might cause me to move. The overloaded ship will sink,” Ndume said during an appearance on Arise TV on Tuesday.
“They have been making overtures, but I told them I don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire. I have to be sure.
“I believe that Tinubu can be a successful president; that was my expectation, but if he continues this way, that ship, whether you load in other people or governors, you are just endangering the APC by pushing it towards capsizing.
“As the president said, there is a vacancy on the ship. But if you overload the ship, it will probably capsize, and if it capsizes, you lose everybody,” he said.
The former Senate chief whip also criticised recent defections to the APC, stating that it is not out of genuine desire but an ‘indirect stick-and-carrot political approach’.
His words: “Most people are not joining based on principles but due to the indirect stick-and-carrot politics. And that is not healthy at all.
“I feel when you build a house and it’s leaking, you don’t leave the house, you stay to fix it.”
The New Diplomat reports that Ndume comments are coming as opposition political heavyweights including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi; two-term governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi; two-term governor of Osun State Rauf Aregbesola; two-term governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, and a former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, at the weekend kick-started a mass mobilization under their newly formed All Democratic Alliance(ADA).
