BY: Vitalis Ugoh, Calabar
As Nigerians goes to polls to elect their leaders, the former Senate Leader, Distinguished Sen Victor Ndoma-Egba has called on Nigerians and other stakeholders to embrace peace during the general elections.
He condenmed the increasing tensions across the country amongst political parties and their followers, saying, “violence, killing and destruction of property” does not encourage development..
Rather, such negative vices detar progress, unity and growth amongst any nation.
The Senate Leader made the appeal in Calabar, while sharing his views on a number of national and state issues as it concerns the general elections in the country.
According to him, “It is my fervent prayer that the elections will be peaceful. God is control”.
He said”as stakeholders we have a duty to play to ensure we have a smooth transition during and after the general elections. We need a peaceful elections. We are over 209 million Nigerians. God forbid if we were to have a refugee crisis, what will happen to us. So we all have a stake. Go out there and cast your vote and peacefully return to your homes”..
Ndoma-Egba appealed to Nigerians be the youths or adults to shun any politician who wants to engage them on anything untoward. Be fold to tell them to bring their children to lead such violent acts henceforth.
On the current rumors that the Muslim/Muslim ticket is a ploy to islamise Nigeria, he said “in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) you dare not talk anything about religion even though it a Muslim country. Whether Islamic sensitive or Christian sensitive, you will be sent to prison first and then sent back home where you came from”.
Ndoma-Egba queried “but what have we done with religion here in Nigeria? What have we done.? Europe is Christian but developed. They use christian principles for their political ethicate and political philosophy”.
He went on saying “they have developed. They are everywhere. What do we do with Christianity in Nigeria, we preach miracles and prosperity. No work, no responsibility. You go and bash your car, you blame the devil and your grandma etc. Here in Nigeria, what does Islam do, Boko Haram, poverty against the principles of Islam which is a religion of knowledge”.
“Elsewhere in the World, they are not poor and they are not supposed to be poor. How come in our own, it is poverty?. You will not see a cow anywhere in any of these Islamic countries in the World. A cow on the streets, how? But here we see cows. Which version of Islam are we practicing here in Nigeria?. Which version of Christianity are we also practicing here. That elsewhere, Islam is bringing development, Christianity is bringing development, he noted “.
“Unfortunately, he observed, our own Islam and Christianity is holding us back. So me I am not comfortable when people begin to see things from the religious point of view. It is a sign of laziness because all religions are religions of knowledge, of God’s blessings and prosperity. God cannot bless you with poverty, No”.
“I have heard Sheikh Abubakar Gumi saying that Prophet Mohammed who founded Islam never succeeded in Islamising the World”.
“Jesus who founded the Christianity never succeeded in christianizing the World. So if these two people who founded these religion couldn’t, then who can? How do you want to do it?”.
He went to state, “If you are persuaded by any religion, please feel free but to say you are going to force me to your own faith, that is not possible. Religion is something of the mind.If you force the body what of my heart?.
“The issue of the islamistion of Nigeria cannot work. It is a night mare and will not work, he noted “.
Answering another question, he said, “you know I was a Senator and not a Governor. I was in the legislature and our job is to make laws. So if you are assessing me from that point of view, I will say in all modesty, the records are there to show with 41 bills coming second in ranking amongst my Colleagues”.
“Today I am proud to say that some of my bills are Laws. The Freedom of Information Act was my Bill, Correctional Services is my bill.I had a number of impactful bills to my credit so if you are assessing me based on that I will say I made my contributions to good governance”.
“In terms of legacy projects, at the level of a legislator, all you have is constituency projects which are not legacy projects. They are not big enough to fit into the definition of legacy. We visited 92 projects in my consistency. We still had many more. The Faculty of Law, Unical and Unilag are my projects from the mega to the mini projects, he said “.
Furthermore, “but like I had said those projects as big as they are, are not legacy projects. I know the role I played to actualize the ADB trans-African highway road to Cameroon up to Kenya”.
According to him, “yes I was in PDP. The PDP is like that animal that feeds with their children when they are hungry. They feed with their off-springs. PDP is that animal that gives birth to a child and eats. PDP fattens you before eating.*
Ndoma-Egba said “I was the only leader in the National leadership that didn’t get the ticket to return. I was the Senate Leader and don’t forget the President was from my zone. I didn’t get the ticket to return. We use to have Executive Secretary, National Planning Commission, Bar. Fidelis Igbo, what happened to him. PDP deceived him out of the office to come and contest the governorship they knew he will never have”.
He went on to state that “we used to have a General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing, NNPC, Goddy J.D. Agba, they deceived him. They asked him to come and run the governorship race and at least he became an enemy. They just lured every Cross River of note and pulled us down from the National polity. Which kind of party is that? And today on the eve of an election, people will call me to come back to PDP. What?”
Guess what, “I said those who caused my problem are still there. And one of them said I hear you a Catholic and as a Catholic when they slap you on one cheek, you are supposed to turn to the left and I told him my case was worse. They slapped me on both cheeks at the same time.”.
