Former Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume has insisted that he made several efforts to reach President Bola Tinubu but he was not granted the chance.
He stated that Tinubu was inaccessible to lawmakers and the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains.
Recall that Ndume was sacked as the chief whip last Wednesday and was immediately replaced by the Senator representing Borno North, Tahir Monguno, over his criticism of Tinubu’s administration.
His replacement by the Senate followed a directive issued in a letter written by the National Chairman of the party, Umar Ganduje and National Secretary, Senator Bashir Ajibola.
The request was put to voice votes by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and loudly affirmed by all the APC senators.
In an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Monday, Ndume stated that he did not lie.
The Senator said he made conscious efforts and wrote severally to have an audience with the President, but he didn’t have a chance to speak with him.
He said, “I can tell you that one of the major issues I had that led to my removal as the Chief Whip (of the Senate) was my complaint that the President is not very accessible. If he is accessible, we would have told him this at a closed door, not on TV. But I can tell you that I made an effort for myself. I made several efforts. I wrote several times so that we can discuss some of these things. I didn’t have the chance.
“But I have no grudge now that we don’t have any communication. But definitely, we are moving forward in terms of security in one area. In other areas like Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kaduna, I can’t speak much about it. But we know that the security challenges are still there, even recently. What I am saying is that security matters are a collective matter. Everybody should come out and talk about it.
“Everybody should do and say something so that we can bring it to an end. The earlier we keep on deceiving ourselves that it’s all over, we will not get control.
“But so far, I can’t say the government is not doing anything. They are investing in it. Like in my place, as I said, I can talk about Gwoza, where I slept. I did not sleep with the soldiers in my house or roaming around. That means there is improvement in Gwoza.”
