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APC brands Sagay ‘rogue elephant’, asks him to advise Buhari, not party

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Betrayal is typical of Saraki —Sagay

Unable to stomach being branded “unprincipled group of people” the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, as “arrogant and rogue elephant.”

The party also warned him to rather channel his opinions and advice to President Buhari on how to make the party stronger and more principled, rather than attack the party members.

APC was responding to a statement credited to Sagay claiming that the leadership of the ruling APC was made up of “the most unprincipled group of people”, who were “encouraging and accepting rogues” in the party.

But the angry party leadership in their response through the party spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, lambasted Sagay and said his comment was an indication that he had no respect for Buhari “who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and puts him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone.”

In the statement entitled, “To Sagay: You are the rogue elephant,” the party advised that “He (Sagay) would channel his opinions and advice to the President on how to make the party stronger and more principled.”

The party referred to an interview Sagay granted a national newspaper, and stated, that “In the said interview, Sagay described the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “the most unprincipled group of people” who are “encouraging and accepting rogues” in the party. He said: “When I say ‘rogues’, I don’t mean stealing.
“In literature, when you say someone is a rogue elephant, it means people who are running riot and destroying the party.

“The Webster dictionary defines ‘rogue elephant’ as “one whose behaviour resembles that of a rogue elephant in being aberrant or independent.” Clearly if we have today, anyone in our government or, by extension, the party who feels accountable only to his own ego; who does not feel the need to bridle his tongue for the sake of anything that is higher than himself; who feels independent of everyone and every institution; that person is Professor Sagay.

“Asked by the interviewer if he would stop speaking if the President asks him to stop speaking, he said: ‘Yes, he is my employer. If he tells me to stop talking, I’ll stop talking. But I have certain rights too that I can exercise in addition to that, because I’m not going to be in a position where I am impotent. So, I must obey him, but I can go beyond that and obey myself too. That’s it.’

“Framed in another way, what Sagay is saying here is that, no matter what is at stake, he would rather resign than obey the President if the President tries to restrain him. This is the quintessential rogue elephant behaviour.

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“In his sheer arrogance, he forgets that it is impossible for him to call out the leadership of the party as ‘weak’ and ‘unprincipled’ without indicting the President, who is the leader of the party and has the fundamental responsibility to build the party.

“If Sagay had any iota of respect for the man who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and puts him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone, he would channel his opinions and advice to the President on how to make the party stronger and more principled.

“It appears however that Sagay does not have anything constructive to say about anything. He only knows how to tear down and assault everyone and everything. We want to remind Sagay and all other appointees of our government that the only reason they occupy their current position today is because the APC won the election.

“There is, therefore, a matter of honour to show decorum and respect for the party and its leadership. You cannot love the fruit and hate the tree that produced it.”

 

 

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