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By Abdullahi Jamiu, Abuja
It was lamentation time on Tuesday for Abdullahi Adamu, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), when he voiced his anger that despite what he called “ excellent performance” by the APC-led federal government, all the party gets from Nigerians is criticism and negative publicity
He spoke when he received the APC professional forum led by Mallam Isa Yuguda, former governor of Bauchi state when the group paid him courtesy visit at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday.
The national chairman regretted that all the good things that have happened in the APC-led administration have not received the kind of publicity it deserves and urged the group to take up the task of projecting the party.
His words, “See the social programmes that this government is having for teachers, for farmers, for market women; the school feeding programme. These are critical programmes that have not been undertaken by the PDP for the 16 years they were in government.
“We are doing it but nobody praises government for it. All that we get is criticism. If we get ourselves involved in positive reporting of what is happening, the electorates will know the difference. They will know what is the truth.
“One thing we want you to pay attention to to see how you can be of help is the activity of the party at the grassroots. It is very critical. It is driven by those who are uneducated thus the leadership at that level is very vulnerable.
“We need to imbibe the culture of an enlightened membership driven by knowledge. This is important in the effort to get the people to appreciate what we are as a party, how we can be appreciated as a party.
“We have the misfortune of the efforts of this government not getting to the grassroots in terms of positive publicity of what this government is doing. All that those who care to talk want to say is the negative aspect of this government.
“We know that all over the world, the opposition is seen as the underdog and so there is apparent sympathy for them. I have no quarrell with this. Go and sympathise with them but call a spade a spade. Don’t give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. This is what we are experiencing.”
Speaking earlier, Yuguda said the forum was planning to organise APC presidential candidate town hall meeting with the aim to allow the party’s flagbearer, Bola Tinubu and the professionals to speak to Nigerians.
“We want to showcase the achievements of our state governors, the APC party, and also to showcase the projects of Mr. President that he has delivered to our nation because we believe that as much as we have information coming from government, we also have media teams from government at various levels but when it comes to professionals speaking, I believe Nigerians will listen to us.
“One of our mission is to lend support to the party when it comes to sensitisation. What we need in this country is good governance, and if professionals are kept aside without being accommodated to hear their view, I believe what we will continue to have is what is called motion without movement.”, Yuguda said.