A former Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Public Affairs, Aliyu Audu has revealed that he never had an opportunity of interfacing with the president all the while he worked in the villa.
He spoke on Channels Television on Monday morning, where he said he had no regrets resigning from the Tinubu government.
According to him, the president doesn’t want to be reached, hence he never met with him.
He vowed to be part of the process to ensure that a different leader who will build a credible system in the country comes up in 2027.
Audu, who is also convener, APC Reform Movement, described the resignation of the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje as a welcome development.
“Resignation of the National Chairman is a welcome development, though very late, but it is never too late to correct our path and set the tone for the future.
“What I think has been most disturbing about the APC in the past weeks, even months, is the deafening silence within the party over some action of Mr President or the ruling class that are not quite in alignment with the tenets of democracy or progressivism,” he said.
Audu said the nation had gotten to a point where it could not be “for fear of what we will eat that we keep quiet in the face of national destruction; we must pull ourselves together and get to a point we are courageous enough to do the right thing.”
While condemning mediocrity in choice of leaders, he lamented that “the best of our men in the APC cannot even come out to run, because they have the fear of being trampled upon.
“We have a bunch of self-serving political elites who have a list of people they think will stand for election. We know what happened in the local government primary election of the APC in Lagos, they are still dealing with it.”
On President Tinubu not being reachable, he had this to say: “We need a president, we need a governor that can be accessed, not just by his kitchen cabinet but the entire leadership team.
“Because it is not a one-way flow of information; it is military when you just go on air and order like decree. You must carry feedback. He has to know what the people are saying.
“In a case where the president, the leader is not accessible, it is a problem; so, we are looking out for someone who wants to be accessible as a leader, someone who believes that successor is about system, not about individual.
“I did not have access to him, sit and have a conversation, I didn’t for the entire period of service in the villa.”
When asked why he thinks it was so, he said: “because he doesn’t want to be reached; any leader who wants to be reached will be reached.
“I’m not the only one who hasn't had access to him, we heard Dr Baba Hakeem, special adviser economy, if you are not meeting with these people, who are you meeting with, in the face of the economic challenges.
“We look about 25 persons everyday to hunger, that’s the statistics; it simply means that we have 20-25 people who know that hunger wants to kill them and they have no hope of survival.”