A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has berated the people calling for the removal of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, over his refusal to publicly declare support for the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Eze said calls for Ngige’s sack could only be propelled by sycophants and people with a poor grasp of the essence of democracy which he said is deeply rooted in freedom of choice.

The former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party said this via a statement made available to The Star on Thursday.

Eze, a member of the APC Legacy Projects Media Team, said in a democracy like Nigeria, people “who worth their salt can barely veer into the personal concerns of others, particularly to the extent of asking for the resignation or sack of a serving minister for merely making his mind bare on what to do with his ballot paper which is within his exclusive preserve as a private citizen.”

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“The campaigns are here and they should be issue-based. Citizens are allowed to extensively assess the planned policies and programs of each candidate canvassing for their votes to know who merits their support and any candidate who is able to convince the people to believe in his plans of action wins the election. That is the beauty of democracy and Nigerians should be happy over the progress we are making in the journey to strengthen democracy in our body polity,” he stated.

The APC chieftain added that Ngige remains “a man whose inputs and sacrifices to the formation of APC and towards the growth of our nascent democracy cannot be overemphasised.”

“What did Ngige actually say to warrant such a foolish suggestion? While answering a question of who amongst Bola Tinubu of APC and Peter Obi of Labour Party he will likely vote for in the 2023 presidential election.

“I do wonder if those making such an insinuation will want Dr. Ngige to say that he will vote for Tinubu on national TV so that he will no longer be safe in his community or that he will vote for Peter Obi so that those who don’t like him will then ask for his sack. But Dr. Ngige, being a great thinker shocked them by stating that his conscience will determine how he will vote come February 2023 so whoever doesn’t like his answer should go and hug the closet transformer,” Eze added.

He, however, commended Ngige for “whom he is and the level of wisdom he displayed in answering such a very controversial question”, just as he hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for not paying attention to “issues as trivial as the call for Nigige’s sack on grounds of the exercise of a right which is private and exclusive to him, like every private Nigerian.”

The Star