In a recent interview, Senator Garba Musa Maidoki, representing Kebbi South Senatorial District, expressed disappointment at the manner in which the 10th Senate Minority Leader, Senator Simon Mwadkwom, and other principal officers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged. He described the process as fraudulent, noting that established processes were disregarded.
According to Senator Maidoki, he and his colleagues had foreseen the anomaly and made a visit to the National Secretariat of the party to request a letter be transmitted to the Senate President in their presence, specifically on the choice of principal officers. However, their request was ignored, and they were informed that the party had not finalized the list of principal officers. To their disappointment, they later discovered that some senators had already been nominated, contrary to their earlier request for a letter to be written to the Senate.
“We were at the PDP Secretariat yesterday and requested that if nothing is finalized, please write a letter to the Senate informing them that we have not agreed on the leadership of the minority caucus,” Senator Maidoki said. “Unfortunately, those who were there refused to write this letter, either because they were aware or because they were culpable. We don’t have problems, two wrongs do not make it right.”
Expressing his commitment to cooperation with the Senate in moving the nation forward, Senator Maidoki emphasized the need for transparency in government. He referred to Nigeria as a project and stressed that for it to succeed, there must be transparency in all aspects of governance.
Reflecting on his unexpected entry into politics, Senator Maidoki stated, “I always tell people that I am an accidental politician because my people came to me without notice that I must contest. We have 36 out of the 50 Senators that are in the minority caucus, and then we cannot even come together and agree on who should lead us.”
The Senator also lamented the lack of communication and consultation on the matter, expressing his surprise at hearing about the emergence of certain individuals as minority leadership without any prior notice.
He concluded, “I am not against them now that they have emerged; we are willing to join forces because there is no time to fight now. I never knew they were signing, nobody called me, nobody informed me even through an SMS. We have a minority caucus where we have been meeting regularly. The issue was never brought up.”
