Senator Barnabas Gemade speaks on leaving politics after losing seat to Suswam

A two-time senator, who represented Benue North East, Chief Barnabas Gemade, at the weekend, said he will not quit partisan politics. Chief Gemade who was a National Chairman of the PDP, defeated ex-Governor Gabriel Suswam in 2015 in APC to earn a second term mandate. Suswam, however, beat Gemade in the last general elections.

Addressing newsmen in Makurdi during a rousing reception by the people of his senatorial district after his eight years at the red chamber of the National Assembly, the senator who failed to secure a third term bid, said, “I’m not going to quit politics.

“No politician ever quits. If you’re not active, you’re passive advising other politicians. If I do, nobody would be there to be doing the things I have been doing for the society.

“My people need me, Nigerians need me. My experience matters. I have been a politician for long and there is no successful political party that had come to stay in Benue and Nigeria as a whole without my valuable input since 1999.”