2015: How APC’s presidential candidate will emerge – Onu

Let us start from the just concluded Ekiti Governorship election where some APC Governors were prevented from entering Ado Ekiti. What was your own experience?I also had a personal experience. I travelled in an aircraft which does not have facilities for night landing to Akure. We had to travel on road to Ado Ekiti and […]

Let us start from the just concluded Ekiti Governorship election where some APC Governors were prevented from entering Ado Ekiti. What was your own experience?
I also had a personal experience. I travelled in an aircraft which does not have facilities for night landing to Akure. We had to travel on road to Ado Ekiti and as soon as we concluded what we were doing in Ado Ekiti we rushed back to Akure Airport only to find out that our plane was not allowed to take off. It happened to me and some others who travelled with me.  Chief Audu Ogbeh was one of those affected.
Also affected at that time was the governor of Imo State. When we saw the military and the three aircraft at the tarmac and were prevented from taking off we had to drive back, which was another one and a half hour. By then, it was already late so we decided that we must come back to Abuja because some of us travelled with just the dress on our bodies and there was no way we could pass the night in Ado Ekiti. So we had to leave Ado Ekiti around 7:30pm to arrive Abuja by 2am. So you could imagine the risk we took, although we thank God that the journey was safe. Those who went to Owerri got there around 11pm. It is really sad that the Federal Government can use the military to prevent Nigerian citizens from using the airports when they are in good condition from exercising their fundamental human rights.
In the case of the governor of Rivers State he was not even allowed to come into Ekiti State and the governor of Edo State who couldn’t even take off. These are all very serious matters and I think that such methods are not only crude but barbaric acts which bring shame to all Nigerians.

Have you complained to the President because he might tell you the security men had the powers to decide how to protect any part of the country. Did the APC complain formally to the President?
The party would do a number of things but I can tell you frankly that it is really sad for things like this to happen in any country. We don’t want to say it is A or B that is responsible and we know that we have the head of government.
So imagine if you are the head of government and you have governors who are heads of federating units and even citizens under you; it doesn’t really matter who. Some of us by the will of God and the support of our people became governors. I left being governor 21 years ago. Now if I am not allowed to use an airport, then you are subjecting me to the sort of risk that I mentioned. I don’t think that is fair. I don’t also think it is fair to restrict anybody from moving to any part of his country not to talk of an elected governor.
It is worrisome and I don’t think Mr President should be waiting for a letter from the party; he too should try to find out what happened and explain to Nigerians. Even under the military this would have been extremely difficult, but this is a democracy.

The Inspector General of Police had issued an order restricting movement 48 hours to the conduct of the election. Don’t you think the security agencies were acting based on that order?
The truth is that we have our Constitution, which is the supreme law of the nation. We have the Electoral Act also which guides the conduct of elections in the country. No matter who, even the Inspector General of Police doesn’t have the right to make laws; he can only implement existing laws. So he should really limit himself to what the Electoral Act has said.
Even if I take this for purposes of our discussion, when we landed they should have told us that, “look do not leave now or by this time there is no movement and you cannot take off”. But there was no such information. As I said to you we landed safely and travelled by road, it was only when we got back that we were prevented from taking off.
We even got to the airport ahead of the time that there was restriction of movement because the airport does not have night landing facility. But the question is should the Inspector General of Police make laws for the country?

With all these experiences you narrated did you have the inkling that the outcome of the Ekiti polls could go the other way?
I tell you quite frankly I was very disturbed. At least I had served as a governor and while I was one I was the first Nigerian to be chairman of all governors and if you remember the period between 1992-93 it was a very unique period in our history; it was a transitional period when the military was in the process of handing over. I supervised at least 13 elections.
If you remember at that time one election would come, either primaries or so, and after that they would cancel it; they would even ban some people and later unban them again. So there were so many activities in the political arena; so many elections and I can remember about thirteen of them within that short period of time.  
When you start arresting leaders of one party exclusively- there were many parties that contested in that election even though three were more visible but you target one party and keep arresting their leaders a day before or on the day of election then something is wrong. When you limit an elected governor (and this was a final rally that was announced). So you would expect that those who heard that even an elected governor could not enter a state would be quite disturbed. If they happen to also come from the same political party as that governor they will feel very apprehensive.
Therefore the level of harassment which was evident by even that act  not to talk of our own and so many others was enough to show that that election was and can never be free. Yes an election can be transparent in the sense that all the logistics are available and so on.
All the same the party is studying all the new things they introduced and when the process is over we will make our views known. Like I said earlier, that election cannot be free with the level of harassment and intimidation that took place.

Do you think the government has found a formula to subjugate or subject the opposition to some kind of intimidation to the point of applying in 2015?
The truth is that the All Progressive Congress was formed so that a new and modern Nigeria can be born. That party was born because if you have only one political party that is dominant then the incentive to perform will not be there. Imagine a situation whereby you have the whole 36-state structure with one party controlling 28 states and the other parties are managing with the rest, it is a foregone conclusion who would win election.
That is why the APC was formed. It is our duty to bring to the attention of the general public that if you intimidate and harass people belonging to one political party and that political happens to be the major party in government then you are violating  the laws of the country. You cannot restrict movement of citizens without violating their human rights.
So we are appealing to Nigerians to look at what happened in Ekiti closely so that we won’t be carried away with the euphoria of sayings “yes the governor made a broadcast and extended his congratulations and all that then everything was alright”. It will not be right for any form of intimidation or harassment to take place in our electoral process.

Were you disappointed that Fayemi embraced Fayose after the election? Were you shocked at that gesture?
No! It is important to read the broadcast carefully. The governor believes that if he didn’t do what he did there could be violence, people could come out to protest and in the process human lives could be lost. So he said, “look we are calling for change, there is something APX is championing and we want the PDP to learn, that in the past a sitting governor was defeated in Imo State, in Nasarawa State, in Zamfara State and in Oyo State about three years ago.” All these states belonged to one political party the PDP but in each case they still went ahead to contest the elections and refused to concede defeat.
But look at what the APC did in spite of all these problems the party decided to show good example by saying we must take away the courts  from deciding who rules this nation. In all the advanced democracies; except in very rare cases, you don’t allow the court to determine who governs; it is the supreme will of the people that does.

Even before the Ekiti election the APC was bedevilled by crises over the national leadership whereby chieftains like Chief Tom Ikimi wrote a two-page statement alleging imposition of candidates and that one man wanted to be solely in charge of the party…?
You know the APC is a very big party which is currently controlling 16 states. Out of the 16, two are the most populous in the country and in terms of registered voters the states controlled by APC even though they are 16 they make up the majority. I am talking of as at today. By October 16 the number will come down to 15. So for a big party like that and a young one at that, you find that it is going to be very difficult that you can organize a national convention without ripples.
But I want to take you through the process. The Constitution of the APC unlike when I was national chairman of the ANPP when our Constitution then had provision for zoning, there is no specific provision for it in the APC. But the APC is trying to develop a convention. By the time the INEC for purposes of registration requested for interim leadership, the positions were shared among the constituting parties.
Each party now brought those they trusted could represent them and that created problems for the party because there was a situation where the top leadership belonged to those who belonged to one religion or the other and it became an issue that many people felt unhappy with the party.
In order to avoid, that the party now decided that we would zone the positions but that didn’t stop anybody who didn’t believe in that. That was why certain positions went to certain zones and I must tell you that there are some people who are dissatisfied and the party is working very hard to find a way to further appreciate their concerns and ensure that their interests and concerns are looked into and accommodated.

Were you personally not dissatisfied. Many people were tipping you for the position of national chairman…
You know the position of national chairman was zoned to the south-south and as you know I don’t belong there. Don’t forget I have never changed party no matter the provocation and as a loyal party man if the party for any reason takes a decision that a particular position should go to a particular area if the majority agree then you don’t go against that. That doesn’t mean that I expressed interest in being national chairman.

But you have supporters, those who see you as their leaders. What we learnt was that majority of your party members in the south-east  wanted you as national chairman but the Imo state governor insisted that he would contest the Presidency hence the zone should not produce the chairman. One expects you to be angry over that…?
The truth of the matter is that the APC zoned the position to the south-south and since I am not from there, there was no way I could show interest.

One other issue that has raised dust is that of a Muslim-Muslim ticket which was one of the issues raised by even Chief Tom Ikimi. What is your take on that?
The APC’s motto is ‘justice, peace and unity’ so we will do everything possible to promote justice, peace and unity. If you are a political party and you want to win elections then you must also look at the mood of the electorate and the nation. You can’t go contrary to their mood. I want to assure you that when we get to our convention which is most likely going to be in November, we will pick our presidential candidate and the running mate.
Definitely we must respect the sensitivity of Nigerians. We must give to Nigerians a candidate capable of carrying the aspirations of Nigerians because that is the only way we can win elections. In essence what I am saying is that this matter of Muslim-Muslim ticket has not even come up for discussion within the party and I am telling you this in absolute honesty. But as I earlier said, the party will have to respect the sensibilities of Nigerians at the convention.

Will zoning be a factor at the convention?
What we did at this last convention was to elect our national officers. When you have about 47 positions you have to do this zoning in order to avoid problems such as the ones we had during the interim arrangement.  
Again during the interim there was a state that produced three executives out of 35 and there were others that produced two while so many others didn’t even have a single officer. At this level of our development people are very sensitive to balancing in geography, religion and ethnicity.
But we would advance to a level of democracy in future whereby many of these things will not matter; maybe even two brothers can hold office of president and vice even though it is quite unlikely, but it can happen. When Bill Clinton was the president of America, the vice president came from the neighboring state and you know that would not happen in Nigeria.

Are you worried that the PDP has consistently branded the APC as an Islamic party?
The PDP cannot in all honesty say so because they know that in the APC there are people like me who have impeccable credentials. But there were many concerns; people were very disturbed about the distribution of offices during the interim period and I kept explaining to them that this was as a result of the give and take spirit.
For example the ACN then said ok they had six states so they would produce chairman and because we were interested in the measure we said go ahead. Then the ANPP which had two states produced the secretary and the CPC had one state and they produced the treasurer. Incidentally all of them belonged to one religion but if you zone it according to geography then you can have balance.

After the bomb attack in Kano the PDP issued a statement saying anytime the PDP triumphs the opposition would create tension in order to divert attention…
The question to ask is, which are those times that they have triumphed? The PDP has led the nation to a state of mass unemployment. Look at what happened during the Immigration recruitment exercises particularly here in Abuja.
How many people died? How much power was generated in the country? We are in a war situation now in the country than we were 15 years ago and our population has almost doubled within the period. So is it the darkness that is their achievement? Look at the level of insecurity in the country. Nigerians are very intelligent people.

There is also tension in the south-east zone over Boko Haram insurgency. How worried are you?
I am very worried. I was in Imo yesterday and heard about what happened here in Abuja and felt so bad. You find innocent people losing their lives and the sad thing about this thing is that it can be any person because you can imagine somebody passing through a road and there is a bomb blast about the same time.
I am very worried and I just pray that the federal government should do more than they are doing. There are certain things that we can do better, like civic education. The little education like telling people not to rush to the scene of these blasts has really helped because at times the blasts come in phases.
Many countries that have fought and overcome terrorism have very efficient intelligence network so we need to invest in intelligence gathering. So if anybody tells you that it is the opposition, put the question to them what they have done in these areas. The other day we passed through a check point during rains and the soldiers didn’t have rain coats. How much would it cost to buy rain coats?

Imo State is saying they are issuing northerners Identity Cards. How do you look at that?
I think we shouldn’t do that. There are other ways you can approach such issues. We appreciate the concerns but profiling people may not be the best way for the sake of our unity.

The outcome of the last state congresses of the APC created controversies in some state. What is your party doing about it?
The party has its own guidelines for those congresses and once a party makes laws it must respect those laws. Therefore those guidelines would be respected and I am sure it would help resolve most of the problems in the states. Again we must recognize that if you do congresses, particularly when it is over a short period of time, in so many states definitely there must be problems here and there. But the new executive would look into it to see what went wrong and make corrections.

How do you see the status of the APC in the south-east because most analysts say the states there belong to Jonathan?
Those who make such analysis don’t base them on facts on the ground. For example Imo being the most populous in the zone has 27 LGAs with Anambra having 21, Enugu and Abia have 17 each. So you can see that Imo which is the most populous is controlled by the APC and with that I don’t think anybody can say the party does not have a presence there.
We are not satisfied with what we are now having in the south-east. Even in the south-west we want more. We are working very hard to strengthen the APC not only in the south-east but across the country.

What are your greatest fears for the APC and what do you think is the solution?
It is just like a seed that is planted; you have to wait for it to germinate, water it and nurse it to grow into a tree. Since the seed of APC was planted people never gave us a chance of success. Many Nigerians never believed in their wildest imagination that APC could even be registered but the party got registered.
When a group of PDP chieftains wanted to come in some people said it wouldn’t happen but they came. The same thing when we were doing our membership registration. So you can see that at every stage the APC had been able to overcome fears and concerns people had. I think we have to continue with this spirit of give and take and also looking at the mood of the nation and putting the interest of the country first.
That is why someone like me conceded my position as national chairman along with many others even though we had some years left.  It is because we were not thinking about ourselves alone. So long as we do all these I assure that we would be able to solve any problem.

Have you spoken with Ali Modu Sheriff over his grievances after the convention?
I have been speaking with him all the time just as I have spoken with other leaders of the party. Normally when we hold our meetings we always interact. The thing is that with the passage of time we would build as a party but it is also important that the party also respects the feelings of our members. We must be a party that is all inclusive. If we do that there would be no cause for anyone to complain.

There are two disturbing trends in two APC-controlled states; one the crisis in the Edo State House of Assembly and the impeachment notice served on the Adamawa State governor. What are your thoughts?
As a party we are studying these developments and we hope to find solutions to them. The situation in Adamawa State involving both the governor and deputy, I believe with time all those concerns will be addressed. Again, we need to see that we put the interest of the nation first, minimize partisanship because it may be APC today, tomorrow it could be another party.
The governor of Edo demonstrated during the last election that he had the people behind him, even those who shouldn’t be partisan came out to support him. The same thing applies for Adamawa State so I believe that we would be able to resolve these problems by the grace of God.