We’d pursue zoning case to the Supreme Court -Dutsinma
Why did you have to go to court over zoning when the PDP NEC had already affirmed it? There is ambiguity and insincerity in the PDP affirmation of zoning. You cannot say there is zoning and still clear everybody to contest. When you say this thing is allocated to people from a place and say […]
Why did you have to go to court over zoning when the PDP NEC had already affirmed it?
There is ambiguity and insincerity in the PDP affirmation of zoning. You cannot say there is zoning and still clear everybody to contest. When you say this thing is allocated to people from a place and say in the breech that it is for all. When we are faced with this, the civilized thing is to ask the judiciary to lead the way to justice.
How have you received Justice Gumi’s judgment?
There are some judicial contradictions in the court ruling. The court affirmed that the zoning was subsisting and binding on members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In such a situation, we had expected that the court will enforce that position. You can’t tell me that I have a right and convince me that you can’t enforce the right. But in all honesty, I think it was a victory for us. Now, the whole thing has been shifted to morality. It is now a moral obligation on the PDP to ensure that what it has in its constitution is adhered to. But we want to go further to ensure that it has a legal backing so that it can be enforced for the sake of tomorrow. There was a time President Jonathan said there was no zoning, but with the court pronouncement, it is clear that there is zoning in the PDP.
It is believed that any case on zoning is belated because with the NPLF consensus as Atiku, zoning is no longer an issue. How do you react to this?
Let me make it clear that I don’t look at the consensus as anything binding on me or any other person who wishes to contest the presidential election from the north. It is voluntary negotiation between four persons who were aspiring to be president who felt they should put their resources and influence together and they submitted themselves to the consensus committee. So, the consensus matter is a voluntary thing that is not binding on all the aspirants. For instance, Sarah Jibril is in the race but she is not part of the consensus. You see, we have come to realize that in the PDP body polity; there is no integrity. We had an agreement that there should be zoning but now the party is saying that there is zoning but anyone can contest. That is why these aspirants felt they should join forces to fight.
I sincerely salute the courage of the four aspirants and the determination of the Ciroma committee members for their efforts that resulted in the consensus candidate and I congratulate Atiku Abubakar. But we are still in the race.
When the court case came up, people asked questions: who is Sani Aminu Dutsinma? Where has he been all the while? What are your political antecedents?
I don’t have to have been a minister, senator, governor, council chairman, or so before I can aspire to be president. We all know and we all believe that this nation should not be where it is today. Nigeria has all it takes to be great and I believe that it is the responsibility of everyone of us to have a vision for this country, and we are trying to do that. In a country where you find that political positions are taken as personal estates, with personal interest overriding the national interest, there is a problem. Someone has to correct that perception. We are not saying that we must win, but we have to start from somewhere. I believe very strongly too that we are yet to address the problem and from all the aspirants, I have seen, there is no solution in sight yet. That is why we have come out. If we are able to mobilize the people and get the message across, we would have achieved a lot.
Since the court case over zoning started, you must have you spent a lot. How much have spent so far to pursue the case?
The first thing that we have to understand is that it is not an individual effort and we have a lot of people who had volunteered to help professionally because they feel that this thing should be done properly. Most of these people render services based on their conviction and commitment to the nation. I don’t think we have spent anything; in fact we don’t even have money to spend on it but a lot of people are interested in what we are doing. People from Bauchi and Gombe states came here to get samples of our posters for them to go and print on their own. If you go to Kano, you would find a lot of our posters just printed by people. Go to Niger, Kaduna and other places; you see our posters. A lot of lawyers have shown interest to join our team and they see the struggle as a battle worth fighting.
Cont’d from page 8
Why exactly do you want to be president?
Whether you are a Christian or Muslim, when you live in a society and things begin to go wrong, you are under religious and moral obligation to correct it. Also, I have a conviction that if I don’t do anything now as things are going wrong, if God asks me tomorrow I would not have any answer. This was the first motivation. Secondly, we realized that there is a vacuum.
People aspiring for presidency keep telling us they will fix electricity, improve education, health and so on, but to me these are not the problem but just symptoms of the problem. If you take a close look at this country, the money we spend on power alone is enough to provide power for the whole West Africa, yet we are in darkness.
Even if the whole money in the world is given to Nigeria, with the attitude of our leaders we will not achieve anything. And I think somebody has to take the courage somehow to come up. Let me give you an example.
We said we are fighting corruption, but we are doing it in a wrong way. You don’t wait to cure a disease but you should look at the environment that is breeding the disease, then take preventive measures. If a public servant is making investment one thousand times more than what he earns, you sit down to say the man is not corrupt until he is picked and prosecuted by the EFCC!
And if a small criminal will get a severe punishment of five to ten years jail sentence and criminals who embezzle public funds in billions get only six months jail term or are made to forfeit part of what he has stolen, where is the sense of justice?
It is certainly a wrong way to fight corruption. If a minister of education or commissioner of education could send his children to school abroad or enroll them in an expensive private school within the country, such public officer is not worth his seat.
These are fundamental things we have to fight first. A nation can only move forward based on the perception and quality of the vision of the leadership and the moral integrity of the leaders. When the leaders are morally bankrupt, then the entire society is doomed.
If a pastor of high standing could accuse the presidency of a bribe of $50,000 whether false or true as we read, then other lower cadre public officers are licensed to steal.
In our experiences in this country, it has been obvious that the behavior of the president is usually the reflection of the behaviour of the whole country. Remember there was a time in this country when no matter your position; you must be in the office by 7:30 am. That was when General Murtala Mohammed was ruling this country.
He showed and worked by example. When the presidency was at Dodan Barracks in Lagos, you wake up to hear a decree being promulgated and it is being observed at the border states in Borno and in Katsina. This is what we call leadership by example. So if you don’t do it nobody will do it. It is bad when even the leaders don’t have the moral courage to do it. If the leaders are not corrupt, anyone with corrupt tendencies must have an exceptional courage to be corrupt.
In this country, politics is money. What would happen if you fail to get the PDP ticket? Would you join forces with whoever emerges or move to another party?
First of all, I detest money politics. Politics is where to serve people; it is all about caring for people. I came into politics because I want to serve my people and please my God. It is high time we stop money politics, and know that those spending money for politics would first recoup their money when elected. Since we started, a lot of people have realized our ways and they have come out with their skills, power, energy and materials to boost our aspirations. So it is a collective effort and not a race for one man.
But the system now encourages spending at all levels. Some individuals with resources even form political parties and call it their own party.
On whether I would align with whoever emerges, it is dependent on certain variables. I would only align on conviction that the person who emerged has emerged on a fair and just grounds. But when I find out that it will lead to national disaster, I will not.
To take you back to the court case. Are you done with it, or you are going on appeal?
We instructed our lawyers to file an appeal. In all sincerity, you cannot tell me that I have a right and also tell me that my right cannot be enforced. I am not asking that I should be nominated but I am asking that section 72 (c) of the PDP constitution be interpreted, which the court did, saying that zoning was subsisting and binding on all members. So, as an aspirant, how do you enforce it for me to get my right? That is all I am asking. Why can’t the court enforce it? We are ready to pursue the matter to the highest court of the land. This zoning is a unifying factor. There were steps we took to get the zoning principle entrenched in the PDP constitution. If we no longer like it, let us go back using the same procedure to change it.