Why we are ready to receive Babangida into ANPP – Senator Gaya

Let me reassure you that my party is still vibrant. And when things turn again in the next few months, you will see how the party will take a better shape. I was a member of the convention committee, and the first thing was that there was issue of logistics which was not enough for […]

Let me reassure you that my party is still vibrant. And when things turn again in the next few months, you will see how the party will take a better shape. I was a member of the convention committee, and the first thing was that there was issue of logistics which was not enough for us to start the convention at the right time. The second is the time-frame, which we were supposed to give to INEC and when we shifted the earlier date, we did not notify the Commission of the exact date the convention will hold. We only told INEC that it has been postponed. We wanted to hold it within three weeks from the last day we had a meeting but it fell within the fasting period and we felt we should have sympathy for those who are Muslims in our party so that we would not hold the convention during the fasting. By this extension, we have enough time to shake the nation and give a credible platform for Nigerians which will have less rancour and less problems like what is happening in the ruling PDP.

As a result of quest for the grabbing of the ANPP leadership, there exists northern and southern dichotomies within the party with each claiming to have the right for the chairmanship position. What is your committee doing to sort out this fundamental problem?

The dwindling of our party fortunes was not as a result of incapable leadership. It was the sheer unorganized election and the fact that the election was rigged and dictated by the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, of which you find that even the courts revealed the situation where a candidate was forced on people in the case of Rivers State and some other states. Some members of the ANPP were forced to leave the party because of fear of being rigged out and this happened in Sokoto and Kebbi. They are all ANPP states but they left because of fear of being rigged out from the real election because there wouldn’t be election, and went to the PDP. But now that we have amended the constitution and enacted the Electoral Act which meddles into the internal democracy of political parties, so certainly, the trend would be different now and people would prefer to contest election on a platform that is free and where the godfatherism has no effect. During Obasanjo, if he doesn’t like your face, you will never be candidate of that party which was undemocratic which led to the acceptance of the election as being marred of irregularities by the late President Umar Yar’adua.

But another argument for the postponement of the ANPP convention was for Shekarau to declare his presidential ambition as well as the coming of former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida. How true is this development?

Well, if my party decided to support my governor and even give him room to launch his campaign, then my governor has the upper hand in the party. And I am glad about it because he is my governor. Again, we need people who can make our party strong to come into the party. So, if a person like Babangida is interested, then we definitely need him to come here. And not only Babangida, we need many people to join our party because we have just a few states now and for us to clinch power towards the 2011 election, we need to get more states which means we need to bring more people on board. But the convention was not postponed for the reasons stated above.

He has just declared his interest to contest the presidency in 2011 under the ANPP. Do you think Shekarau has the capability to withstand pressures from candidates like the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Heads of State, General Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida?

You see, in politics, you don’t say somebody is big or small. Take the example of the US, Barrack Obama clinched the power having beaten many strong politicians in the US during both primaries and the general elections. So, if you have trust in God, nothing is difficult. If Malam Ibrahim Shekarau feels he can fight and he believes he is competent enough to make his case, that’s good. But anything I am going into, I will be prepared that I will do my best and leave the rest to God. God who knows my heart and my mind will assist me based on my intentions. So, there is nothing wrong in having more candidates. There is nothing wrong in Shekarau’s candidature. Buhari is running in a different party, Atiku is running in a different party, Babangida is running in a different party even though we hope he will come to our party. And even in Kano, Bashir Tofa is also coming on board. And when he was governor in Kano, he contributed his best and made impact in the state. So, I think if he works hard, he can make it.

You are making commendations on Shekarau despite the fact that he has been against you politically. Why?

I am a kind of person who doesn’t get worried about individuals. I believe politics is not based on accusing an individual. It is not based on insulting someone that you get what you want. Politics is based on what you have done for the people and what you can do again for them. Personally, I have nothing against Shekarau as an individual even though he said he has his own candidate for the governorship position in Kano. I told him I have no problem with his candidate but I am requesting or praying to God to give me the position of Kano state governor. I am not asking anybody because the God who gave me the position before is the same God I am praying to give me again. So, if I am going to fight with the governor simply because he said he doesn’t like me, that does not mean everybody hates you. Therefore, I have a strong confidence that by next year April or May, you will interview me as the next Governor of Kano State, by God’s grace.

There are so many factors one has to put into consideration when approaching an election. For instance, when ANPP broke away in Sokoto, they lost the governorship seat. Shekarau has already picked his candidate in Kano and the ANPP is already polarized in the state coupled with the Buhari factor. Are you still comfortable that ANPP can win Kano?

Yes, Buhari is loved by the people in Kano state and people still like him. I also like him as a person and respect him as my leader. And the ANPP members who moved to the CPC are aggrievedmembers of the party. But some of us are still aggrieved in the ANPP but we have not moved yet, for two reasons; one, if my party can reconcile and resolve its problems and I clinch the ticket, I don’t have problems with Buhari. Even though I do not belong to his party, he is not going to fight hard on me. Again, a lot of PDP members are people we worked together when I was Kano State Governor under the NRC and I am sure they will join to work for me because they know we work hard together. They knew it was with them that we succeeded. But if Shekarau, being the governor, forces his way through to put a candidate who is acceptable by the people, then the result is already dictated because he can’t force a candidate on Kano people. Remember what happened when Kwankwaso wanted to run for second term and people said no. And Shekarau was just a civil servant forced to go back to school to teach. He was humiliated in many ways and finally he left the civil service and joined Aminu Dantata to work with him. And God decided that this man who was humiliated is the one I want to make the governor because it was God who decided. And now, I am in the same shoes with Shekarau. Upon all the good relations I have with Shekarau although I don’t want to say I did this and that for him, because now he is the governor he is feeling like a ‘mini god’ that whatever he decides, it must be done, which is very wrong.

Is he humiliating you just as he was humiliated?

Well, may be not humiliating me but talking so many things about me to the public. There was a time in 2003 where I said, for whatever, a governor cannot appoint a successor; it is only God who can determine who will be and it will be. In Hausa we said, “Allah ne ke gwamna be gwamna ne ke gwamna ba,” he texted me and said my statement ‘was mischievous and unfortunate’ and I don’t know why it was mischievous. Not only text, he said the same publicly. And he said I should remember that in 2003, I paid out huge sums of money to remove him for the party removed his name and replaced him with my name. And I knew that in 2003, I gave money to his campaign committee and if I had wanted him removed, then why should I give money? And I was his return officer in both 2003 and 2007. Just two weeks ago, he came out publicly and alleged that I wanted to replace him and I was shocked because it was the national body that can replace governorship candidate and not the state chapter. I cannot say being a governor he was lying but it was unfortunate.

But why is it taking both the National Working Committee (NWC) and the Caucus of the ANPP to zone the chairmanship position to either the north or south?

First of all, I am not a member of the executive of the party and I know our constitution has clearly defined how the zoning should be done. I am not among the people heading the zoning and I have nothing to do with zoning. All I want is a good leader. Once we have a good leader, I will be very comfortable because zoning of this and that is making this country more tribalistic and more unfortunate. We should have qualified people to be our leaders and not to begin to say that every community must produce a leader and so on. This only promotes corruption and therefore, I don’t like this idea of zoning and I think it should be done away with. All I want in my party is a credible chairman who can do well for the party. That’s all. I am not an architect of the zoning problem.

But don’t you think because of our peculiarity in this country zoning can bring a certain level of peace within the polity?

I think zoning is polarizing us more than bringing peace. When we had the presidency always coming from the north we gave it to the South and now for it to come back, some people are saying to hell with zoning. Now, if I were President Jonathan I will clearly do an exit, allow the north to complete its four years and then decide to come back after four years. Then he can run his eight years comfortably with honour and dignity. Jonathan should try to do like the South African, Nelson Mandela and if he wants to come back, then we will support him. There is an agreement in the PDP which they want to violate and it is good for the opposition because they will loose the power. However, I think it is better for him to go and allow the north to complete its term and then when he comes back, I am sure the north will support him.

Former President Obasanjo has accused National Assembly members of corruption and we have not heard any objection to his statement from the NASS leadership or any other member. Was he right?

I think we will table the issue on the floor of the chamber. We are going to invite Obasanjo to the chamber so that he can brief us and tell us what evidence he has because he is a Nigerian. You see, when you respect elders and elders don’t want to respect themselves, then you have a problem. And I also want to say that Obasanjo should remember what his assets were before he became president and what his asset is after he became president. Nigerians are watching. I believe the Senators are not corrupt and you can check my constituency. I did my projects and I am not involved with any contractor. So, if you call me corrupt, I will sue you.

But why is it taking so long for the leadership of the National Assembly to react to Obasanjo’s statement?

No, no. You find that already, the opposition leader in the House of Representatives have already commented on it by debunking the statement. And I was equally not around, I would have reacted to it. So, if members of the PDP are refusing to say Obasanjo is indicted of corruption in this country, then that is their problem. There are reasons; maybe they don’t want to be stopped from being a candidate next time or their names removed from aspirants to various positions during the next elections. But for me, I will tell the blunt truth where it is. Look at the power sector; the Senate did its work and investigated and passed down to the executive to execute but they never did. We did investigations on FCDA and passed to the executive, they didn’t do anything. The Halliburton case is there and nobody has been arrested over the case. So why is this old man coming to talk about the Senate or the NASS?

But you are talking from the opposition’s perspective. Obasanjo is a stakeholder in the PDP which controls a majority in the National Assembly. By this statement which the NASS leadership refused to disagree with, are you not afraid that Obasanjo might be right?   

I am not talking from the opposition. I am talking as an honest and sincere person. To the best of my ability, if somebody does wrong even if it is an elder, I should say it. Even on the part of the PDP, may be the PDP, I am not a PDP member. Maybe they are scared and is left to them. We will table it on the floor of the Senate. You will see that action and then you will watch. And that shows that if the PDP members are refusing to talk or they are scared of their BOT chairman, then there is problem which means Nigerians should leave the PDP and join the ANPP.

Nigerians are accusing the National Assembly members of flouting the campaign expenses so that nobody can compete with them. What is your reaction?

I was an aspirant against a serving senator at that time. And I did not spend 1/10 of what he spent for me to win election at our zonal convention or congress. It is not the amount of money that you put wins election. Election is won by the amount of goodwill one has on ground. I defeated a serving senator. It doest mean because we put money that we want to block anybody from contesting against us as you can put down money and still loose an election. So, election depends on your credibility and how you relate with the people, your vision for the people and the level of trust they have in you. As long as the election is free and fair and the electorates feel they need a better person, then money cannot determine who wins in an election. So, certainly the issue of saying we are putting so much money to block people from coming on board is not true.

Talking about free and fair election, what are the major changes you were able to incorporate in the Act which you believe will assure credible, free and fair election?  

There are many scenarios to get a free and fair election and to do away with the obstacles. Thank Justice Uwais and his team who went round this country to get a report and memoranda which defines the problems during elections and how we can get a free and fair elections. And then we in the National Assembly tried much to amend the constitution and enact the Electoral Act which even stands to ensure internal democracy within the parties because that is the beginning of our election problems.