The All Progressive Congress (APC) will not only instill discipline in the conduct of its members but stamp out imposition of candidates and godfatherism. Former governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa gave insight into how this will be done and insisted decamping former PDP governors and their supporters must follow due process to register as card carrying members of the APC. In this interview he spoke extensively on many current issues. Excerpts:
The All Progressives Congress’ big wigs were in Sokoto recently for the commissioning of the Sokoto State University and as an APC leader, you were conspicuously absent. Why?
The commissioning of the Sokoto State University is not a party matter. Second, the national leadership of the party came on their own not under the umbrella of APC. They came based on their personal friendship with the Governor of Sokoto State. So, there is nothing so serious about their coming for the commissioning ceremony of the state’s university. And that is why they didn’t inform us of their coming or the leadership of the state chapter of APC.
In fact, that is the main reason the state chapter of APC did not receive them because we were not aware of their coming to Sokoto. They came to Sokoto and left and we didn’t see their visit to the seat of the caliphate as a problem. I think that was their own interest for them to come for the commissioning of the state university. And I don’t see anything wrong with it.
What do you think may likely happen when the G7 join the APC leadership?
As far as I am concerned, APC is open to everybody. It is a party for all Nigerians and any Nigerian is free to join our party but all we are saying is that as far as APC is concerned, by the rules and by the constitution of our party, anybody who wants to join our party should start from the grassroots. Let him go there and register for his membership card at the wards and local government up to the national level, so, there is no short cut whether G7, G14 or G20, you have to follow the due process.
When you follow due process, you are welcome and there is no way anybody can escape from that due process. Nigerians should understand what this politics is all about. If you are rich, if you are strong and popular you go and start from your ward, then you can prove to the whole country that you are strong. But we that formed the party, did we invite anybody to receive us? Did we decide to call people to come and welcome us? It is our initiative to form APC. We have our various political parties, we have DPP, CPC, CAN and ANPP but collectively we decided to dissolve ourselves to form APC.
So, as far as I am concerned, everybody by his own right is a leader of APC. The only recognised leaders of APC are the leaders of the interim arrangement who are going to supervise the conduct of the primaries from the ward to the national level. Therefore, at the moment, there is no constitutional leadership in our party. Let us not be carried away or just to confuse our supporters that APC has leadership.
Everybody is a leader by his own right but when you emerge from your ward as a leader elected by your people in your ward or your local government, state and national level by the end of January 2014, then that is when you can say we have leaders in our party. So, this is an interim arrangement of the APC. Like I said earlier, whether G7 or G20, we are all equal; when they come and join APC, let them prove that they are G7 in their own wards.
There are speculations that APC supporters are jittery, following rumour that Governor Aliyu Wamakko and some governors may move to APC soon. Are you not worried?
What we are saying is that Wamakko is part of G7 and whatever happens to G7 governors affects him. We have to follow due process in our party because we don’t want to give a bad precedent. We need to bring discipline into our party. We don’t want the party to look like the rich people have it. What makes you to become rich, by being a G7 governor or because you have money? That is the reason we want to move away from money politics, we want to give the grassroots the right to choose their leaders. That is what we are saying that Wamakko is no different from the G7.
Are you not scared that the G7 may take over the structures of the party when they eventually to the APC?
We are not afraid of anybody to come and join APC provided due process is followed. And we are ready to fight it out if due process is not followed. So, the position of APC is that due process must be followed and there is no shortcut for being a member of APC. Wamakko is welcome and if he has a structure, people of Sokoto will decide. I am not going to contest for councillorship, governor or any position but what I am just trying to do is to help our people to have a formidable platform or party where they can elect leaders of their choice.
And as a leader, I am not scared of anybody joining the party because I am not looking for any position. Even if Wamakko joins APC, I am still a leader in APC in Sokoto. There is no big deal about this; let everybody go and follow due process and when you follow due process, the problem will be over. May be what our people are complaining of is that they feel due process may not be adhered to. But as far as we are concerned, we will make sure that we protect the interest of the masses to ensure that due process is adhered to.
You see everybody has his opinion. Wamakko coming to APC will not push me away or make me to leave the party rather I am glad that he wants to join us and he is welcome. I am not joining APC now, in fact, I am a founding father of the party. So, we are proud that people see something good in APC and are interested in joining the party.
Though 2015 is months away, the political landscape seems to be tensed up already. What is your advice to politicians?
We politicians have to tell ourselves the truth especially in our party APC. If we want APC to grow and achieve its objectives as a party, then we must allow people to take APC as their party by electing their leaders at all levels. We must not impose candidates on the people. Imposing anybody into any position will bring the downfall of any political party. We don’t want to be quarrelling like the PDP; we don’t want politics of godfatherism.
In order to avoid this, we must allow people to elect their leaders, whether in party administration or government. So, democracy can only grow when you have a good party system and good leadership. And without good leadership, there is no way democracy will come to stay in this country. I am appealing to Nigerians to allow democracy to play its path so that our country can move forward.
There are fears that Nigeria may break-up in 2015 because of unguarded utterances and threats by some politicians over the 2015 presidential poll, what is your view?
By God’s grace, Nigeria has come to stay and nothing will break-up the country in 2015. Those who are praying for the break-up of the country, if they are Nigerians, God will break them up before Nigeria will breaks- up. Therefore, I am assuring you that Nigeria will remain one and nothing will happen
Source: People’s Daily
