Honourable Hillard Ntufam Eta, former national vice chairman (South-South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was expelled by the National Executive Committee of the party at its meeting held in December 2021, following a suit he instituted to challenge the eligibility of the APC Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee led by Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni. At a session with journalists last week, Eta explains why he withdrew the case, as well as the challenges before the ruling party ahead of 2023 general election. TAIWO AMODU brings the excerpts:
We learnt you withdrew your case against the APC in which judgment is about to be delivered. May we know why?
Yes, I gave instructions to my lawyers to withdraw the case that was awaiting judgment. So, I can now effectively call myself a former acting national chairman. The purpose for which that case was instituted was an attempt to break out from an assault on the rule of law that will predicate on that development. I was in the forefront of guarding against an assault on these very ideals of Nigerian democracy. But with the emergence of the champion of the new Nigeria, as the standard-bearer of the party in the 2023 elections, I had no alternative than to contribute my quota in the birthing of a new Nigeria from the ruins of the old by withdrawing the case so that we will now begin to celebrate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Today, by the special grace of God and the democratic will of the people of the APC, they have given us a champion who will break loose all of this that constitutes a bondage on the Nigerian nation and will open up the potential of Nigeria. I bet you that from 2023, the world will see a new Nigeria. The world is going to see a brand new Nigeria.
Prior to the APC convention, the national chairman of the party, Senator AbdulahiAdamu, almost derailed the convention by saying the president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan had been anointed as the consensus candidate. Do you see him show sincere commitment to the Tinubu campaign?
Let me say that I had responded to this before and I don’t want to belabour the issue. The issue is that the chairman took a unilateral decision. Of course, we heard from other members of the National Working Committee (NWC), he took a unilateral decision that was disowned by the presidency, disowned by the NWC, disowned by Northern governors, disowned by the membership of the party. He stood on his own. There is a saying in my place, monkey dey show when tree near tree. If you put monkey for desert, he no dey do jack. Some of us who are progressives will call on the chairman to join the train. If he was left in the past if his mind was left in the past, in the relic of Nigeria, he should join the train. This train is a new Nigeria. This train is a Nigeria, where northern Governors, for the first time in Nigeria got together and said look, this is a plum job, this is the finest job in Africa, this is the most powerful man in Africa, but we don’t want it in our region, we want it to go to the south, it is the first time, it has never happened. So, it signals that we are in a new Nigeria and what the Chairman said reminded us of the old Nigeria. So we can only ask him and urge him to join the boat and join the train of new Nigeria led by a captain that is capable, competent, courageous, who has shown it all across board, whether in private business, public service, political arena, that he is capable. He is the only one who has fought the kind of battle that he has fought in Nigeria and has emerged victorious. He is the only one, go through the history of Nigeria. So, we will tell our chairman to purge himself of those anti-democratic tendencies of the conservatives and come aboard the progressive ship.
The convention has been won and lost, but there is an acid test before Asiwaju Tinubu and that’s the issue of his running mate. There are so many insinuations out there that we may end up having a Muslim-Muslim ticket from the APC. What is your take?
What if we do? First of all, I do not predicate my politics on religion. I don’t even predicate my politics on ethnic consideration. If my politics was considered on ethnic considerations, I would have worked and voted for Rotimi Amaechi. He is from my zone, I don’t care about those kind of things. Those are the things that have held Nigeria down. In any case, has anybody in southern Nigeria looked at Asiwaju as a Muslim? Please, Asiwaju represents development and that is all. Whoever he chooses does not matter to people like me, it does not. So I’m not the right person for that question. Asiwaju is far better to me than even pastors on the pulpit who spew hate and bile.
Asiwaju shows only love. Have you ever seen Asiwaju having a public spat with anybody? Even people who have abused him, they have abused him and said that he uses pampers, they have said all manner of things about him. He has never responded to them. He responds to them with love. That is for me, far better than Christian pastors whose stand on the pulpit and spew hate and violence. I don’t care about religion. I care more about the bread and butter issues of Nigeria.
You are from Cross Rivers and that is incidentally a South-south state. You had two chieftains of the ruling party who fought for presidential tickets in the two dominant parties: Nyesom Wike and Rotimi Amaechi in PDP and APC. In the two parties, the South-South could not produce a presidential candidate. Where does it leave the zone in the power equation, post 2023?
First, I must thank the nation for giving us the opportunity, we presided over this country for six years and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. You see, I have told you I am not the right man for the question that border on religion or ethnic consideration, regional consideration, it does not matter to me. Those who have done politics with me, those who have been in the trenches, stand shoulder-to-shoulder will tell you that these considerations don’t matter to me. It does not matter to me. I want to see a Nigeria that is competing with Singapore. I want to see Nigeria who will stop being the dumping ground for China. I want to see a nation that will not be exporting jobs to China and importing unemployment. That is the Nigeria I want to see. I don’t care whether Wike is from Ikwerre or whether Asiwaju is from Lagos State. it doesn’t matter to me. If Asiwaju was a northerner, my head, my shoulders and my legs will be there. If he was from Kastina-Ala, I will be with him, because I know what he represents. I have traveled far and wide. I have seen countries who do not have the kinds of resources that God has blessed us with. I have seen them go far ahead of us, because they do not consider the things that we consider. You go to Rwanda today. Rwanda is a success story. You go to Ghana, go to all of these places, you have countries that are less endowed than Nigeria doing the right things and are moving ahead. We keep pulling ourselves back because we talk about petty things that should not even bother us. Those are the things that we consider. Please, count me out of those kinds of questions. I’m not interested. I really am not.
The battle ahead is much more between the APC candidate and certain candidates from the North: Atiku and Kwankwaso. How do you think Asiwaju will be able to win the presidency? Secondly, what areas do you think Asiwaju presidency will impact on the nation to develop this country?
Well, first of all, let me say that I do not see the North and the South in the next elections. People who saw this in 1993 were disappointed. They saw an Abiola who went through the villages and undefeated champions of ethnic chauvinism, all over the country, defeating Tofa in his local government area and in his state. I’m not seeing that. I see Asiwaju presenting Lagos as his own antecedent and I also see Atiku presenting Adamawa. It cannot go beyond that. He should bring Adamawa to the table, Asiwaju will bring Lagos, Nigerians will compare. You see, we have gone beyond rhetorics. I’m from here, Oh, my mother is from Cameroon. He has been in politics, he has been Vice President for eight years. He has to bring Adamawa to the table. Because those are his antecedents. He superintend over the Nigerian economy for eight years. Do you understand what I’m saying? Now Adamawa, which is a small part of Nigeria, we aren’t even asking him to present the entire Nigeria for us to evaluate. We’re just saying bring that small piece where you come from. Let us also put you side by side with the right years that Asiwaju that superintend over Lagos, let us also bring his own. That is how we are going to make up our minds as to who is a better fit for Nigeria today. Bring your private sector experience since you left Customs and how you left Customs. In fact, start from how you enter Customs. Asiwaju will start with how he finished school in America and joined Deloitte till now. Nigerians must not be persuaded by primordial issues. Atiku has no story to tell. We will take him to the cleaners. It is not yet time. Asiwaju has never lost an election, not one. He has never lost an election. Atiku is a serial loser. We will compare all of this. For anybody who thinks that Asiwaju’s influence is restricted to the South, Northerners gave us more votes in these primaries than Southerners. Go and find out how APC voted. We had more support in the north than in the south. So don’t ever think that Asiwaju versus Atiku or Kwankwaso. In fact, Kwankwaso is not even in the equation. Kwankwaso can take his Kano if he can be able to do so, in fact we welcome him. You cannot for instance put together Kwankwaso thought on Nigeria. Let somebody bring any document that you can see Kwankwaso thought or Atiku’s thought on Nigeria except that he would privatize Nigeria and give it to his friends. That is the most that he has said that he would do. But I can give you a book, I have it in my house here, to hear and feel the thoughts of a deep thinking man, a visionary, a courageous man, a man who loves his people with a very acute sense of history. We’re not going to be fooled. We will not be fooled.
But those that vote, the electorate, they don’t share this view because they’re not knowledgeable enough.
Did they not share it in the convention? Were they the elites; did they not share it in 1993? You see, please do not think for our people, do not believe that because they cannot read or write that they do not know their left from their right. They knew their left from the right since 1993. 1993 is how many years ago? Please, I beg you in the name of God that will be patronizing our people. The people who came to vote here, some states they had to write for them. Were they not illiterates, how come they chose Asiwaju over others. The fourth estate of the realm must help us set an agenda, we must set an agenda for a new Nigeria and let people do the conversation. Let people sit around the table on those ideas and ideals of a new Nigeria.
Now, the second leg of your question, unlocking Nigeria potentials. There are two things that will unlock Nigeria. Number one is education and education. We have to pay attention to it. We cannot be doing what we’re doing today. I must say this, on education, I will call the President out, he has done absolutely nothing on education and it is very upsetting for people who love Nigeria. We must dedicate ourselves to educating our youth. Can you imagine that if you research today to find out where Nigerian youth get their information, you’ll be shocked that over 90% of them depend on social media. I know that social media is not regulated, you know that you get all manner of falsehood from social media. The reason they do so is because they’re not properly educated. They’re not even employable. You call for an interview today, you’ll be shocked at what to get as a Nigerian graduate. We have to pay attention to education. We have to lift that bar that we have buried in the ground. We have to lift it up and give our children the best of education. That’s number one. Number two, we have to look at our trade trade policy. We cannot allow Nigeria to be a dumping ground for Chinese consumables. By doing so, we export our jobs to China and import unemployment . Take for instance my brother, we used to have car battery making factories in Nigeria.
In those days, thousands of people were depending on those factories. We used to have hire block making factories. We used to have ceramic making factories. We have to go back. We have to use our trade policies to encourage indigenous entrepreneurship. We cannot pander to the wishes of the West. We cannot do so. We cannot also pander to the wishes of the Chinese. Do you know that the railway contract in Nigeria incorporate that the Chinese will build the walls, that is the parameter fence, do you know that? So even in block making, the Chinese will come and make blocks here to build the parameter walls for Nigeria. So where will our children now have jobs, where will they have the jobs? If we are importing toothpicks from China aren’t we foolish? In 2022 that we will be improving toothpicks from China? If you go through this my House, I guess the only thing that is Nigeria here is sand, every other thing is Chinese. So if Asiwaju can focus on those two things, the potential from Nigeria will unlock. Obasanjo stopped the importation of juice. Today Nigeria is number one juice producer in Africa. If you stop the importation of all these things, you will see where we will be. Just give us four years. Asiwaju is talking about 12 percent development of the GDP. I see it higher than that.