HOW prepared is your party for this rescheduled election, both at the centre and state levels?
My party is fully confident of retaining Sokoto State. Look at Sokoto State, we have a governor who is very focused on the development of the state, very intelligent, young and vibrant; mention any quality you can talk of in a leader. He is not just a pride to the state, but also to the entire nation.
Also, don’t forget that we did not only take our campaign to all the 23 local government areas of the state, but also made use of the opportunity of house to house, where we sold all our party’s candidates to the people of the state. I can tell you with all sense of responsibility that Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal will not just win a second term, but also return with a landslide victory after the election.
Talking about the chances of your party, how do you think this postponement has affected your party in the state?
I believe if it is going to affect us, it should be positive, because whenever a ruling party at the centre does something this way, it annoys the people and they react the other way because they feel it is not just about political parties, but about Nigerians. It is the people of the country that are being punished for this. Some people had used their last resources to travel simply because they wanted to exercise their civic responsibility and now they are stranded.
I was told that about 50 observers were already stranded because their plan was to be in this state, witness the elections and by the following day, they would travel out of here. Now, they have to source for more money to meet up with the new developments.
It is not only the political parties, but also all the stakeholders, that were embarrassed by this postponement. And the unfortunate thing is they (INEC) even behaved as if they had done nothing wrong; no apology. They acted as if it was normal. No, it is not normal to postpone elections. But here in Nigeria, we behave as if it is normal to underperform; normal to do odd things. For God’s sake, we are not a banana republic. Even the president himself said he was annoyed that INEC postponed elections.
Nobody asked for assistance. I mean nobody told Mr President that ‘sir, we have a challenge with flights to take delivery of our materials.’ Nobody told Mr President that ‘our finances are not enough, the planes we got are not enough.’ They were given all they requested for. So, what was the reason for INEC to fail Nigerians?
In 2015, when elections was postponed for two weeks, we all saw the reaction of Nigerians which was a negative thing for the then ruling party and the opposition got the opportunity, despite all the aggressive campaign embarked upon then, especially in the South.
In 2015, the opposition capitalised on the extension. Do you see a similar thing happening this time?
Yes, we pray so. We are working hard to make sure that the one week given will be used positively to sell our candidates more to the people. We believe in God, knowing that God’s time is the best. We have not committed any crime for the postponement to happen and we pray to God that it will be in our favour. We are working very hard to keep the momentum and morale of our supporters.
How did you receive the news of the elections postponement?
It all started about 24 hours before the elections and we assumed it was a mere rumour that would just fade away. But the intensity of the rumour continued until it became a reality. Few hours to the supposed elections, it became evident that something was going on and when we contacted INEC, its officials said they were going into a meeting.
Like most Nigerians, my submission is that this country should stop celebrating failure by giving some stupid reasons that really disgrace our nation. This logistics problem had been used as reason for failure of many elections. People tend to use it as a reason for failure. I think it is high time we stopped giving such reasons for our elections failure, especially when INEC had came out to tell everyone that it was fully ready.
Why would you claim you were ready when you don’t even have election materials, both the sensitive and non-sensitive, in place?
It implies two things, first, it is either you were not a serious person for you to look at the whole world and say that you were ready and 12 hours later, you said you were not ready.
Another thing is, perhaps, you were under certain pressure you cannot tell us. This nation has been disgraced over and over again over simple issues. It is not about physics, but logistics; something that everybody knows you needed to get materials to the various states on time. One may ask is it that the various places that you had promised to carry these materials to suddenly had access denied or the contract you had with the people helping you was breached? What exactly happened? Where all airplanes no more working so as to convey these materials to the various parts of the country?
Who is to be blamed?
Definitely, it is INEC. Nobody can absolve Professor Mahmud Yakubu from this. I don’t want any other excuse. He is responsible. The buck must stop at his table.
There are calls that the Federal Government should refund extra expenses political parties incurred due to this extension. D you align with this position?
Federal Government’s money belongs to Nigerians. Does INEC have the means to refund monies to political parties? I don’t think it has the money, but if it is ready to refund, of course, we will be glad to receive it. But even if it returns it, what about the mental stress of our political supporters that travelled across the country? Is it going to refund that also? No.
Maybe it is only the logistics for the political parties that can be compensated for, though I doubt if it will do so. If it does, I will be glad.
How prepared is your party for this rescheduled election, both at the centre and state levels?
My party is fully confident of retaining Sokoto State. Look at Sokoto State, we have a governor who is very focused on the development of the state, very intelligent, young and vibrant; mention any quality you can talk of in a leader. He is not just a pride to the state, but also to the entire nation.
Also, don’t forget that we did not only take our campaign to all the 23 local government areas of the state, but also made use of the opportunity of house to house, where we sold all our party’s candidates to the people of the state. I can tell you with all sense of responsibility that Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal will not just win a second term, but also return with a landslide victory after the election.
and then