Why restructuring is good for Nigeria —Mohammed, APDA Chairman

Alhaji Shittu Kabir Mohammed has been a key player in the political space for many years. He was National Chairman of the defunct Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN), which collapsed into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a stage. He was also the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Councl (IPAC) before registering the new Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA). In this interview, he speaks on the imperatives of restructuring to the different segments of Nigerian society. Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, presents the excerpts:

The APDA upon its registration by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently joined the multitudes of parties already in existence. What new thing are you really bringing to the table?

Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) is a party of like minds. They have looked at the challenges facing the country and they see that the country has no problem, but leadership, impunity and lack of enduring institutions. We believe that as a people, we must be able to chart a course for this country and develop our democracy beyond its present level. We are of the view that we need to advance the course of democracy in the country in such a way that people will take centre stage of whatever is done.

We want to advance the course of the electorate. As a party, we’re introducing e-payment so that our finance can be open to every Nigerian. We’re also introducing online registration so that you can register online. We’re also saying that you can’t just sit in your house in Abuja or Lagos and say you want to be president of Nigeria. You have to go to your ward. We’re also bringing in Electoral College whereby what you will need to be our presidential candidate will be just 37 votes. This will make us believe in ourselves, to see Nigerians as one. Not as Ibo man or Tiv woman, we must eliminate such tendencies. Only 37 votes give you our ticket to stand for presidential election. I know you’re trying to imagine how this makes sense. If I go to Oyo State and I get one million votes, and another person gets 29 votes, and another person gets 500 votes. Automatically, I have won there but that only gives me one vote. So, I must also struggle to win in other states, and we’re saying you must get this in 24 states and two third of 24 states. That means you have to go round all the states to see the bad roads that your maladministration may have caused. You’re also able to see the projects you promised to do but that you did not do. You have to go round, from one door to another, from one village to another, from one ward to another. And when you eventually get to the office you will realize that you will still need to travel round again and you won’t want to go through the rigour of the bad roads, the bad airports. These are some of the changes we intend to bring in. We want to advance the course of this democracy.

What is your party’s stand on restructuring?

Restructuring is embedded in our manifesto. We believe that Nigeria needs to be restructured. We believe in devolution of powers, where you take a look at the concurrent list and the exclusive list, and you juggle them, in such a way that each state or each component can look at its mineral resources and agricultural products that are available within its domain and take a comparative advantage of them for development.

For instance, if you look at Borno State today, they have Gum arabic in abundance. And you won’t believe that Gum arabic is more expensive than crude oil. If you can put Gum arabic in the whole of Sambisa forest that cuts across Gombe, Adamawa and Borno, even up to Lake Chad. They can depend on that. They also have Lake Chad, which means they can feed us with any type of food. They have the best specie of beans from that area, they can grow and even export their beans.

Go to Bayelsa State, forget about the crude oil there; look at the rice plantation in that state, and imagine what it will be like if you take advantage of that and engage young people who are looking for jobs in it.

We have to maximize the opportunities in the states rather than encouraging a situation where everyone runs to Abuja for allocation. We also have to do away with this issue of indigeneship/settlers. We have to see ourselves as one. We should see ourselves as Nigerians. These are some of the courses we intend to advance.

We’re also looking at a situation where we will put up a bill where electoral process will be devoid of distributing rice and such items to the electorate during campaigns instead of serving them judiciously and make life better for them. We’re going to put that bill, as a party, before the National Assembly. And you need a vehicle to put all these things in place, and that vehicle is APDA.

We heard that INEC still has more than 60 parties seeking registration, why do politicians like forming shells of parties in Nigeria?

Party formation is about ideology. There are about 170 political parties in the United States as at today. But they are ideology based. Some are about Animal Rights protection. Some are about environmental protection. Some are about heritage preservation. There are some that you find only in counties and you can’t win elections in those counties except you collaborate with them. And you will recall that the other day when Obama was losing election, how Tea Party came up to support him. That is their own ideology.

 We saw a noticeable presence of PDP and Labour Party members during the flag off of your party, does it mean your party is an appendage of the PDP?

As you’re aware, I was National Chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council and I have the sympathy of many political parties. You may have seen faces of PDP chieftains, Labour Party chieftains, we had PPN stalwarts there, you had NNPP chieftains there, and many more. There were so many people that came to show solidarity with us. Our doors are open. It is a new course. We’re introducing an ideological political party. It is devoid of any menace you may have seen in other parties and we are by no means an appendage of any party. APDA is a new baby and we want every Nigerian to come on board. This is the first time they will have an ideological political party. It’s not that we’re friends, it’s about ideology. It’s not about driving a government away so that we can form a new one, no. We’re bringing in what will redefine the nation’s political landscape.

We heard you are having issues constituting the BoT, what is the true situation now?

For now, we only have functional National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC). We left the Board of Trustees (BoT), because people who should constitute this should be people that have meritoriously served this country. As a party that wants to change the political arena, we are not in a hurry to constitute it. We have also not constituted Council of Elders. You know, you have to look at the antecedents, the ideology and pedigree of the people you’re bringing on board. So, it will take us time; other committees and sub-committees of the party will wait.

The APC is only two years in power and you’re already talking about displacing it in 2019, are you saying that the party is not performing?

This is one thing we want to change, where you form a party just to come and dislodge a sitting government. We are an ideological political party. We’ve told Nigerians what we’re bringing on board. We formed this party to advance the course of Nigerians.

Does it mean that you don’t intend to get power at the state or federal level?

We’ll be in power if Nigerians elect us. It’s not that we’re going to forcefully take power, and we know that with what we’ve brought on board, they will vote for us.

What is the strength of your party in the different geopolitical zones?

We have members all over the country. We’re on e-registration. We’re not a regional party. We don’t believe in regionalism. We believe in one Nigeria. We believe that as a Nigerian, the problem you have as an Ebira man is the same problem that a Kanuri man is facing. What are those basic problems? Food. Do you have food on your table? Will your tribe put food on your table? The answer is no. Will tribalism give you electricity? No. Will your region give you qualitative education? No. Therefore, we in APDA believe that the unity of the country is paramount. We believe there should be an electoral process in place to advance the course of the common man.

Your party has written INEC to participate in Anambra governorship election, don’t you think this is too early?

We have made our intentions known to INEC already and the Electoral Act is behind us on this. If you see the letter to INEC, we quoted the relevant sections of the law and we believe we are on course to take Anambra by storm

You don’t think you are already disadvantaged by virtue of late  entry into the race?

We are not disadvantaged at all. We are not new to the turf and the election will give us the chance to show what we can do differently.