Tinubu will win presidential election, despite flying Muslim-Muslim ticket —Gizo

Chief Amos Gizo is a political associate of the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu and also a gubernatorial aspirant in Plateau State in the last primary election. He speaks to ISAAC SHOBAYO on the controversy surrounding Tinubu’s educational background, his picking a Muslim running mate, rates APC’s chances in 2023 elections.

Why is the issue of certificate always a recurring decimal anytime Tinubu is standing for election?

This is borne out of mischief and pull him syndrome synonymous with some Nigerians especially, the political class. This is not the first time Tinubu is standing for election in this country. If I am not mistaken this is going to be the third time he is contesting. The question is why does this matter keep recurring?  He was a Senator between 1991 and 1992 and he contested and won. He ran as governor, they played this card then, but they didn’t succeed. Anyway, political opponents will always whip up one thing or the other to be relevant. But I don’t know why they keep wasting their time over a none issue, something that has been over-flogged. It is all about politics. There is a common saying in my place that if you give an opponent or your enemy honey, he will tell you it is bitter. It is the same thing all over the world, especially when it comes to elections. They look at it as a game to run their opponents down and have their way. But in this case, it is a gimmick taken too far. I think by now they should have been tired of all these antics. For any political opponent to bring up this issue now, to me, is like the ranting of a confused person and there is nothing to worry about.

Do you think APC can win the 2023 presidential election with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, looking at the complexity of the country?

As a Christian from the North, I am not in support of that and I have made my feelings known to our principal a long time ago. And the attempt was made in 2011, the same in 2015, it didn’t happen in 2019 since there was an existing ticket of Muslim/Christian. One thing that I know which I can say categorically is that for Tinubu picking Muslim will not affect his chance to win the election. But I agree that with the nature of the country, all interest groups should be represented and respected because religion plays a vital role in whatever we are doing in this country. Some people said since the wife is a Christian, it doesn’t matter. The wife is not the president. We had expected a balance of Muslim/Christian ticket. Another thing is that if he had picked a Christian from the North, the Christian would not just be representing the Christians in the North but the entire Christendom in Nigeria.

What is the assurance that he will win the election if the secularity of Nigeria is not respected?

Let me talk to you in practical terms. There is a belief that since the Muslim population in the North will give him their votes and he will add the figure to whatever votes he is bringing from the South. But get me right, it is not the issue of whether the Muslims are more or not. There are a lot of dynamics to this thing. There are so many things on the ground that the Muslims in the North want to play him in so that he would lose the Christian votes so that they can give their votes to the Fulani man, that is, Atiku Abubakar. What we are saying is that there should be equity in this country. We already have a lot of suspicion among us, so we have to build confidence that we are truly one and this is a national cake and everybody has a right to it.

APC has been in government for the past seven years. Do you think your party has governed this country well enough to be given another opportunity in 2023?

The party has not failed Nigerians compared to what transpired before APC was elected in 2015. But one certain thing is that APC will win the 2023 presidential election and I am confident that Tinubu will be the next president without much sweat. None of the candidates from other political parties has the kind of support Tinubu has. For instance, it is only he that can get enough votes from the South-West, North-Central and the core North. He has a solid support base in virtually all parts of the country. Just look at the way he won the primary. That alone is enough to tell his opponents that he is a factor and a force to be reckoned with as far as the politics of Nigeria is concerned. When you look at the strategies of other candidates, they rely more on primordial sentiments such as tribe and religion but our candidate is more than that, considering his pedigree.

From all indications, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi seems to be gathering momentum. Don’t you think he might create an upset in the coming election?

Let me ask you: where is Labour Party in Plateau State? A party is seen and accepted by the kind of structure it has. The time is short for Obi to hit the ground running in all the states in Nigeria. To me, I don’t see him as a threat. The only way he can make an impact is for him to fuse with other smaller political parties, but for now, there are two major political parties in Nigeria, that is, the APC and PDP.

But the trend currently is about personality or individual, not a political party (cuts in)…

It is still the same thing as far as the personality of Obi is concerned. His impact on national politics is not solid enough. You cannot call two or three people outside Anambra State that Obi has touched their lives, but when you talk about Tinubu, he is a national figure and a phenomenon in Nigerian politics, more so he is coming from a ruling party.

Both Obi and Tinubu are two-term governors in their respective states, what then makes you think the latter is more popular than the former?

Looking at the limitation of both of them, look at Obi coming to govern Anambra State, and Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, you can’t compare the two. You cannot compare what Tinubu did in Lagos with what Obi did in Anambra. Two, the presidential candidate of APC has built people,  structure and relationships across the country.

As one of the governorship aspirants in Plateau and chairman of the aspirants on the platform of APC, you along with others protested the outcome of the gubernatorial primary. What is the position of your petition?

Let me correct you, you are one of the people we addressed when we smell a rotten rat in the state. We pointed out that if the mistakes we detected were not corrected; we were ready to leave the party. But as democrats and party persons what our party posited was that we must always exhaust all the internal mechanisms of dispute resolution. We discovered that certain things were not put in place right from the national to the state. When people went for the screening, no list was sent that people were screened or disqualified or qualified, they allow it to go like that. I have been part of this game for a long time and I expected something better. Also, those who came in to conduct the election came in secretly but were hijacked by the government. On the day of the primary those saddled with the responsibility of conducting the primary just sat down watching government officials dictating the pace. That was why we said they were compromised. Even when there was a fracas in the hall, the national officers on the ground did not stop the process. They simply looked the other way.

The primary has been lost and won, what are the aggrieved aspirants doing concerning this development?

We are at the last stage. Three things are happening presently. The delegates are in court, aggrieved aspirants too are also in court and lastly our petition is before the national secretariat of the party.