We must form a coalition of parties to sack APC from power in 2019 —Haruna Dabin

 Dr Haruna Dabin, a political scientist, is a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, former Director-General of People’s Democratic Institute; erstwhile member of National Economic Intelligence Committee and also a former PDP chairman in Plateau State. He speaks with ISAAC SHOBAYO on a wide range of political issues. Excerpt:

 

What is your assessment of the current state of the nation?

Democracy thrives in a peaceful atmosphere, but in the last three years, there is no part of this country that has been spare bloodshed, anarchy and violence. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) captured Nigeria as one of those countries in the world where those living in abject poverty are over 80  per cent of the population and those who own the means of sustenance are fewer than five per cent of Nigeria’s population.

Early 2016, I wrote a paper for an international conference that was held at Ahmadu Bello University about this change of guard and posited that with APC taking over as a ruling party, we are going to experience the worse form of dictatorship, because the framework upon which APC came to power was not one on which they were going to appeal to people, get consensus on national issues. They were a group of desperados and they wanted power at all costs. In that paper, I predicted that the collapse of APC would be grand, because all this push and shove, they are not a group that would appeal to reason. They don’t have any blueprint in term development of the country. So in between 2015 and 2018 before politics took centre stage, I thought they would have made progress, that the condition of people would have improved. If they accused Goodluck Jonathan of corruption, because the system he presided over allowed corruption, unfortunately certain dimensions of corruption have been over exalted under President [Muhammadu] Buhari: nepoticism, sectionalism, push for religious politics. Any state that would exalt sectarian interest is doomed; it will degenerate into anarchy. It is a matter of time. The four years of President Buhari will go down in history as the lowest ebb of Nigeria’s political development.

 

The APC came to power on the mantra of change, have they justified this slogan that promoted them to power?

That was deception. They came on the mantra of change, but we didn’t know the type of change they were going to offer. They have changed every segment of Nigeria for the worse.  Our economy is in the doldrums and it is the worst. In less than six months, Nigeria’s currency plummeted. Before people talked of inflation; we don’t even talk of inflation anymore, because it is more than double digits. The reality of hunger is everywhere; you don’t need statistician to tell you. Everything they promised to change [has become] worse. They didn’t come with any blueprint to develop the economy. Inadvertently, they adopted the word progressive congress, but they are the most retrogressive group I have ever seen. Everything about APC is deception.

 

PDP is accused of setting the pace for corruption and APC is also being tagged as reinforcing corruption. But the two  are the major political parties in the country today, how do we wriggle out of this predicament?

There is no difference between PDP and APC as you can see in the membership movement. I left PDP after 20 years of membership, because I saw another platform for stronger foundation to reengage in politics and because the environment the two political parties offer is bad. My expectation is that those in the younger generation that have come of age, the younger generation is not just about young people, people who have been on the fringes, but people who have the experience to know how a system should work. We may not get one party to do it all alone; this is the period we must go into coalition. When Obasanjo announced last year he was forming a collision, I was excited that people are beginning to understand that solution to 2019 will be coalition of political parties.

 

Is the country not moving in circle?

Yes we are. Even the coalition has already collapsed. PDP created CUPP and how can I remove my membership of PDP to another political party and be brought back into that coalition through the backdoor? But we should not just aim at voting against APC because we are angry or against PDP. But we should put on our thinking caps and think outside the box. In fact, if there is no box to think outside of, we could look up to God and think. The only credible solution is the solution that God should give us the wisdom.

 

But do you think INEC has all what it takes to give Nigerians credible election in 2019 couple with the fear of security agencies doing the work of ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’?

Yes the security has been used very negatively, especially in the rerun elections that had been conducted midterm, that is in between 2015 and 2018. When you announced 30,000 policemen were deployed in Ekiti State alone, what does that mean? So when it comes to the general election, how many policemen will you send to one state? Yes the police had played a very bad role, but INEC, as bad as it is, is the only body we can rely on and unless they are also encouraged to do the best, we would degenerate into anarchy, become a failed state finally. And woe betide us should Nigeria become a failed state, because if one tenth of Nigeria’s population is displaced from the country, no country in Africa can contain it not to talk of African continent. So we can’t afford to give up on INEC and security. And, of course, we didn’t raise issue until it became too late. When President Buhari was busy putting his tribesmen into the commanding height of the security arm and retiring everybody else, we didn’t shout. Now that  doom’s day is staring at us, we are complaining. I am happy with the courage of the Senate in overriding the veto of the president. That is democracy. We want to see INEC complying with the electoral law. The president was elected to defend Nigeria’s constitution and took oath to defend Nigeria; he must uphold the sanctity of the constitution. So any attempt by the security or INEC to violate the constitution is a call or an invitation to anarchy. And I think this is avoidable. I will appeal to all right-thinking politicians: we can’t avoid to throw away the baby with the bathwater, because Nigeria still has a great role to play in Africa.

 

From all indications, the two dominant political parties, PDP and APC, seem to have no role for the Middle Belt more so that the presidential candidates of the two parties are from the North-West and North-East respectively. What is you take on this ?

This is a very serious issue. One of the deception about the PDP that I keep telling people is the myth about zoning. If PDP is serious about zoning and rotation, they should have clearly said presidency will rotate among the six geopolitical zones in the country and we will clearly know that if Yar’Adua and Buhari had served from the North-West, the presidency should move to another zone. My expectation initially was that the Middle Belt is going to produce a credible candidate, but those credible candidates lost out. I expected somebody like the former Senate President, David Mark, who in every respect stabilised the Senate and  democracy in Nigeria, but he lost it because when it matter the most, when he needed to keep the Middle Belt together, he lost it in Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, only in Taraba because T.Y Danjuma put his leg on the ground. My argument is that the Middle Belt since 1999 has dictated where the presidency will go. Senator Jang also would have been a credible candidate, but again he lost it. All these problems started with the PDP Governors Forum. There had never been an election. Suddenly Ameachi insisted that there must be election and the argument that 16 is greater than 19 led to the polarisation and collapse of the PDP and loss of the presidency. Then the problem we have in Plateau, if Senator Jang had handed over to a credible governor, somebody who knows his onion because all the attempt to impose their personal wishes has never helped anybody. From 1999,  we have seen it everywhere and it has never worked. When our leader cannot provide atmosphere for credible people to emerge, tell me how will they drive the Middle Belt? And age is not on the side of both Jang and David Mark. Unfortunately, Ortom is busy fighting Fulani herdsmen in Benue; we are expecting a more purposeful leadership in Nasarawa and in Plateau State. We are struggling to see which direction to go in term of governorship. I sympathise with our leaders.

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It is the time all Middle Belt leaders came together and worked out how to have credible governors in all the states in the geopolitical zone. If our leaders can come together and say let us raise leaders, it would be better for all of us. Like in Plateau State, it is not too late for Governor Jang to mend his ways and carry everybody along. There are certain age you attain that you don’t throw your hat into the ring anymore; you assume the position of father to all and make yourself available to people.

 

Is this why did you left the PDP?

I needed to leave the PDP for my own sanity after the political earthquake of 2015. Ekweremadu team that investigated the reasons for the collapse of the PDP had a brilliant report. It recommended a number of measures and my expectation was that the leader then, though Adamu Muazu quickly resigned, it was not a matter for the national chairman alone to resign; the whole working committee should have resigned if we were serious but they didn’t. They continued as if nothing had happened. We went into the 2016 congresses and I was one of the key leaders that organised the Abuja convention against the Port Harcourt convention and we were serious that this madness in PDP must stop. To some extent our pressure was effective, the Port Harcourt convention was inconclusive. But rather than allow the trustees of the party, as provided by the constitution of the party, to do the right thing, they went ahead to constitute a Caretaker Committee. That was the beginning of derailing the party. The fight between Markarfi and Sheriff was completely avoidable. The worst was the congress that brought in Secondus. When I saw what happened, I knew it was time for me to leave the PDP. Let me tell you everything about the PDP is all about worshiping money. Imposition and impunity compounded the problems of PDP. The party’s soul and philosophy have died.

 

Looking at the achievements of the incumbent governor in Plateau State couple with incumbent factor do you think Lalong can be defeated in 2019 as people like you are advocating?

He can be defeated easily. I don’t think anybody is considering APC in Plateau State. Thank God Lalong will go down in history as governor, but his tenure is not favourable to anybody in this state. Plateau people dead or alive will admit that they have never had a leader that has worked against them more seriously than him. The governor is against Plateau people. Here was a governor who was saying on live television that the Fulani that are coming from Futa Jallon and other places have routes all over Nigeria and that he knows of several routes that had been blocked by schools, hospitals, by government houses. He even said that the Government House in Jos is sitting on Fulani cattle route!

The worst was the October 10th local government election in Plateau State which would go down in history as the most atrocious election that any government or any electoral commission ever conducted. And the governor was quoted to have said any aggrieved person should approach election petition tribunal! How can a lawyer talk like that? Before election results were collated, the commission had announced the results and the governor hurriedly swore them in. It would have been better for him to just go ahead and make appointments. I believe Governor Lalong has played his part and it is time for him to leave the scene. Let us have another Plateau man to grapple with the issues of Plateau State. We must return Plateau to the people.  I also think that the season for Senator Jeremiah Useini to govern has passed. I think Plateau people need an alternative.