All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Hon. Suleiman Kawu Sumaila is a governorship aspirant in Kano State. In this interview with TONY AKOWE, he warns about the dangers of imposition of candidates. As a former opposition leaderbefore Kwankwaso joined the APC, what is your relationship him now? Our relationship is cordial. We had to come together at one point to salvage our people. In so doing, we looked at the larger interest of the nation, which is the principle behind the formation of the APC. Both leaders and followers of the APC have strong desire for justice, fairness and internal democracy. The same desire brought those in erstwhile nPDP like Kwankwaso to the APC, because they knew that the PDP is leading Nigeria to perdition. In other words, since our party was formed on the principles of change and justice; which implies that we will change how we conduct primary election, change those former ways by which party faithful were compelled to field candidates they don’t like. It is the resolve of the APC that a true alternative to the PDP is provided for all Nigerians to realise their dreams and ambitions. That is why we agreed to work with those who came in from the PDP. But, our greatest concern now is that Nigerians are watching to see if the APC will live its name and deliver true internal democracy to them. It cannot afford to fail them because if it does so, Nigerians will surely reject it. I was a member of the merger committee that gave birth to the APC, which adopted the broom as its logo, Change as the motto and all these were premised on the desire to bring about the much-needed change in our polity. If the APC continues on this worthy path, we will celebrate and thank God. We must not repeat what happens in the PDP, where sitting governors impose their anointed candidates on the people by all means. We agreed in principle to work together with Governor Kwankwaso because we expect that he will do justice to all by allowing for internal democracy. There’s the party constitution, primary election guidelines and then there is conventional wisdom, which entails that you have a moral burden to do justice to all since you are the leader of a group preaching and advocating for justice at all levels. Do you have fears that Governor Kwankwaso may not create conditions for free, fair and transparent primaries? One cannot say what will happen tomorrow, but it is left for Governor Kwankwaso and the APC as a party to do what is right because, if you do thing right the you are helping yourself and not someone else. If they do justice, I think he is helping himself and the party because he too will stand for primary election at the presidential level and if he wins, he will face the incumbent PDP candidate, which has the electoral body, the police and other security agencies. Therefore, anything anyone does is what others will surely do to him. We are not begging anybody to do what is right. But, it is now a public knowledge that our aspiration is a litmus test to the APC and its leaders. Nigerians are watching to see if we will turn around to repeat the same kind of unjust imposition and undemocratic tendencies we have been accusing the PDP of perpetrating. They should be reminded that by rejecting same in PDP they have helped to enlighten our people on what is right and as such the people too won’t accept such from them. We also know that Kano people who play progressive and classic politics do not accept imposition. If you dare impose anyone on them, they will surely reject such imposition. History has shown that there was never a time that an incumbent governor has been able to impose his anointed candidate in Kano and 2015 won’t be an exception, especially now that the people are even more enlightened than before. Are you referring to what happened in 2011? Yes, in the presidential election, General Buhari got 1.6 million votes, Shekarau polled 500,000 and Goodluck Jonathan got 400,000 in the PDP with Kwankwaso as the party’s candidate. But, in the governorship election, the PDP got 1.1 million votes; the ANPP got 1.04 million votes; while General Buhari’s CPC got 170,000 votes. This shows that our people are capable of making choices in all elections by choosing candidates and not political parties. It is now left for the APC at both national and state levels to practice what they preach. If they fail to do justice to all, then Nigerians will know that there is no difference between the PDP and the APC. They will surely know that they are two sides of the same coin. Can you tell us briefly what happened in the defunct ANPP that led to its defeat? Let me correct the insinuation that Shekarau imposed the candidate on us. It wasn’t Governor Shekarau who single-handedly picked the candidate and imposed him on us. It was the party bigwigs of not more than 300 of us who said they have given Shekarau the right to choose anyone he wants. The mistake we made then was that we didn’t consult the people to know if that is what they wanted or not. On seven occasions we told Shekarau that he should choose anyone he wants and that we were solidly behind him. It was after he anointed the person he wanted that some of those who gave him the go-ahead to do so failed to go back home to our people to deliver the candidate. The people didn’t even trust them. God knows it wasn’t Shekarau who imposed the candidate on us in the ANPP. We should be fair to him because it was the party leaders that asked him to do so. What is your advice to the APC in that regard? Again, my advice to APC leaders at all levels is to take what happened in Ekiti State is a big lesson. They should not deny popular aspirants the opportunity to fly the party’s flag. There was no reason for us to have lost Ekiti, if not for the insistence of the party leaders that the incumbent must do a second term, even against the people’s will. The governor did well, but the people didn’t want him and yet the APC leaders fielded him. But, in Osun, the governor won because the people wanted him. Therefore, I want our party leaders at both national and state levels to know that we cannot afford to repeat what happened in Ekiti in 2015. If the APC loses the presidential and governorship elections in 2015, then the leaders should be held responsible because Nigerians are yearning for change, because they are tired of the PDP. But, from all indications, some APC leaders have followed this ignoble path that may lead to the party’s Waterloo. It appears that, having learned such from the PDP, they are trying to impose it on us. But, this is not why we formed the APC and we will do everything possible to stop them.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:07:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015