WE WELCOME TAMBUWAL TO APC IN SOKOTO BUT... - Prof. Bashar Professor Mohammad Lawal Bashar is an All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirant in Sokoto State. He explains in this interview why he is against the idea of zoning the party’s ticket and the feeling of other aspirants towards alleged plans to hand over the ticket to Speaker Aminu Tambuwal. Excerpts: You have indicated interest in running as governor of Sokoto State. How prepared are you? I started this effort more than a year ago under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). I have presence and campaign coordinators in all the 23 local governments. I made contacts with all the traditional rulers and political party stakeholders. So I am fully prepared for this undertaking. We understand the governorship ticket of the APC has been zoned, what is your take on this? It is rather unfortunate that this misguided decision was taken by some party stakeholders despite its problems and the potential for disaster in our party. If you could recall, the main contentious issue for the party that we are contesting against is the issue of zoning. It is zoning that has put so much impediments in our country and it has made political leaders to perpetuate themselves in office. What would be the implication of this for the party? APC has an evolutional agenda to pull out our country from the misery that it is in. So any right thinking person will move from PDP to APC because of the credible credential that it has and that was why those governors and political stakeholders moved to our side. In reference to the Sokoto zoning issue, I was present at the meeting, and I made my mind known that we are setting a wrong precedence because the strategy of zoning has created havoc. And if our party in Sokoto State has decided to adopt it then we are heading for disaster. I recall the northern principal stakeholders meeting that took place recently in Kaduna, almost all the APC governors were present, and unfortunately Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko was absent. Everybody that was there, including the presidential aspirants and serving governors, were all emphatic that APC must provide a fair, level ground for all aspirants to contest so that in the final analysis, which ever candidate emerges, will be accepted by the people. Personally, I have no problem with any of the aspirants including Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. My only problem is that we are trying to circumvent the party constitution and election guidelines by trying to adopt a faulty strategy which will end up dividing us. We are in the opposition and that is the more reason why all the candidates must be popular and accepted. For instance, the case of Al-Makura and Nyako. While Nyako was hurriedly impeached and removed from office, Al-Makura, because his people support him, they made it impossible for the government to remove him. So what we are saying is that let there be a fair ground for everyone. If Tambuwal emerges, we shall support him with all our means. There are some desperate politicians who want by any means to smuggle him in and make him governor. I have no problem if he will leave PDP to APC to contest. We built APC as a merger through a process that lasted for couple of years. We gave all we had to build this party. Myself in particular, I had to retire from my university job to join this race and I have given everything I have in this life for the APC just for someone sitting there in the PDP to come at the dying minute to scuttle all the hard work. I think this is very unfortunate and our party leadership should not allow it. What is the position of the party leadership on this issue? All I know is that at the meeting, there were certain dissenting voices. One came from me because I don’t believe in zoning; it is trash and a disaster for our country. I also warned them that they should know that we are in the opposition and it is not time for manipulation of figures and results because we can no longer do it. It is a matter of putting someone there on behalf of the people who could defend him at any time. Losing election is far bitter than losing life. If we put somebody there with bad records and we are defeated by the ruling party then we are in disaster. I want APC Sokoto to come back to their senses. I recall that at that meeting, Senator Bello Jibril shared the same view with me as he said his people from the eastern zone said their candidate should be represented but he did not prevail on the party. I also spoke to the aspirants; even some of the contestants in the southern zone like Sen. Umoru Dahiru Tambuwal and Barrister Aliyu Sanyina who were not in favour of this zoning to their zone. The meeting was done haphazardly because there were no consultations with the aspirants. So it is just like what our elder, Prince Tony Momoh, said: “If with Buhari with all his credentials is not imposed by the party on anyone, I don’t think anyone else should be imposed.” Are you aware of any member taking this issue to the party national secretariat? This is not the time because all I could remember is that a committee was set up to apportion who will contest elections from the gubernatorial up to councillorship and I wonder why we say so many bad things about PDP. They are not the ones handpicking candidates and imposing them on the people, why do we need a committee? If our leader, the executive governor reconsiders these in the light of the consequences of this harmful strategy and says the committee should get out of the way, we are going to adopt the guidelines of the national party office. Then everything will be alright. Sakkwato Birnin Shehu 31st October, 2014
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:39:52 +0000
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