WHY I LEFT CPC NURA KHALIL Filed in News by cooljoe on January 26, 2011 Why I left CPC Nura Khalil Wednesday, 26 January 2011 00:00 Lawal Ibrahim You abandoned the opposition you were known for and defected to the ruling PDP you had severally accused of wrong doing. Can you tell us why the sudden change of mind? Well, you see, the leadership of the CPC is a complete failure. The party was formed as a safe haven for people like us who were cheated by the former ANPP and who were unlawfully excluded from participation in the 2007 general elections. So we thought that by moving to CPC, which will now constitute people of like minds, we were going to have a platform where justice and fair play will prevail. But to our utmost shock, the protem leadership of the party, especially in Katsina State was not only a failure but a complete disgrace. The first time I went to join the party, I was denied entry. My ward leadership was clearly instructed by the state officials not to register me and some of my supporters. But the leadership of the party in my ward gave me my registration card because they knew that political parties are for people, and in fact, people who have followership. If that is the case, they know there was no way I could be ignored in the political equation of Katsina State. So in their wisdom they felt it would be a great disservice to CPC and to my personality not to be issued with a registration card. When the party executives realized that I had been registered, they invited my ward chairman and secretary and instructed them to return the registers. They then wrote a letter to the police commissioner alleging that I had illegally acquired the membership card of the party. They also claimed in the letter to the police that I had caused confusion when General Muhammadu Buhari went to register in Daura. They also alleged that I caused public disturbance when he [Buhari] visited Malumfashi and when Hon. Aminu Bello Masari went to the party headquarters to declare his membership of the CPC. In all, they tried to establish a criminal case against me. So, I reported this matter to General Muhammadu Buhari and requested him to, in the interest of peace and fair play, intervene in the matter with the state officials. As if that was not enough, when the party started selling forms for expression of interest to those of us aspiring for positions, I went to the party secretariat to buy the form to run for governor but I was denied. So I had to go to the National Headquarters in Abuja to buy the form. But after filling, they refused to collect it from me, and again I had to take it back to the National Headquarters. The National Headquarters wrote a letter to the state executive saying that I am an aspirant under the party; and therefore I should be given all the privileges accorded other gubernatorial aspirants. However, the party constituted a committee to reconcile aspirants and the committee failed to invite me. Even before then, I have never been invited to any function organized by the state leadership. The so-called reconciliation committee sat in Katsina many times and up to the time they concluded their assignment and declared the so-called consensus candidate, they never invited me. And to crown it all, I bought a nomination form in the sum N2.5m but the party refused to issue me a receipt to signify that I had purchased the form and that the party had accepted it. I complained to the caretaker committee who brought in these forms to sale but I was just asked to write a petition. But they were aware that in the party guidelines, receipts are supposed to accompany all completed nomination forms without which the form will not be accepted. So you can see very clearly from the onset that it is a party that tried to deny people the right to join it and determine to subvert due process. Therefore I don’t think that can be called a political party. You said you earlier complained to General Buhari about the problems you encountered while joining the party; did you also keep him posted on the other problems you went through later? When I complained about the positions of the party’s leadership regarding my entry into the party and apparently there was no clear instruction, or nothing to show that the General had spoken to them, I decided not to go to him on any other matter. I even personally felt we should not bother him with trivial matters that are supposed to be settled locally. So you can see that it’s the failure of leadership that even complaints from ward are normally addressed to the General, when he is supposed to be busy with his presidential campaigning nationwide. The truth is that from Daura, Bakori and Funtua local governments, complaints are directed to him. In fairness to him [Buhari], I don’t see how he could face his presidential campaign with complaints directed at him from the local level. You won ANPP’s gubernatorial primaries in 2007 but you were substituted and now you are frustrated out of CPC, which is widely considered as Buhari’s political party. Looking at your travails, will it be right to assume that Buhari is not comfortable with you? Well, the party’s leadership has been peddling that falsehood. But I am certain that my unlawful exclusion in the 2007 election has nothing to do with Buhari. He was a party member and not a member of the caucus which decided that I should not be given the mandate to fly the flag of the party in Katsina State. It’s the party in Katsina led by Armaya’u that I know excelled in propagating falsehood among party members. They know that the ordinary party member does not have access to Buhari, so they always ascribe things to him, knowing that the common man believes in the General. In fact they hide under his guise to destroy the party. Who are those you are precisely blaming of blocking people from Buhari, is it the much talked about TBO or some alleged musketeers around him? The TBO has generally succeeded in blocking people who would have contributed positively to the campaigns of General Buhari; they were behaving as if the ANPP had won the general elections and therefore they thought nobody should come close to the General to share from the success. In Katsina particularly, I would not say it’s the TBO because I have interacted positively with the members of the TBO at the state level, but there are some individuals, about 3 or 4 of them, that succeeded in destroying the ANPP in Katsina. I don’t like mentioning names but I can tell you these people were parading themselves as the party elders. But as far as other people were concerned, they were more or less Tsofafin Najadu [old crooks]. But you were alleged to have signed a contract with the PDP to destabilize the opposition; that as part of it you are executing a billion naira contract in Sokoto. What is your reaction to that? We were in the same party with Governor Aliyu Wamakko before he moved to PDP, and we have a very good relationship with him. He has taken me like his junior brother and I have always considered him as a senior brother. I was in Sokoto to congratulate him when he won the election when he told me that he had made certain promises to the people of the state, particularly the rehabilitation of Sokoto- Ilela road and the rehabilitation of Sokoto water works. It’s interesting that the water works was built by a company that I worked with and it’s also interesting that my own company, which have franchise to most of the electro-mechanical equipments in the water works, is their representative in Nigeria. So I told him well, you are lucky because the gentlemen that installed all the equipment was in Nigeria and I promptly instructed him to come to Sokoto to carry all the survey and offered all the remedial measures that need to be taken and prepared documents for the rehabilitation of the works. So the Sokoto-Illela road was given to my company after a competitive bidding process. Therefore as a Nigerian and a proffessional in the civil engineering industry, with my experiences and my capacity, I see no reason I should reject a job I am offered because it came from a party or a government that is controlled by a political party I don’t belong to. I have service to offer and I was requested to offer that service, but people saw that as an attempt by PDP government to compromise me in Katsina State. This matter was even reported to some of the party elders and the gentleman who reported the matter is a consultant working for a Federal Government institution. But he was asked whether that institution he worked with is controlled by the party (PDP), so what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander. Many people may still wonder why you decided to join a party that caused you so much pain in the past, and now that you did, are you likely to pursue any ambition in its platform? The PDP, in all respect, has not caused me any pain. You see, I actually participated in the formation of the PDP in 1999, and I can disclose to you that late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua said, in the presence of Alh. Dahiru Mangal that I gave 90 percent of the funds that were used in setting up the party and also the money used to conduct his campaign. I was supposed to be his running mate but out of sheer loyalty to my boss, I was instructed not to take that appointment because I was working as a consultant to the PTF. In 2002, the late President also called me in private and said Nura you are going to be my deputy in the 2003 elections. When that was in the offing, General Muhammadu Buhari joined active politics and as a loyalist, I had no option than to join the political party General Buhari joined, which is the ANPP. I had no quarrel with the late President [Yar’adua] that made me to stay away from PDP. So I can say in all respect that the PDP was a party that I initially belonged to. When I joined the ANPP and succeeded in the 2003 election to which everyone knows, what happened afterward, as a loyal party member I still continued participating in all activities of the party. But things changed in 2007 when I won the party primaries but was denied the flagship by officials of the party. I went to the court and I got a court order that re- instated my nomination as gubernatorial candidate. Therefore I think I have come into a party that I fully participated in its formation. I could remember that the first speech of Yar’adua’s entry into the party was drafted on my table. So for me it’s like home coming. In any case, the accusation levelled against the PDP that it is an unjust and unfair party is probably unfair because it has turned out to be more just and fair than the CPC. At least in PDP no one will try to deny you membership. Even if the party does not want you to contest, you will be told in clear language so that you don’t even make any attempt, but in the ANPP and subsequently the CPC, there is a deliberate design by party leadership to deny other people membership. Again in some cases attempts were made to impose candidates on the party as they did through the so- called reconciliation committee.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 09:46:09 +0000
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