Former governor of Ekiti State and chairman of the National Convention Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Kayode Fayemi, in this interview stated that the party cannot afford to have questionable presidential primaries, slated for December 10. He says the repercussion would be devastating not just for the party, but for democracy and Nigerians who have placed so much hope in the APC as the party that would bring the change Nigeria needs. He spoke with Chibuzo Ukaibe. Why did APC settle for Lagos State as venue for its national convention? We originally wanted to hold our national convention in Abuja because naturally, it is the place to hold an event of that nature and that is where we have always held national party conventions. We had chosen a date to hold the party convention in Abuja but due to some exigencies, we had to change that date. It so happened that the new date we choose coincides with the date the PDP also chose for their national convention. The Eagle Square that we wanted to use had been booked for the day, but it was not just because of that. As you know, anywhere our president is going to appear, given the security situation, three or more days before the event, the venue is taken over by the security agencies. We then looked at other options and felt that only Lagos successfully met all the factors that are considered to be critical to the success of our convention. What factors are you referring to? Comprehensive security measures full coverage by the media and capacity to accommodate 10,000 delegates for instance. There is no other city that can do that outside Abuja and Lagos. Benin was also a very high ranking choice but it did not succeed on that point because with the accommodation there, Benin would not meet up with the needs of our delegates, aspirants and other leaders that would be present. So, those were the grounds on which Lagos qualified to be the choice of the venue for our convention. Have the fears expressed by some aspirants that the choice of Lagos would give undue advantage to some others been allayed? I wouldn’t know about that as I have not heard from any aspirant about the undue advantage issue. Indeed some aspirants wrote to us wanting the convention committee to stick to Abuja, but since everything we are doing is transparent and all aspirants have representatives in the committee and were part of all the discussions that transpired before we arrived at Lagos, we were able to convince them. I then chose to meet with all the presidential aspirants because I felt it was important for me to explain to them as chairman of the convention committee why we arrived at Lagos and they could see that the choice of Lagos was not an arbitrary decision or an accidental choice. Was it the decision of the committee or the party for all the presidential aspirants to go into some kind of commitment not to defect in case they lose? The commitment is not just about defection; we are less concerned about defection. We are more concerned about post convention acrimony which will not augur well for us. Let’s face it, we have a very short time to demonstrate to Nigerians the stuff we are made of. So, essentially, whoever emerges from this convention would be handed our manifesto which we also plan to unveil to Nigerians on that day. He will literarily hit the ground running from the convention ground to the campaign ground. So, if we don’t take steps to ensure that the process is credible and acceptable to all, then we will spend the first month on post convention acrimony and we don’t want that. We felt it was important that all those going into this process must also show commitment to post convention harmony and that is why the party did what it did. Still on the undertaking, is there a mechanism that the party has put in place to punish those who may not want to abide by the outcome? That is why we have a very huge task on our hands as the convention committee. I am reasonably convinced that we have serious minded aspirants and once we do our job in terms of the process being credible and seen to be transparent by all and sundry, everybody would accept the outcome. That is our belief. But, we also have post convention conflict management mechanisms. There must be something in it for all players. We want to win an election; the presidency of Nigeria is not the only position. People want to serve and anybody contesting on our platform is a politician of extensive credible experience. I would like to think that it is service that is propelling them. Of course they want to be president, but if the presidential candidature is not available due to the fact that they did not win the primaries, there are other ways they can serve and I believe they will all want to live up to their undertaking. Will the committee or party be involved in the picking of a running mate for the winner of the presidential primaries? That is way beyond my pay check; I am only responsible for producing the presidential candidate of our party. That is the job of the convention committee. As per the process for the choice of the running mate, I would think that is a matter for the national chairman and leadership of the party as well as the candidate who emerges from the contest. It is not a matter for the convention committee. What is the budget like for the convention? I don’t have a figure off the top of my head. I can tell you that we have almost 10,000 delegates who would have to be transported from their various states and of course we want this to be in the full glare of Nigerians so that there will be live television broadcast all through the convention. It is not cheap but democracy is not cheap. We have to ensure we do things properly and in a way that can sell us to Nigerians. For us it’s another campaign tool. If we do it well, openly and transparently, it will enhance our reputation as a government in waiting which is ready for serious business; that is what we are out to show. But the cost is something that has to be put in perspective. It is not outrageous but it’s relatively small compared to what we have to spend on the campaign trail. There is no way we can match those who are in control of the federal treasury. We are more accountable, that is why I can’t recall it from the top of my head. But we are going to present a full report at the end of this exercise that will detail a financial summary and properly edited too, how we conducted the exercise and how much we spent in organising it. What is the template you are working on as an umpire of the primaries? The template we are working on is that we will be able to produce a winner at the end of the day on a simple majority. This is not a process that is based on two thirds or 25 percent of the 36 states. For this convention, it is simple majority and as stated in our party constitution, it is a secret ballot system. We would endeavour to make it as open as possible, but anyone that is not on the delegates list will not have a vote and if as a journalist, medical worker or invited guest, you are not accredited, you will not get into the venue. Have you prepared for a situation where the aspirants get into a consensus and pick one person and is there a window within which an aspirant could step down? The assignment I have does not include consensus consideration. That is beyond my pay check. The leadership of the party will have to deal with that. I have not being informed that any such step has been taken by any aspirant. But in the event that it has been taken, the leadership will inform me as national chairman of the convention committee and we will factor that into the arrangements we are making. But it has to be on time since the name of the aspirants will be on the ballot. We have already provided some guidelines which have been published in some newspapers which you may have seen. As far as we are concerned, all aspirants that have been screened and have received their certificates of clearance are going to be on the ballot. Even if they drop out for one reason or the other, it will be difficult for us to remove them from the ballot. What kind of security measures have you put in place? We have a security committee within the national convention committee. However this convention may falter on two or three main things that we must guard against. One of them is a flawless accreditation list of delegates. We are determined to achieve a flawless delegates list agreed to by all the contestants on the basis of the convention that we have held across the 36 states. Secondly, there is a critical nature of security that the entire exercise requires and we are taking appropriate steps to ensure that all security agencies that are critical to the exercise will be involved in it. Some extra security measures that will relate to ballot countingwill also be taken but I can’t go into all those details now. At the end of the day when your candidate emerges, what will the party offer the losers? Even the terminology is not acceptable to me. There will be no losers. All aspirants have come into this because they believe Nigerians need a desperate change; that is what has informed their contest and that requirement for change will not disappear simply because they did not emerge at the end of the day. I don’t see them not working assiduously towards removing the ruling party that by all accounts has failed Nigerians. So the priority is for all of our aspirants and those of us that are not aspirants to fight to win the election. Of course the party leadership will take appropriate measures which I may not know in terms of post convention conflict management that i spoke of earlier. This is a no victor, no vanquished contest. What steps are you putting in place to check monetary inducement of delegates? I can’t speculate on what people are hearing and what people have been accused of doing or not doing. I can tell you that we are making adequate preparations for all delegates. We will be responsible for their transport and accommodation.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 11:15:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015