KB Milton: To ga wata matsala, Zaben 2011. Tsakanin Engr (Nuhu Gidado) da tugga (Hon. Yusuf Maitama Tugga), waye ne dan takarar APC (CPC)? ********************************** (FOR THE RECORDS) {Excepts of an interview, Leadership Newspapers May 30, 2013} *LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPERS: In the build-up to 2011 general polls, it appeared you were the candidate to beat in Bauchi governorship poll under the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). But all that went sour when the case of wrongful substitution of your name by your party marred your chances of contesting the gubernatorial election in the state; what really went wrong? *ENGR NUHU GIDADO: Here, I must confess that the relative absence of internal democracy was generally the bane of CPC in 2011, I guess, not only in Bauchi but in so many other states like Katsina, Kano among others. Internal democracy was not the best of what we ought to have seen in CPC, particularly under the umbrella of one person, General Muhammadu Buhari. Such things were happening in parties like the PDP, but we were so shocked and embarrassed that it reared its head in the CPC. In the case of Bauchi, the story was that at the end of the primaries, almost everybody was running to INEC and the press, saying “I won”. At least, four candidates declared they won the election. We didn’t; Nuhu Gidado group did not declare any winning. We waited for our national headquarters to do what they would do. Ultimately, people like Hon. Yusuf Maitama Tugga who first went to INEC in Bauchi, not even the national INEC, to beat the gun, he declared himself winner and then followed by Abdullahi Sarki Danchina who incidentally was returned by the committee that went to Bauchi to conduct the primaries, and then followed by Muhammad Dewu who went to court to get an exparte motion returning him as the candidate. Up until then, Nuhu Gidado and his camp didn’t make any pronouncement saying that we won. We were waiting for the natural events to unfold and to see what our national headquarters will do. The story might be too long, but because of that confusion, the CPC board of trustees decided to set up what they called Eminent Persons Harmonisation Committee. They called all of us;-, the candidates in Bauchi. We sat down and for five hours, we could not agree amongst ourselves before that committee to concede to one single individual. What they did was to take us into confidence and asked us to sign an undertaking that from the discussion we have had for five hours, whoever they recommend to the party would be acceptable to all of us, and we agreed. They wrote a memo which we all signed and went ahead to thumb print and they went away to do their assignment. That was on the 25th of January 2011. They returned their report to the board of trustees, and I was recommended through some criteria they used to filter out. So, they now came up with their own criteria and unanimously zeroed in on my person and returned this report to the board of trustees. General Muhammadu Buhari had it, our national headquarters had it, and everybody had it. Unfortunately along the line when our national secretary, Engr Buba Galadima summoned me to say, I have been nominated and it has been approved by the board of trustees as well as the party; take your form, go and fill it and return it to me. And so I did it. I filled the form, returned it to him in the presence of a lot of my supporters who escorted me. They took the forms to the national headquarters of INEC that same day - January 31, 2011. That was the deadline of return of forms of candidates to INEC. By 11.15pm to be precise, somebody called me to say “your name was entered into the computer, but as I am talking to you now it has been substituted with that of Yusuf Maitama Tugga”. I didn’t take it as something bad because my politics is not one a do-or-die affair. It was for the party, it was for the nation and it was for a change. So, whoever the party would have decided at the dying minutes would have been okay, but naturally because of my supporters, I wrote a letter instantly which I submitted the next day, February 1, to both then INEC national headquarters and our national headquarters asking them what could have gone wrong and what could have happened. I told them I had a pulse that my name had been substituted with that of somebody else; what could have happened because that would have been illegal as far as section 33 of the Electoral Act is concerned. There was no response, and two days later, I wrote a reminder; again no response. By the time, we went to the national headquarters with about five of our candidates in attendance - Sadiq Mahmoud, Yusuf Maitama Tugga and Mohammed Dewu and I; before the national chairman of CPC, Prince Tony Momoh, to discuss what could have happened. All the other candidates that were there said there was a process which was signed and endorsed; if it is Nuhu Gidado, they have no qualms, but they wanted to know what made them return Yusuf Maitama Tugga. It was an innocent question. For five hours, there was no clear response and there was no explanation. Even Yusuf Maitama Tugga was there; there was no clear response. We all left the venue and the next day what I saw on the national network news was a high ranking official official of the party - Engr. Buba Galadima, saying “the party has the right to nominate anybody. So be it!” But the caveat there was that “whoever was not satisfied should go to court”. Of course, my supporters came around and said this is a slight on our integrity and on our fight; so, we should go to court, and we did. In the court, they returned me and said what the party did was illegal. That was on April 8, 2011. We went round with the court verdict to INEC and the party, and nobody was ready to listen. It ended up in the Supreme Court, but then the election had taken place and PDP was returned. So, ours turned out to be “academic” because our party and candidate didn’t win. You would agree with me that this could as well have caused the CPC to lose the governorship election of Bauchi State in 2011. So, I am talking about internal democracy. Where the people have shown interest in an individual, in the name of God almighty, allow that to take its course because whoever you are - a president, a governor or a legislator - you are representing the interest of the people; you are representing the interest of the common man. That was what was wrong with the former CPC. But we hope and pray that, this time around, we will get it right.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 14:55:56 +0000