Opposition parties will dislodge PDP in Sokoto – Dingyadi By SAMINU IBRAHIM Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi served as the Secretary to the Sokoto State Government under former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa’s administration for seven and half years. He is also a former governorship candidate under the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) in Sokoto State. In this encounter with SAMINU IBRAHIM, he speaks on political developments in the country and Sokoto State. For quite some time, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) was immersed in political crisis; what is the situation now? The DPP is very much solid and has no factions, we are one. Of course in all political parties you see one small problem or the other bedeviling the party, but like other parties we have our problems but those problems will not graduate to serious problems that could factionalise the party. We are one and still solid, I am an active member of the party, as the chairman of the party national convention committee; we are putting heads together to see to the actualisation of our party convention coming up on 25th of May in Abuja. We have been hearing of merger by opposition parties, is the DPP going into this merger? Given the political development in this country today, we are of the belief that this merger is on a right track and we think it is necessary that people should give it due consideration; just last week, we had our National Executive Council (NEC) meeting and it is one of the issues we discussed and it was agreed to reconstitute a committee that has started talking with the merging parties. But we will continue to discuss this merger with the merging parties. I am a member of this committee and the discussion has gone very far. I am speaking on behalf of my party anyway and I want to say our party is giving consideration to the merger and by the grace of God, we want to take our leadership and our followership to a place that we think will be of benefit to all of us and to all Nigerians. The Federal Government has declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states to curtail activities of insurgents; what is your reaction? Personally I don’t think the state of emergency in those three states will solve the entire problem. It may bring an immediate peace to the areas now, but it will not solve the entire problem at a go as many people would want to believe, because we are dealing with a situation that is very delicate and volatile and these are things that require dialogue and you cannot just solve them with force. It is necessary to sit down with them and broker peace. It is not going to be as easy as that but it is not impossible. We can create an avenue for a dialogue and I think the federal government has started something along that line, if we had continued and allowed the committee to smoothly and peacefully execute the assignment given to them, I think we will make an impact and headway towards solving the problem. But as things are now, a lot of money is going to be involved in the state of emergency for the country. And if you compare the huge resources that it will require with the result that is going to come out of it, I am sure it is not something to be happy about. I think in as much as the federal government believe they are doing the right thing, many Nigerians like myself, have the opinion that we could have done without this state of emergency in these three states. Some are of the view that the instrument of state of emergency perhaps was proclaimed because of continuous spate of violence in the three states after the constitution of the amnesty committee. What is your take? I don’t subscribe to this assertion because the violence has been going on for long and the committee did not submit any report to say they have found any headway. And the dialogue is still in process, they have not done much, so we won’t expect them to make any magic at this material time. It is important you try to understand the situation first like what the committee is currently doing, by the time you have an idea of what it is all about, you stand a better chance of discussing further and finding solution to the problem. At what point did we get it wrong as a nation that precipitated this insurgency? You see we are a developing country. Of course we have gone far and I think we still have a lot to learn. But people are rushing to take us to where we have not yet matured to be. I think with commitment, perseverance and patience and given good leadership we will reach the promise land. But as things are now, we are still battling with corruption, our judiciary is unstable, the image that we know of judiciary is no longer there, of course they are trying to make amend but we all know the judiciary and the executive in this country still have a lot to do in order to meet up with the expectations of the people of this country.  Recently Asari Dokubo said if Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015, Nigeria will not see peace. What is your view? I think the gentleman was making a political statement to suit his own political interest, so what is wrong in that, we are all Nigerians. Everybody is entitled to his own opinion but it is a very dangerous precedence that somebody is trying to create. People should be kind and courageous enough to mind their language as to what to say and when to say it. Otherwise I will regard it just as a political statement which as a Nigerian he is entitled to, but this one is almost an extreme statement which is not well guided. A similar statement reportedly emanated from Professor Ango Abdullahi on the issue of presidency in 2015? I have already explained that these are political statements made by people who have their own belief and who think this is how things should go and we should be able to accommodate these things as long as they are not too extreme. We know our country, this country is one indivisible and united country, and it doesn’t matter whatever anybody may say we shall continue to remain one indivisible country. People are just making statements, one to get cheap publicity, and secondly to canvass for their own views and feelings, but as a country I see us as one nation, indivisible and no amount of threats or harassment will divide Nigeria. But that notwithstanding people should avoid statements that are detriment to the unity of this country. What is your assessment of our 14 years of uninterrupted democratic governance? I earlier said we are developing country that is still growing, even though we are not moving at the pace we are supposed to move but by the grace of God we will make it one day, not everything will be perfect but we look forward to seeing many improvements, given the right atmosphere, given the right leadership. Hope is not lost. There are reports that Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Muktar Shagari has been adopted by Governor Wamakko to take over from him in 2015; is it true? I am not a member of PDP, neither am I aware of any arrangement by anybody to take over from anybody. I am a member of DPP and know only of things that are going on in my party. But be that as it may, the opposition political parties in Sokoto Sate are ready to face whoever is coming out to contest as a governor under the PDP in Sokoto State. We are equal to the task, and we are prepared to make it in 2015, by the grace of God. How would you wrestle power from PDP in Sokoto State when the relationship between you and former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa is allegedly strained? We have always been together with Bafarawa as friends, as my elder brother, as my mentor, we have never parted ways. Though we are not in the same DPP, political differences not withstanding we have been working together and with this merger talks now we may likely be in the same party with Bafarawa. Sokoto state has been relatively peaceful politically; does that translate to harmony between the ruling PDP government and the opposition parties? Well politics of intimidation is everywhere in Sokoto and in all other PDP states. Like in other states we have been intimidated in various forms. Our people have been harassed and we just took it as part of life, these are things that somebody faces when he joins politics, and one should be able to accept that as a reward of decision one has made for himself. So we have been facing those challenges but we thank God most of them have now become history; because the problems they are facing are more than our own now. They are facing problem of administration, problem of having to deliver, problems of having to provide dividends of democracy to your people and all these things people are there making their own judgments and like in most PDP states, Sokoto is not an exception, government is still performing below expectation and we are moving towards 2015, where the electorate will make their own judgment. Could you recall the controversy that ensued over your litigation at the Court of Appeal in Sokoto? Well, we filed a case, an election petition at the Court of Appeal, appealing the judgment of the lower tribunal. That case was heard and it was set for ruling, and a date was even fixed for the ruling when the former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu arrested the judgment, because they instructed for the stoppage of the judgment and it was not delivered on the date it was scheduled to be delivered for reasons best known to them; and these reasons were just based on mere allegations and they used that opportunity to filed another case to stop the judgment because of certain reasons again which were best known to the courts. And since then that matter has not been read and it has never been like this when a judgment is set for ruling and it is never heard. That case since it has been set for judgment it has to be heard. So many legal luminaries have expressed the view that it must be heard and we don’t know why it was not heard. Hence we are leaving everything to God, but we do hope some people would one day wake up and say let us do things in the right way. The PDP has been in government for 14 years, do you think the opposition can match the party as we march towards 2015 presidential elections? You have seen us merging and coming together and of course you have seen us strategizing. I think the opposition political parties in this country are committed to dislodging PDP government in 2015, by the grace of God; there is no doubt about that one. All Nigerians are moving towards that direction and we are sure that it is going to be a great success. Do you have fears on the 2015 elections? No I don’t have any fear, people are thinking that some people for reasons best known to them may create confusion to bring out problem in 2015, but I don’t see it that way. I think whatever happens, there is going to be election in 2015, and it’s is going to be a day for the opposition, by the grace of God. Nigeria is facing serious security challenges, what do you think we should do? Well we should all continue to pray for peace to rein in this country. And each and every one of us has a role to play, if we pray and play our own roles correctly, I think and I am sure we will have peace in the country.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:16:40 +0000
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