Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, Professor Ango Abdullahi, speaks to DARE ADEKANMBI on the North’s position on the February 25 presidential election, dismissing the claims that the governors will decide where the votes will swing, speaks on the need to thinker with the political structure of the country, among other issues.
The naira scarcity occasioned by the money redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is being greeted with mixed reactions. While some are saying it will help curb vote buying, others feel it is piling to the pressure on ordinary Nigerians. Where do you stand on this?
The courts are there to resolve the matter if there are people with different positions and arguments on the policy. The resolution of the differences can only be solved in the court of law. It looks to me that so many stakeholders are already in court and one can hear verdict coming from the courts, including the Supreme Court, about what is right or what is wrong. So there is not much to say.
Last year, you spoke strongly against vote buying and how it poses a threat to free choice at elections. Don’t you see this naira policy as something that can help stop or reduce vote merchandising?
No, I don’t think so. The people who buy votes are politicians and it has so happened that it is the politicians that are in control of the CBN and the commercial banks. So, the fact there is re-printing or re-designing of our naira does not take away from politicians who rely on the system to control the supply of the old or the new currency. So, they can still go ahead with their practice of buying votes. All these are gimmicks. The real solution to vote buying is law enforcement and vote education. The law should be able to catch those who are buying or selling their votes. By voter education here means people should be told that they should not sell their future for N5,000 or even N10,000 and suffer for another four or eight years as the case may be. All these other things are just side talks.
What do you make of the state of the presidential race among the four frontrunners, Senator Bola Tinubu of APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and of course, Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP?
There are 18 presidential candidates not four.
Only four of them are frontrunners…
There are 18 of them from 18 political parties and all of them are going to be on the ballot. I have not done any statistical investigation about who the people in Lagos are going to vote for or my people in Zaria. So, it is difficult for me to say exactly because all the candidates are campaigning. Whichever candidate you look at, you find people dancing around him and you are not sure whether it is their fellow politicians who are dancing around them or it is the voters. You should be able to know who the frontline candidates are in terms of who is spending what, who is attracting news items in his favour or against him and so on.
The presidential candidates appeared before a northern group in Kaduna last year to discuss their plans for Nigeria and the North. You said…
Yes, five of them appeared before us and they told us what they plan to do and we said we would follow them through their campaign and we have been doing that to find out if what they told is what they are telling the electorate. In most cases, what they told us is not what they are telling the voters. They are not talking about issues. They are just fighting among themselves and calling themselves names. They are just throwing allegations and counter allegations among themselves. This is not a campaign based on issues. What we noticed is that it has been a campaign based on who is mine and who is not mine. That is what is going on. I just read a news item coming shockingly, from my point of view, from an old person. He said if somebody is not elected, the country will go to pieces. That is very sad for Nigeria.
You said NEF would unveil its preferred presidential candidate before the election. Have you reached that point now?
We have reached that point, but I will not tell you who the person is for now. NEF is still discussing with other stakeholders from other parts of the country who are interested in the elections. Even today [Thursday], we are having a meeting with the representatives of the Ohanaeze in Abuja.
A meeting between the Northern Elders Forum and Ohanaeze?
Yes, representatives of NEF and Ohanaeze are meeting right now and we don’t know the outcome of their discussion yet. When they are ready to tell us what they agree on, we will let you know.
I know the South-East people are saying it is their turn, but one of the most formidable candidate from the South is Senator Tinubu who is also saying it is his turn to be president…
Look, you are a Yoruba person. Do you remember that Obasanjo was president for eight years? Do you also remember that Osinbajo is the current vice-president and will have spent eight years by May? Do you remember that the North voted overwhelmingly for MKO Abiola? Why are you then saying it is your turn again?
Tinubu feels that having supported Buhari to be president, power should rotate back to the South and it should be his turn…
It is not only Tinubu. He must be speaking on behalf of somebody. First and foremost, he must be speaking on behalf of himself and his family and the Yoruba. So, what do you expect the Igbo to be doing? They too should be speaking on behalf of themselves and their son. On that logic, if the Yoruba say it is their turn and the Igbo, even more justifiably, say it is their turn and we the Northerners say it is our turn, then it looks like it is everybody’s turn. This is what I am telling you. The campaign is not based on issues, principles and the basic tenets of democracy. So, whether ‘na issue’ or whether ‘na emi l’okan›, let’s wait and see who is going to carry the day.
In terms of equity and fairness, whose turn do you think it should be?
What is equity? In the democratic system that we are practising, there is nothing like equity there. In the United States where Nigeria borrowed its presidential system, do they campaign based on equity or whether the candidate is from Oregon or New York or Los Angeles? No. They campaign on the basis of issues and the best candidate wins on the basis of one man, one vote. So, this is what we expect Nigerians to respect. But, apparently, they are not respecting it.
APC controls more states in the North and that makes Tinubu to stand a good chance in the North, although there are fears of possible betrayal from the North…
You think because APC has more states in the North than any other party, the governors will consequently swing votes for Tinubu? Well, let us wait and see whether they can. Each of the APC governors has only one vote like every other voter in the North. You think APC governors will sit down and be calling the voters to tell them where they will put their votes?
The Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has said the North will support Tinubu and support the clamour for power to shift back to the South…
Who is he? Who is that one? Let’s wait for him to deliver the votes to wherever he wants the votes to go. What I know is that, at the end of the day, it is the voters who will deliver the votes. That is my position. It is not the governors that will deliver the votes. The votes cast are the ones that will be counted and these votes will determine who has won and who has lost.
Are you not worried about power remaining in the North after Buhari, a northerner, has concluded eight years?
Why should I worry over that? Power can stay in the North or the South-West for another 16 or 20 years as long as the election is based on one man, one vote. It does not matter. That is what we have. If you want to change things, you have to change the system first to say that it is no longer one man, one vote and it is something else that will determine whether the leadership will come from. But as long as it is one man, one vote, the leadership of the country can come from anywhere. We don’t even know where it will come from until the votes are counted. That is how it is.
The South-East people are seen as the most justifiable to hold the number position…
It is the system that should allow them. Who will allow them other than the system? It is the system that they should be talking to and working with. They should not be talking with the individuals, but the system. The system in which they participate will determine whether they will get the support or they will not. There is no sharing of leadership position the way you share biscuit or cake. It is by election that is based on one man, one vote. Pure and simply. Shikena. The best candidate will emerge on the basis of the votes he is able to garner throughout the country.
The way things are going, There are 550 ethnic groups in Nigeria. If each ethnic group will take a turn, how many hundreds of years are you going to have before each of the ethnic groups gets its turn? So, we either have a system that we accept as a system that should serve all of us or we settle for what we are going through now.
The idea of six geopolitical zones was hatched to solve the problem of dominance of one ethnic group over the others. The country is meant to operate on the basis of the zones…
Even the current geopolitical zones are illegal and unconstitutional. Go and look at your constitution, there is no geopolitical zones there as a federating unit.
I know it is not written, but it has been adopted as the basis for sharing offices and even the South-West governors have suggested it should be the basis for sharing revenue…
There is nowhere in the constitution where the geopolitical zones are recognised as the basis of federating units. It is just for the convenience of the politicians that the idea came so that the political parties could utilise some of these concoctions for the country to stay together. But there is nowhere in the constitution of any law in Nigeria which says there are geopolitical zones.
Don’t you think for the country to de-escalate tension, it is necessary to adopt this idea…
If the country is going to restructure and we are going through the full process of constitutional amendment, then the zones could be recognised or there could be more regions. This is because Nigerians agree there should be a change of our constitution. Once we agree and the changes are in our law, then everything will work out. But what we have currently are conveniences for politicians to share party offices and other things. The only legal federating units in Nigeria today are the states, 36 of them. There is nothing like geopolitical zones.
I don’t know the fellow you are referring to, but the point being made by some APC supporters in the South-West is that if a Northerner is elected the next president, agitation for secession may escalate…
Then, let it be. As long as there is an election won by a Northerner, the Northerner will become president. No matter what happens to the country. We should be ready for it. Once there is an election that Nigerians participate in and candidates participate and one candidate wins from any region, as long as the election is free and fair, the winner will take over as president. If somebody says something other than that should happen and that Nigeria will go to pieces, then Nigeria will be ready to go to pieces.
