National Chairman, Accord, Honourable Mohammed Nalado, in this interview with journalists, speaks on to his leadership of the party, its chances in the forthcoming elections, possible alliance with other parties and level of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). WALE AKINSELURE brings excerpts:
There seems to be a faction in your party with one Reverend Isaac Adeniyi claiming to be the national chairman of your party. You are also chairman of the party. What is happening in your party?
This sounds funny. We have one Accord in Nigeria; we have one leadership of Accord in Nigeria. The leadership of Nigeria is being piloted by the national chairman, who is Honourable Mohammed Nalado, who is my humble self. Verifying this is very easy. This can be verified with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) records. Who is the authentic chairman of INEC? All those people are self-acclaimed nothing to show that they are what they are claiming to be. They are just trying to distract us because of the progress they see Accord making. If they claim to be a faction, where is their office? There is one Accord and members of the party know that there is only one leadership. We are the genuine leadership of Accord and are the ones invited by governorship candidates across states. We have governorship candidates not in all 36 states but in many states. I signed the nomination forms of the candidates of Accord as national chairman, and Honourable Bukola Ajaja as national secretary.
Reverend Adeniyi used to be a member of Accord but due to some reasons, his own party officials, in his own state, decided to dismiss him, from the ward level. After his expulsion from the party, the ward transmitted better to the local government and to the state. The local government found him wanting and they confirmed and forwarded it to the state. Due process was followed in his removal from the party.
When he was with us, he was an ex-officio member of the party. So, how can an ex-officio claim be the chairman of the party? We are being governed by law. So, if you have anything, have proof for it. I am not saying anything other than the truth. If anyone is in doubt, go to INEC. INEC transmitted a letter to us. We asked whether what these people are doing is with the knowledge of INEC and the commission said, no. I am sure the security agencies are looking for them. If what he said is true, let him come out. We are law-abiding and peace lovers. When you do things wrong, you know how and where to approach to make things go right. As far as we are concerned, Accord has one executive committee and that executive is being led by me. You can visit us at our headquarters to see who is occupying the headquarters. You cannot be somewhere claiming to be chairman of the party when you cannot even have access to the office, account of the party. When INEC is calling for stakeholders’ meetings, I am the one that is invited. They have seen the writing on the wall that Accord will make a tremendous success in this elections. I have a firm belief that Accord will capture some states, Oyo inclusive. We are confident and not ready to listen to these distractions. During the last recruitment, we provided polling agents. Accord has been established long ago. I brought Accord to Oyo because of my relationship with former Governor Rashidi Ladoja. He was in the Senate, while I was in the House of Representatives and we have been maintaining a very cordial relationship. I was able to convince him to come to Accord and we know what Accord achieved in 2011. I have been a founding member of Accord. I started as zonal chairman and today, I am the national chairman.
In how many states do you have governorship candidates?
We don’t have in all states, but we have in many states.
Are you keen on an alliance with PDP, APC for the presidential election?
Accord flagged off its presidential campaign in Lagos recently. If we plan an alignment, do you think we would have done that? At the moment, we have never been approached by any party or any presidential candidate from any other party to align or work together. And we are not working on aligning with anyone or party. We are working on how to stage our campaigns and make our campaigns successful and see how we can sell our candidate to be winner of the presidential election. We are not working on waiting for somebody or looking for somebody to come and align with us. You will not hear Accord being mentioned on an intention to align with any party. We have never discussed that and it has never been our itinerary. But, you know we are politicians and in politics, you cannot rule out possibilities of alliances. Some people may decide, at the Eleventh hour, to see maybe they cannot make it and want to align with Accord; either they want to support Accord or want Accord to support them. Such things cannot be ruled out. Anything can happen, just like what happened in 2015, when some parties came together and formed an alliance that produced the present governor. As a politician, you cannot say you want to do it all by yourself. We are all politicians and what we are keen on is how to salvage Nigeria. That is in the manifesto of many, if not all the presidential candidates. Maybe some people might find us more useful to come and align with our candidate because we have a very youthful presidential candidate, and younger than all other candidates. Our candidate is 39 years and majority of voters that have acquired their PVCs are young people. So, the people from his constituency are more in number. If he is able to mobilise and sensitise these youths, they may give him their votes. If the youths decide to give you votes, with women, you are a winner. It is not all about money or how much a candidate has; it is about influence and convincing the youth to understand why they should vote for a particular person. The youths have been systematically schemed out of politics, out of positions. Many positions are being occupied by the older generation while the majority of the voters that make these people to be in power are the youths.There is no way a president, who is a youth is elected will fill his cabinet with the older generation. No political party will not like to align with people that have positive thinking, similar ideologies to come and work together most especially if any party feels that we have a candidate that represents their interest and we say let’s come and work together. I know it will be difficult for our candidate to step down for anybody. Accord will not close its doors to others interested in joining hands with Accord to make Accord victory a reality. Anybody keen on joining hands with our candidate to ensure victory is welcome.
Do you really think your party can win the next governorship election in Oyo State?
In the 2019 election, our gubernatorial candidate almost won the election but for some issues at that time. The gap between him and the winner was slim. This shows that our candidate is loved by the people of Oyo State. Those things that made it difficult for him to win the election, at that time, are not there again. So, I believe this is his time. By the grace of God, Oyo people will vote for him enmasse because they love him. It is the same person that stood for the 2019 election that is running for the next election. All his good works, behaviour that endeared him to the people of Oyo State have not vanished. These are things he has done in his lifetime. The people of Oyo are still waiting for him to be their governor so that he can continue the good work. I love his simplicity, humility, accessibility.
How do you intend to leverage on your relationship with your old-time friend, Senator Ladoja to ensure your party’s success?
Ladoja is now a traditional chief; he cannot come out to participate in political activities. But, certainly, Ladoja is a good leader. When he was the national leader of Accord, he performed wonderfully well. But, because of this attainment traditionally, there are certain things he cannot say and do but I believe Accord is in his heart. Our relationship with him is very cordial. In fact, we communicate almost on a daily basis, especially when we have issues that we need his advice, experience. Whenever he sees us doing things that are not in conformity with the ideology of Accord, he calls us and we do listen to advice from elders, experienced politicians like him. He is a leader, not a ruler. Nobody will not want to have relationship with him.
What is your level of confidence in INEC delivering a free, fair and credible election?
Yes. I was a two-time chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC). Even before the appointment of the present INEC chairman, Professor MahmoodYakubu, I had known INEC very well and I can make comparisons between the current leadership and those of the past. I can testify anywhere that the present INEC leadership is the most innovative. Since he came on board, Nigeria’s electoral system is going smoother everyday because they are always studying the situation and are quick to find solution to problems experienced from time to time. They have kept improving. With some of our politicians good at manipulating cardreader, immediately he came on board, he started thinking of another way to make the process more credible hence BVAS would introduced which is more secure in transmission of results and the election processes. When some people felt BVAS will not favour them, they started making allegations and counter- allegations against the leadership of INEC. Some people are trying to put fear into Nigerians regarding the conduct of the elections. We have had worse situation, especially when Boko Haram was ravaging the nation, yet elections held. Now that the situation is milder than that time. Elections will hold and I have the belief that the electoral umpire will be strict and selfless. They will not be biased and I am sure the electoral process will be free, peaceful and fair.
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