Mr Demola Olarewaju, Special Assistant on Digital Media Strategy to AtikuA Abubakar, in this interview with WALE AKINSELURE, x-rays the chances of his principal, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s election.
Based on what you have seen from your campaigns, how would you assess the chances of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Saturday’s election?
From everything I have seen, I believe AlhajiAtikuAbubakar is going to be the next president of Nigeria. We have seen the trend up North, across the South also, we believe AtikuAbubakar will score the highest number of votes across the entire country. He is also going to win 25 percent in every single state of the federation, considering the constitutional hurdles apart from winning the majority of votes. If you look at the electoral trends over the years wherever we have had two strong Southerners contesting and a Northerner also, the Northerner usually wins. We saw this in 1979 and in 1983. Again, there is also the strength of the PDP platform as a structural party which gives us a very strong edge in the South-South and puts us in competition in the South-East even in the South-West. So, we have a situation where even in states where Atiku does not come first, he will definitely come second. So, in this election, the outcome will be in favour of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Analysing your performance in zones, do you also hinge your confidence of having the highest number of votes in the North on endorsements of Atiku by groups like the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and some Civil Societies Organisations (CSOs)?
Our reliance is on the candidate himself; Atiku Abubakar is someone who, over the years, has been consistent in calling for restructuring; he is someone who has always put his ideas forward politically. He is someone with a strong philanthropic streak. In this electoral cycle, I have seen people who have said they have been helped in times past by Atiku Abubakar although he is not the kind of person that will bring those type of things to the public for political leverage or political reasons. So, his footprints regards that across the entire North and the South, and his stand on restructuring, is our reliance. Of course, endorsements from all groups whether in the North or South or any part of the country is crucial to our victory and we appreciate all the endorsements that have come because at the end of the day, people are the ones that will vote at the end of the day. They have seen very clearly that the ideas that Atiku Abubakar has put forward over the years, especially as regards restructuring, as they address insecurity in the North and the South too. State governments want powers to be able to fight bandits, insurgents, kidnappers in their various states. What Atiku Abubakar is proposing as regards restructuring will take care of that. Also, his second strength is in the strength of the party platform. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the platform that is known for inclusive governance. Atiku Abubakar himself is known for inclusive governance. These two strengths combined with the political acumen and antecedents of Atiku Abubakar as well as the political structural strength of the PDP is our reliance for victory without discountenancing the roles that have being played by the various groups that have endorsed us so far.
Also looking at performance in zones, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the years, has had the highest number of votes in the South-East and the South-South. But, in this race, there is Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who is from the South-East. Obi may greatly draw from the votes you usually would get from the South-East, this time.
I think the Peter Obi online wave shares a similar moral standing with that of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as regards the ‘It is the turn of the South’ advocacy. If you look at it from that perspective, it becomes a flaw to the presidential candidates from the South because if you had one, you will be able to aggregate the votes of the South against Atiku Abubakar not also forgetting that Atiku will definitely get votes from the South, especially the South-South. I think Peter Obi’s candidacy will affect Bola Tinubu more because of that Southern agenda to have the next president from the South. So, that works against Bola Tinubu. As regards the South-South, a lot of analysts see the South-South as a political adjunct of the South-East. They assume that the South-South will go the direction of the South-East. I don’t think the entire South-East will go the direction of Peter Obi because if there is any zone that has proven very adept in playing national politics and in showing good faith with the PDP, it is the South-East. I think the South-East will deliver strong votes for Atiku Abubakar and the PDP. Notwithstanding, the South-South has a stake in the election. The vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa is from the South-South, so, I think people from the South-South will vote massively for the PDP. I do not see the PDP losing any state in the South-South. So, I think the pathway to victory is very clear for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
There have been reservations among sections of Nigerians regarding the privatization plan of Atiku, as contained in his manifesto. Why is your principal looking the way of privatizing public utilities?
Atiku Abubakar is running on three ideological points. The first is devolution of powers, which is restructuring, which people from the South have greatly advocated for. The second is the one you have mentioned. Atiku Abubakar is running on private sector participation. In other words, he will partner with the private sector to resuscitate Nigeria. The third key ideology is related to that which is in the area of strong government regulation or government playing its role as regulator. What we have today is government being in the competition field in various sectors and not playing the role of regulator well enough. What Atiku Abubakar is proposing is that there should be a partnership between government and the private sector. What we have in Nigeria is a government that is heavily broke and indebted. In other words, there is no money. Anybody coming in the next government will not have funds to prosecute whatever ideas they want to execute. Atiku Abubakar’s solution is for private sector partnership answers the question of where the money will come from. If you look at the Buhari government which follows more of a pseudo-socialist policy. Even, they have started thinking in line with what Atiku said in 2019 as regards the privatization of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). They privatized and you still have fuel subsidy issues, you still have fuel scarcity. The issue is if you do not balance with government as a strong regulator, which is what Atiku is saying. Let the private sector take over aspects that have become deadweight to the central government and let the central government revert to its original role of being a strong regulator. For example, the electricity sector has been privatized but it is not delivering on its policies to the people. So, what will happen under Atiku Abubakar is that government will come in to that privatized sector as a regulator. You have the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) not playing its role in terms of arbitrary price increases and not delivering. Once there is devolution of powers, private-sector participation, government as a strong regulator, the fears of the critics will be adequately addressed.
There is the argument that in the spirit of fairness and equity, it is unfair that a Fulani man should take over from another Fulani man.
Such argument do not pay attention to the nuances of Nigeria politics. One of those nuances is the fact that in Nigeria, for every ethnicity, you have people that are more of ethnic players than national players. You have Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani that are ethno-centric. The Buhari administration has been quite ethnocentric towards the Fulani whereas with someone like Atiku Abubakar, his antecedents show that he has always been a nationalist from 1993 when he stepped down at the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries for Chief MKO Abiola to emerge and he went on to support Abiola even after the primaries of him being made running mate to Abiola was rigged. From 1999 to 2007, he was with the government of president Olusegun Obasanjo and he worked very strongly under that government even when he was subjected to various abuses from the North. Every single time he has run, he is someone who has always tried to work with someone from the South-East or as we have it this time, an Igbo from the South-South. He ran in 2007 with Senator Ben Obi from Anambra; he ran in 2019 with Peter Obi and he is running this time with Ifeanyi Okowa from Delta State, who is an Igbo. So, he is someone who has exhibited nationalist tendencies and that is why in this electoral cycle, Atiku Abubakar has enjoyed widespread support from across the entire country. We have seen support for Atiku from the South-West, South-South. He is the only Fulani that can pull that kind of support because he is not a Fulani ethnocentrist, he is a Fulani who has a nationalist tendency and it is cosmopolitan because it embraces all sections of Nigeria. Atiku is preaching restructuring which is a nationwide agenda and that is why he is getting support from across the country. Atiku is a Fulani man but someone who treats other ethnicities with fairness and someone who can unify Nigeria. He is not running to be another Buhari; he is running to be a nationalist; a president for all Nigerians.
Atiku seemed to have done his campaigns not minding the agitation of the G5 governors. How does Atiku intend to win in those states of the G5 governors, knowing the powers that governors wield in their states?
We decided not to pay them too much attention and obviously it has not slowed us down in any substantial way. What we know is that the PDP structures in those states will deliver for the PDP. Those governors were brought in on the structures of the PDP. Even when they depart from the values of the PDP, we expect that the PDP structures will still deliver in line with the PDP mission to recover Nigeria. We also know that some of these governors will support Atiku on Election Day and those that will not support him, the party structure will support him. In all their individual states, we expect a very strong showing for the PDP. We have moved on from those individuals; we are working with people who are solid on ground politically and we are sure that the PDP will emerge very strongly even from those G5 governors.
Do you think Atiku is home and dry to win Saturday’s election?
Until the election result is announced, I don’t think that we can say we are home and dry. We want every single vote possible in the quest for us to resist the APC continuing in power. We are still dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s. We ask Nigerians to support us in this quest to ensure that APC is voted out and Bola Tinubu is stopped from becoming the president. We believe only AtikuAbubakar can stop a Bola Tinubu from becoming president and we want Nigerians to join us in that quest. We are not resting on our oars until AtikuAbubakar is announced as winner of the February 25 election.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
