The national chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Professor Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, in this interview with TAOFEEK LAWAL speaks on a wide range of issues among which is the call on Nigerians to choose leaders who will change the course of the country for good.
This government will be leaving behind now, maybe as at now a debt of N77 trillion and we don’t know what it will look like by time this government exits in May. What will be the implication for the next government?
Well, the first question you ask is why the government is talking about this debt at this hour. What is the objective? What do they want to achieve by saying that they are leaving behind these debts at this hour. And secondly, what have they done so far over the past eight years or thereabout to ensure that Nigeria do not descend into this level of indebtedness. What are the causes of the debts and what is the structure of the debt? You know, it’s important to know the structure of the debt both in external debt and domestic debt. What was the money used for? What was it spent on that resulted in this debt?
I think there are many more questions. I think after the upcoming elections, the next government is going to inherit more than N77trillion debt. And from the look of things, the next government will also inherit dilapidated structures, security challenges and an economy that is not only in recession, but in terrible shape. And of course this will pose a very huge challenge to anyone that wins the presidential election.
But I do know that for us in NNPP, our presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has never shy away from challenges. He has been involved in governance for a long time at all levels. During his two-term as Kano State governor, he did a very good job. So I believe his government will look at all the possible ways to manage the debt. But I think it is discouraging, especially given the fact that Nigeria today has not been exporting as much oil as it should under the OPEC quota perhaps because of the oil sabotage we’ve been hearing. So unless the other sector of the economy pick up quickly such as agriculture, tourism, manufacturing sector, mining, it’s going to be very tough. So it means that this is a parting gift.
Recently, elder statesman and frontline legal luminary, Chief AfeBabalola, said that the winner of the 2023 presidential election will not necessarily be the best person, but the highest spender. What is your take on this?
Well, I don’t know why he said this. He is a lawyer and he has been long in the system, so I don’t want to join issue with him. But I know the presidency in Nigeria is not for sale, it’s not going to the highest bidder. I am convinced that Nigerians’ eyes are now opened with what they have gone through over the past few years. I believe anybody who wants to use money to force the same system to continue will be unfair to Nigerians. Most of the people are suffering. They have just heard about the terrible parting gift (the N77 trillion debt) we are getting from APC government and now we are saying that the presidency is for the highest bidder. I hope it’s not true. I hope it’s not correct.
We, in NNPP, say no to that and we are opposed to that and we are calling on Nigerians to maximally use their franchise, not to go back to what we have gone through. You have gone through eight years of this hardship and you want to repeat it? It is one of the greatest tragedies that can happen to us and we shouldn’t allow it.
Former President Obasanjo few days ago endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi. Are you worried about that as a political party?
We are in the season of politics and so many things happen. And if you notice since the announcement of the so-called endorsement, our party did not issue a statement. We do not say anything and mainly because sometimes our party is more focused on what we are doing. And remember before the endorsement you’re talking about, way back almost four months ago, even before the INEC formally allowed the parties to run their campaign, we had some fringe organisations and non-organising polls saying that this party is in the lead. That was a long time ago even before the parties started campaigning. The question to ask is: what was the basis of the issue of people saying that your party is way ahead? Is it those who are floating in the cloud or those who are on the ground?
So for me, I feel that our leaders at this stage should do more as international statesmen. They should recuse themselves from partisan politics, so that they will continue retaining their image as fathers of the nation that everybody belongs to them. And I think at this hour when your children are in the battleground, it is not too nice for one to say I prefer this child than this child. Sometimes it sends out wrong signal. The bottom line here is that Nigerians have to stand up and take the correct decision. And the decision is that they should look at the candidates offering themselves for president. If you will go and vote for anybody on the basis of sentiments or religious, ethnic or regional consideration and not what the leader can do for this country and for you, I think you will end up with what we just are passing through.
This is why we are opposed to ‘This is My Turn Politics’ and ‘This is my time Politicians. Those who feel that it is either 2023 or no more should understand that power belongs to God. There’s nothing wrong for you to struggle to get this, but you must also know the limits of what you can do as an individual. I want to call our leaders to show a lot of caution to continue to pray for the elections to be free.
In one of my previous interviews with you, I asked about how you are going to fund your campaign? You told me when the time…
Has any political party told you how they are funding their campaign?
No, but you know INEC has put a seal to that…
No, this is a different matter. You are asking a direct question. Has any political party out of the 18 we have been talking about publishes its budget and told you this is what we are doing?
You may want to be different?
No, why should I be different? You are in the front line. You are battling with other political parties and then you are the one to tell them this is what we are doing and how we are going to do it. Is that strategic? Is that good politics?
You will agree with me that the role of security agencies in any election cannot be over-emphasised. So what would be your message to the security agencies and in particular INEC to do so that we have a successful election come February?
The truth is that Nigeria is a very big country. We are talking about 774 local government councils with more than 8,000 to 9,000 wards, so many hundreds of thousands of constituencies for elections, so it’s a very complex country. Therefore elections, even at the state level alone, sometime can be daunting. And this is the reason we have been seeing off season elections. Now we are talking about general election nationwide. And so given the fact that the number of policemen, military, member of society, other security agencies may not be enough, we still have to contend with other daily security challenges apart from the election matters. So I think you can understand them (security agencies). But the good thing about it is that they are professionals. Most of them have also been involved in elections before and therefore it is not something new. It’s only that they should double up, become more proactive and especially work side by side with the political parties, with the INEC, with other stakeholders so that things are done seamlessly.
Of course, we have to call on INEC and the security agencies to put extra effort, because you have to also balance by providing security INEC personnel, their INEC assets and then for the voters and for all the citizens who will be travelling during the election period. But I want to call on the INEC to be more vigilant. I know they’ve been going through very difficult times, especially with the kind of insecurity they are having in some parts of the country, where people have been killing some of the personnel, burning down their offices and destroying vital electoral materials. These are not things that should happen at this hour. We see these attacks as the handiwork of the anti-democratic forces, who may not be happy with even the democracy itself and they want to do everything to subvert it, especially those who are now thinking that they’re going to lose.
So I think everything should be done by the political leaders, the INEC, the security agencies, civil society organisations, religious groups and even the media, because you (media) are central to this so that we can have hitch-free elections.
The Electoral Act has been described by some people as a game changer, because of the aspect that has to do with electronic transmission of results. INEC has given assurances that they will be on top of their game, the security agencies have also given similar assurance; what fears if any do you have of the elections?
We had a programme recently organised by the human rights commission and issues were raised about three to four to five categories of people who are being disenfranchised by the nature of the electoral law itself or by the way the elections are being conducted as it is. One of them is the Diaspora group. Today we cannot deny the fact that we have hundreds of thousands if not millions of Nigerians outside this country. I think by the next election, Nigerians, wherever they are, must be given the opportunity to vote no matter what happens.
Two, we have hundreds of thousands who are also engaged in election matters. From NYSC members, to the police, the security agencies, observers and others in hundreds of thousands. INEC should come up with a method or a way whereby these people should vote either before the elections or after the election, most likely before the elections, I don’t know if it can be done. It’s going to be very difficult. But INEC has been creative in so many ways. But we want to say that every Nigerian should be able to vote. Surprisingly, these people that we are talking about are some of the most educated people.
Nigerians are saying that there is nothing new about the NNPP that it is an offshoot of both the PDP and the APC. That your presidential candidate has been in both parties, and he was part of those people that foisted the present government on Nigerians. What do you want to say about that?
This is what we call cynicism. Whatever they said has happened before and they feel that it’s going to repeat itself. I think it’s understandable. But I have two posers for this; number one, are you going to bring some people from Fiji or the Scandinavia or from Greenland, or from Australia or Kenya or Uganda to come and be their governors and senators and leaders of Nigeria. It has to be Nigerians. So no matter, whether they are good or bad, it is Nigerians that will run Nigeria and it is Nigerians that will solve Nigerian problems. That’s the reality.
Secondly, even when you belong to political parties and groups and associations, I’m sure you belong to so many associations. If you look at the membership of these associations and groups, you find that there are people even in those groups you can trust more than the others. There are people you cannot elect as your leaders even in NUJ. Why not because they’re not journalists like you, but because they have their own standard. Politicians are there, they belong to a political party, but within the political party there are always tendencies, there are people who believe that certain things should not happen the way they should happen.
If the APC was happy with PDP in 2014, why should they leave and go and form APC? They said they would break away. So what you are saying is that Kwankwaso was in PDP and APC. Besides, when the PDP was formed in the early years, was AdamuCiroma not an elder? What of AbubakarRimi, Solomon Lar and Sunday Awoniyi?
But along the line, the party (PDP) forgot the reason why the party was formed. So in effect you find out that people will come up with this notion that yes, the parties are all the same thing. But the parties are not human beings, they are not clones. We have our own tendencies and we believe Nigeria should be run differently and better and that’s why we left the parties. You remember me, Prof Jerry Gana, Prof TundeAdeniran, ShehuGabam and many others. We left PDP, we went into SDP first, and then we left SDP and came to where we are today. The whole point is how to save this country.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
