Bulama: Despite security concerns, voting environment will be secure

Waziri Abdulkadir Bulama, former National Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC) and member, Presidential Campaign Council, APC National Advisory Council and National Caucus, in this Interview with LEO SOBECHI, dispels insinuations that the ruling party is banking on vote-buying to win the presidential poll. He noted that insecurity could disrupt elections in some parts, but not substantial enough to disrupt the entire exercise

Do you see the spate of insecurity in the country leading to the abortion of the election?
There’s no doubt that there is cause to be concerned. The level of insecurity and access to certain places in this country for the electoral officials or for voters to go in and vote is worrisome.
What comes to mind is, if you look at the elections or the number of security men mobilised to cover off-cycle elections in some states, they range from 20,000 or 30,000 combined security agencies from all the agencies posted to ensure safety.But now, we have the entire security numbers, we see it being overstretched. What I have noticed recently gives me confidence in the fact that INEC and other stakeholders are trying to mobilise additional security men to ensure that the voting process is secured.
So, I’m sure going forward, a lot of efforts will come in and to ensure that the voting environment is secured. I don’t see security problems on a scale that would disrupt the election entirely across the country. But, definitely, there will be pockets of interference or challenges in some locations across the country.
I mean the worst places like Imo and Anambra States or in some parts of Borno, Zamfara and so on. There are a few locations and I’m sure the security agency and INEC will plan in such a manner that disruption is prevented. 

Do you have confidence in INEC to deliver credible general elections?
I have absolute confidence in INEC, because INEC knows that they have autonomy. They have complete authority to carry out their assignment and mandate in line with the constitution of the country and the Electoral Act 2022. They have power, in fact, absolute power. The number one person who is leading this country, President Mahammadu Buhari, told them that he is not interfering. He said he has never interfered and would not interfere or dictate anything to them. He said, ‘if you should do anything, you’re on your own.’
You know President Buhari in 2019, being a leader in the campaign structure, empowered INEC to carry out its assignment. He concluded his campaign tour on Wednesday here in Abuja, went on another campaign tour in Katsina on Thursday towards the Saturday election, and he retired home in Daura.
Though INEC, on its own, shifted the election by one week, it was in the media when the president knew about it. When he returned to Abuja, he said, ‘look, this country will hold you responsible.’ He warned Yakubu that you have no option but to get it right. The INEC stood up to it and ensured that the election was done rightly because they have the full autonomy.
Today, coming forward, the INEC leadership knows that they have absolute authority and autonomy to get things done in line with the Constitution of the country.
So far, no one has disputed the ability of INEC to carry out elections fairly and transparently, even in extremely difficult circumstances, like in Anambra State that brought out Soludo or in Osun State that produced Adeleke or in Ondo state, and even in more difficult environments, and so on.
So, I have no doubt whatsoever that INEC will be fair, will be transparent, and the election results will be credible. And President Muhammadu Buhari has said his legacy would be to leave free and fair elections to Nigerians, that he is not particular about who wins the election, but let us deliver free and fair elections, that is the mandate.
To be frank, Nigeria used to have leadership dictating to INEC who to announce as president or governor or senator. That era has been consigned to history by the APC government and President Mahammadu Buhari. Who wins and losses, is in the hands of all ordinary Nigerians. Nigerians can vote who they like, protect the vote, because right now, the system and the process have been so much scrutinised that you can vote number one, because you cannot vote without BVAS; you cannot get to BVAS without the electronic card. When you vote, you can stand and at end of the election, you will see the vote result and this will be transmitted live to the INEC server.
So, the room for interference and for manipulation has been completely minimised. I have no doubt whatsoever with the system that has been put in place and the authority that is with them and the kind of quality of leadership that we have seen so far, I’m sure we are going to have credible, free and fair elections accepted to all Nigerians, whether it’s APC or PDP.
What’s important to us and to President Mohammadu Buhari is to have credible elections that will be respected by Nigerians without dispute and without fighting and for the international community to say, ‘yes, Nigeria you are now a leaders, not only you have leaders of democracy, not only in Nigeria, but you are a global democratic champion.’

Do you see the Electoral Act 2022 as a plus or a burden on the organisation of the election?
The Electoral Act 2022 is a big, big addition, I mean big advantage to the election management process in the country and already, it is the implementation of this electoral act that has helped us to grow to generate more confidence among Nigerians in the electoral system.
So, the Electoral Act is a very big plus, is a very big advantage to the quality of election management in the country. You know this thing was extensively debated in the National Assembly and all stakeholders, as well as civil society were deeply involved in the evolution of this electoral act. So, the emergence of the Electoral Act has contributed immensely in sanitising the process, promoting transparency and accountability and injecting all those measures and systems to promote transparency and credibility in the process, to remove self-help and impunity.
So, the Electoral Act is a welcome thing and already, the political leadership in Nigeria, they have seen that their capacity to dabble has clipped, really. You can understand even when we were approaching the convention, when the National Assembly removed the issue of delegates, after all, they realise that by saying only elected delegates, you know statutory delegates, including themselves, were not allowed as delegates.
So, it means that electoral act is working and you know we had conventions both in the PDP and APC, with numbers that were manageable. The PDP had less than 1,000 delegates in its convention that produced the president, in our own case, we had less than 3,000 or thereabout; three elected delegates from every local government. So, that actually controlled the crowd, as well as the numbers and made the system manageable and eventually led to a transparent process that became celebrated both in Nigeria and across the world. 

What kind of administration do you think the Tinubu-Shettima Presidency will offer to Nigerians?
You see, APC was founded in 2013 against defects and democratic crisis under the PDP. So, those democracy deficits like lack of free and fair election, lack of justice and fairness, violence accompanying elections and imposition. All these things have now become a thing of the past. We have created an environment where people are having trust in elections and in the judiciary.
We have succeeded in sequestering and degrading organised crime in the North East, in the Niger Delta and the South West with Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu in the South East. We expect the leadership of our party to continue on the path of deepening democracy and securing lives and property of Nigerians. This is our biggest achievement and we have promised and we have delivered on this.
Today, votes count, today the judiciary pronounce, adjudicate and Nigerians accept. Today, people believe that they can go to court if they are aggrieved and get justice. This is very, very important. Today, violence around elections and violence around campaigns has diminished and these are all achievements.
We have also invested massively in infrastructure even with the lean resources available to us since 2015. We expect that Asiwaju, being a professional, a visionary, and someone who knows the world of finance, will be able to not only manage our lean resources better, but he will be able to mobilise resources across the world for massive investment in infrastructure in this country. I expect, going forward, that legacy projects, like underground trains in most major cities, Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, such big projects like that will be coming up.
I expect that there will be extraordinary measures to boost electricity supply, even though we know right now that under the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari, a lot of efforts are being made to improve power transmission, so as to transmit the power that has been generated to consumers. But, we expect that this Asiwaju government will increase rapidly electricity supply so that people would pick up jobs everywhere, industries would run back to life. Small-scale businesses would be generated. And we have a lot of very creative youths and people all over this country, who, given an enabling environment with infrastructure and resources, will be able to produce so many things that we need and consume, which are currently being imported.
So, the atmosphere of fairness, peace, justice will be strengthened. Then, the enabling environment for prosperity, business and the income creation will be enhanced. These are the areas that I know will be deepened, because you see, both Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Buhari who are founding fathers of the APC, they come from backgrounds that have fought dictatorship, impunity and bad government. You have to understand this. They know their primary calling is to deepen good governance, fairness and justice. Deepen democracy so that people will feel free, people will see justice, people will see fairness and people will see opportunity and prosperity for them at their doorsteps. 

But, in spite of all these glories and optimism, some people still say that APC is banking on vote buying to win the general elections. How do you react to that? 
There is no plan whatsoever and there is no arrangement to buy votes at all. I am telling you this from two experiences. Number one, I was the Deputy Director General in charge of Coordination in the 2019 presidential campaign. Six months before the election in 2019, President Buhari announced that anybody who brings up public funds to plough into elections or buy votes is on his own. He announced this before the 2019 elections.
Today, the consciousness of Nigerians and the assertiveness of the Nigerian voter has become so glaring that people will even be afraid to offer money to buy votes.
President Muhammadu Buhari has created an enable environment and also conscientised Nigerians to reject anything that will buy their conscience. He would not encourage that; Asiwaju will not encourage that definitely. We have no plan whatsoever, and I’m telling you this right now.
I am a member of the Presidential Campaign Council headed by Governor Simon Lalong. I’m also a member of the Grass Root Independent Campaign Council headed by Silas Agara. These are the foremost presidential campaign councils. Asiwaju and the party set up the first one, while the second one was also set up by Asiwaju in order to engage in door-to-door campaign with stakeholders all over Nigeria. I’m involved in both of them and I have not seen, not heard. I’m involved at the strategy level; there is no discussion about vote buying, we are selling our programmes.
Look, we have solid achievements and the records are there. We have done something honourable in this country; we have done so much for this country. We have enough to tell and convince Nigerians to vote for the continuation of this achievements, policies and programmes. 

strong>Between these achievements of the APC government and record of performance of Asiwaju as Governor of Lagos State in eight years, which one do you think will easily connect to Nigerians?
You see, number one, the record of achievement of our party is also an achievement shared by Asiwaju himself, because Asiwaju is a founding leader of this party. President Muhammadu Buhari always refer to him as ‘my friend and partner’. They formed this party together and they run this government together. All the major achievements that we recorded under the APC government in terms of law and order, in terms of rule of law, in terms of ensuring elections count, judiciary working and so on that we achieved, infrastructure and so on that we achieved, all credits go to our own party and it goes also to the leadership of both Asiwaju, as well President Muhammadu Buhari.
When we say Asiwaju has done so much in Lagos, that he achieved a great deal of infrastructure transformation in Lagos, he was able to establish a political and leadership model that enshrined continuity in leadership and good governance; this will come as a compliment to our ticket. So, both are very important.
We are very happy that we are not marketing somebody who has no record, who is not known. We are talking about somebody who has in the last 30years, contributed positively to enshrining and enforcing, promoting democratic governance in this country. As governor, he was able to perform evidently and was also able to create a succession of leaders both in Lagos and in many other areas of intervention.
We are very happy that the man that is going to succeed Buhari, in our own wish, is not somebody who is not known. The achievements are complementary and they are not in conflict at all. 

In similar manner, do you think there are good stories to tell about Shettima’s eight years as Borno State governor to reinforce the ticket?
You know Shettima as I told you, I knew him since when he was young, because our families are in the same neighbourhood. And I don’t know someone today, who has a very good education, someone who has emotional intelligence and someone who has judgment more than him.
Shettima is very sensitive to issues and people, he is a very good bridge builder and he is someone who understands contexts and kind of, brings out something positive out of situations.
He became governor under a very difficult situation in Borno State in 2011, because we had a leadership that was struggling and a society that had descended into violence and lawlessness and also a society gripped in extreme poverty. He inherited that situation and was able to navigate the state out of that crisis. He was able to govern and ensure good governance and dividends were delivered to citizens, even under that war situation.
The North East was a theatre of war of the Nigerian Army and you know how massive and strong the Nigerian army is. They deployed thousands of their men and resources and to live and manage in that kind of environment was an extremely difficult situation. But Shetima was able to successfully navigate and manage the state out of that crisis, with the cooperation of the Nigerian Army, the Federal Government and the people; we were able to survive and pull out of that crisis.
So, he has good judgment. Shettima is a very intelligent person; he is a very conscious person. He is somebody who understands context and tries to get best out of any situation. That’s why we feel that with his banking experience, leadership experience, his relationships with people, he will be a very good crisis manager. He will be able to be a very good assistant to the President to run assignments around communities and around situations in the country. He would help towards stabilising the country and promoting economic prosperity.