APC should not use insecurity to prevent 2023 poll, says Bafarawa

Former Sokoto State governor, Dr Muhammadu Attahiru Bafarawa, in this interview with LEO SOBECHI, maintains that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has run out of ideas, noting the party’s only mission was to remove former President Goodluck Jonathan from office.

You once asserted that you have given up participation in elections and you would not take political appointments. Do you still stand by all these decisions?
I didn’t just come out blindly to make that statement as a professional in politics. I cannot just make a comment without meaning it. What I said is I will never contest an elective office and I will never accept any political appointment, because I am contented and thank God for what he has done for me.

When I joined politics at the age of 22 as a Local Government councillor, I rose to be a governor of the state. I contested the Presidential election of my own country. So, if I can see how I started and I still remain where I am today, with the young ones coming up for me to compete with them, I found out that I am not grateful to God and I am not wishing my country well. That is the reason I took that decision.

I said two things, one, I want to know who is going to be President of my country and I am also interested in who would be my state governor. That has not been changed.

You know, in this country we have every character, every material, not only to govern Nigeria but even the world. Unfortunately, we are not grateful for what God has done for us; we are too ambitious and that is the reason the country is not moving forward.

For people like us, the best we can do is to sit down and watch and find credible young ones we can help with our practical experience, with the wisdom and knowledge we have to support them and grow this country. But, when we say we will continue until we die, then that explains why the country is always sinking.

So, my appeal to elder people experienced people, they should come together and build a new country by putting up the younger ones.

In 2011, Gen. Muhammdu Buhari said he is no longer interested in the Presidency, but he later contest and having won the Presidency he said age did not allow him to give his best and both of you bear you Muhammadu?
Well you see, there is a difference between me and Muhammadu Buhari. We are all Muhammadu, if you know the meaning of my name, Attahiru, it means the cleanest. And then when you are talking of putting General Buhari or Muhammadu Buhari and said, people call him General, people call him President, so he has combined two professions, military and politics.

Me, I am 100 percent politician, I don’t have any other profession. I should know what I am saying because I don’t have any profession other than politics. You can see there is a difference between me and Buhari. He joined politics just because he wanted to become President, he didn’t join politics to serve the party. But, when I joined politics. I didn’t even think of vying for anything.

With the level of insecurity in the country, do you believe that the 2023 election is possible?
You know that there is no excuse that is tenable. Which insecurity? That election must hold to change the government. Nobody can bring any kata-kata, insecurity is for them to cover up, to say the election will not take place.

The greatest insecurity is APC. Let us get rid of APC. We are talking of bandits, but the bandits are APC. So, when we get rid of them then they will go, they are bush bandits.

With what is happening across the two political parties, PDP and APC, especially having been frustrated out of APC alongside Ibrahim Shekerau of Kano State?
People are just wasting their time on APC issue. APC is not a political party, APC was formed to get rid of Jonathan or PDP government at that time, and the party has finished what brought it. So, they cannot move forward to do anything.

The project is over, because right from the formation of APC, different people, with different ideologies, different characters all combined together and political parties with different ideologies that came together with the purpose to push PDP away. And, since they pushed PDP away, they didn’t know where else to go or what else to do. They didn’t know what to do, because they have only one agenda and they have finished that single agenda.

So, the only thing is that anybody saying that APC has come to stay is just wasting his time. The way and manner we play politics, sometimes I just laugh when people blame each other for the situation in the country, because right from day one, the way we have been playing the game is dangerous.

Why?
Simply, because we are playing the game without following the rules and any game in which rules are not applicable is dangerous. The political parties we are running here, the essence of it, there is no way democracy will stay without having a formidable party; what I mean by formidable party is that whoever emerges as governor or the President is the agent of that party that appointed him.

But, Nigerian politicians want to become the player, the umpire and the referee. How do you expect that game to continue? It is going to be rough because whoever becomes the governor, becomes the leader of the party, he is the one to decide, likewise the President. So, there wont be discipline in the political party.

Such is the kind of political party operating in Nigerian democracy, but the party is supposed to be formidable and be able to discipline whoever emerges as the President. The President is the agent representing that political party, he is not representing himself, he was sponsored by the political party to implement the manifesto of that political party.

So, that highlights the mistake again; that is another damage, somebody is a player, a referee and an umpire. How do you think the game will start?
And then when we come to INEC before a political party is registered, they have to come with their manifesto, with their Constitution to submit to INEC and then INEC will find out if they are okay, they will give you their go-ahead.

When they register you as a political party, then with the Constitution and the manifesto, the INEC is supposed to supervise political parties on the basis of their ideology, that is their manifesto and their Constitution. So if you are operating out of that Constitution or the manifesto, they are supposed to be reprimanded.

Unfortunately, INEC is just sitting just preparing for the election. After the election is over then they don’t have much to do until there is another election again. But, they have a duty to supervise not only the financial activities of political parties but also their manifesto and their Constitutions, to make sure they are abiding by what they have submitted to INEC. Sadly, this is not happening.

So, INEC is not doing its job of supervising the political parties. As such, the political parties are being swallowed by whoever becomes president or state governor. Virtually, the President could say I don’t want this chairman; I need a new chairman who is going to support me. They are trying to show that they are even wiser than God.

In the second republic, you could see what is called discipline. Within NPN (National Party of Nigeria), I remembered when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the President, whenever the national chairman, Chief Adisa Akinloye, comes into a gathering, even President Shagari will stand up for him. Again, he (Akinloye) was the one presiding at the meeting, reviewing activities of the party, what the government was doing. Then, things were going smoothly and better.

I can recall in 2003 four years after the 1999 election under our party ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party), when we saw that our then chairman, Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, was trying to position the party towards supporting President Obasanjo’s government, he even accepted an appointment as SA on Political Matters. We removed him and put in somebody as a caretaker and at the end of the day, I was found to be the caretaker chairman of our then great party.

By then, you can see the caliber of aspirants that wanted to vie for the presidential seat under our party. People like Umaru Shinkanfi, Olusola Saraki and the rest of them, about eight of them, including General Buhari himself. But, we looked at it and we didn’t care whatever you have, I stood firm to ensure that I bring somebody who we think can win the election for us.

So, if we were to go by the amount of money the aspirants had, there is no way Buhari would have gotten the ticket. You know what? I summoned him at 4 a.m. and said, look, we have made our decision; we are going to give you the ticket.

So, unless we get somebody as a leader, who will just call and be able to say, this is the position of the party, no more, no less and the decision is final. Then democracy will come to stay. The party must be supreme.

But, with the way, I see things democracy has not yet come to stay because the structure of building democracy is still shaking. When the political parties are not doing what they are supposed to do, when INEC is not doing what they are supposed to do, we should forget about talking of democracy, we are just playing democracy with mouse, not the practical way of playing politics. Otherwise, if we are playing politics all these problems we will not find ourselves where we are today.

Coming to PDP, we understand that you are guiding Sokoto State governor to make consultations about his ambition; how far has the consultation faired?
We are on it and nobody should accuse me of supporting Governor Tambuwal, because I said I want to know who is going to be my President. So, it is part of my stated declaration. We are trying our best to see how far we can go.

On this issue of zoning and argument by APC that Northwest has got several slots, don’t you think it will affect his chances?
The people saying that Northwest has got slots, who gives power, God and whatever God decides nobody can change it. All those who have been destined to be where they are today, did not make themselves it is God, who made them.

So, talking of this place has got more than enough, okay enough of what, enough of trouble. What have we achieved from having the President from the Northwest, tell me one thing. Even those who have not produced the President are beneficiaries of having the President.

All we are trying to say is we are not supporting anybody on the basis of region or religion and the rest of it. We are looking for a Nigerian, anywhere he comes from, let God bring a better leader for us.

But the argument came up when a governor from Northeast, Governor Bala Mohammed, said he has told Atiku Abubakar to step down for him that he is younger to represent the Northeast because Northeast have not had a fair share of the Presidency?
Nobody will be contesting to be President without having something to say, everybody has something to say to sell himself. So, it is not a question of whether he can say more than that, he is right because that is part of his own way of selling himself.

As I have said I am not interested to contest again that is my own reason. So for him to say that somebody is old, let him be allowed is his own reason.