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APC Convention’ll cool frayed nerves, says Adamu

Senator Abdullahi Adamu was a governor of Nasarawa State and currently represents Nasarawa West at the National Assembly. In this interview, he examines activities of the All Progressives Congress (APC) reconciliation Committee which he chaired and gives insight into possible outcomes of the party’s convention. BIYI ADEGROYE reports

 

Your Reconciliation Committee walked round the country a while ago. I want to know the outcome of the meeting and how prepared is the party for the national convention?

 

You can only confirm the fact that after our inauguration as a committee to reconcile individuals that are in some kind of conflict. We did go around only the states we had petitions for.

 

What we did before we set out to those aggrieved states was first and foremost, to advertise publicly in six Nigerians newspapers. We had The Nation, we had The Guardian, we had The Sun. We had Daily Trust and the Blueprint. And then we took advertisements to NTA, prime time to inform people of our intention after the inauguration.

 

And we gave a formant to those who had any complaints or petitions. Some people indicated that they did not see the advertisements in the papers and that was why they were coming late with their petitions and some people thought it was possible to reconcile without appearing for the committee. And we did in the format; we did ensure that we gave excess of it.

The discussion of the meeting on the petitions which gave them the opportunity to be heard by our committee and each state we went to, we invited them to come with their petitions and got those who are supposed to respond to the committee.

One thing which was a bit imbalanced was the fact that when we were inaugurated we had the terms of reference provided; all do not have the timeline when we were supposed to report after a while, we began to understand the text, our report is expected before the convention.

 

By the time we are given this information directly the date of the convention was not announced. It was in the Christmas week that we got some understanding that there is a possibility of convention taking place. Immediately after Christmas, around the New Year, we now got to know that the convention was for February 26.

 

So we got a letter from the national secretariat that we would submit an interim report by January 31. We had a week or so under submission. Before we sat down, we had some little time because we were still receiving some petitions and by January 31 we were able to submit the report.

 

How prepared are you for the convention?

 

The issue of the party being prepared for convention is a relative to consider and every party in a certain time of life has circumstances that are unique to it, and APC is no exception.

Because of the size of the party, because of the expectations the party members have, it hasn’t been easy as people expect or wish to get things sorted out to enable us have the convention the way we would want it to be.

 

So there are still some little edges that need to be smoothened for us to have a free and fair convention. Nobody is looking for a perfect state of affairs before we hold our convention, I’m sure the party is mature enough and it will be able to pick a date. Now I’m sure it will still go by  the date.

 

Looking at the petitions before you within the period of those aggrieved members that brought complaints to you, can you please tell us some of the complaints they made?

I think it won’t be fair for me to do so. We made our report to the party in broad daylight. Virtually every media house in Nigeria was at the national secretariat the day we submitted the report.

And immediately after we submitted the report, we faced the press and galaxy of camera men. Ordinarily, we are to show some level of maturity, it is not for us to start brandishing what report we gave the party. The responsibility for disclosure of whatever we have given now rests on the party and is not in our mandate to make public what we recommended and what we didn’t recommend.

 

What will you do with these states that the Reconciliation Committee needs to go back to like Kano, Zamfara, and Taraba states that you never went to? What is the situation like?

 

Like I said, we haven’t finished. When we got the order to submit the interim report and state we did submit the interim report the day we were submitting the interim report, I made it clear that we are still coming here and we had one or two places we haven’t been. In Zamfara State, because of the security situation, in the case of Kano, we were there but before the time of our visit the matter was already in court and some of us who are familiar with the dictate of the law, while the matter is in the court is subjudice so we couldn’t handle the matter that is pending in court.

The day we left Kano was the day the court delivered judgment and the party did not accept the ruling, and it decided to go on appeal. First they wanted the court to reverse itself.

But the court did not reverse and go ahead to find the petitioner. In the case of Taraba State, as at the time we were submitting our report, their report was not in and when we went to a state that has no reports, but petitions that have already been handed over, we started moving around.

So we now reschedule those petitions. It is not possible to go to every state, so what we did was to try and establish locations which will be good for us to make ourselves present and listen to the petitions before us.

For instance, we were in Lagos despite the fact that there was no case in Lagos but before we went to Lagos. Those who petitioned had decamped to another party so there is no need for us to listen to anybody. We went to Ogun State, we went to Osun State. In Oyo State we don’t have any petition but we were in Osun earlier on.

We went to Kebbi State, we also went to Bauchi, Adamawa and Gombe, and then we took petitions from Abuja to Kwara. So we spread the locations for the hearing so that they will be convenient; so that we can do justice with all the zones. Since we submitted the report we have not got any further instructions or advice.

 

What are your expectations for the convention?

I expect a very peaceful convention as organized; I expect a convention that is going to give every part of the country membership, a fair chance to be heard and the party will spread its sense of fairness across all the states of the federation.

 

The only point now that everybody is eager to see is the direction of the party in terms of zoning, which office is zoned to which part of the country.

 

As it is now, there are two states that will not vote in the convention like Kano and Lagos. There is no state that will not be voting. If you are going by the outcome of the congresses, there is no statutory evidence, every state has a voter constitution and nothing can stop them from voting.

But there are still chairmen that were not sworn in two weeks ago …

 

If you said a chairman is not sworn in but there are certain delegates. If for example, you are a former speaker of that zone he is a statutory delegate because he is a member of the party caucus. A former governor is also a statutory delegate. So there is no state that won’t be in the convention.

 

What is Abdullahi Adamu looking at in the 2023 general elections?

 

Wait until we get there. You don’t speculate and we’ve gone beyond speculation in our level. I’m a senator today and until the opportunity for nomination of congresses for the next election comes. It is not right to press me now in February 2023 whether or not what will be my faith.

 

Looking at the just-concluded local government election in the Federal Capital Territory, PDP came on strongly because they now have three local governments; APC your political party has also three local governments. What do you think of the signs of what happens here?

 

This is the outcome of the election, as a democrat I believe the opposition can emerge winner.

However, those who contested in the election are in the position can challenge the result if there is cause to challenge the result, and nobody will deny them that right. I believe in the democratic process and I believe if there is something to be done and I believe that the party has to think out of the box to find out what went wrong.

 

 

How can it be corrected is what competence is all about. I want to assure you that we will turn the table.

 

To be honest with you I’m not happy that we didn’t sweep everything as we wish but that is the reality that we face, and to show the maturity of our party and preparedness to fast track our interest in a democratic manner. I want to assure you that all these going up and down shouting of who top the one in Abuja, we wait and see.

 

There is this c lamour for power shift from the North to the South. There is also a call for generational shift that people beyond a certain age should leave the stage for the young ones?

First and foremost Nigerians have expressed their opinion on the issue of power shift, the issue of where the power should go to is left for the party. If the party wakes up tomorrow and says it wants an Ibibio to be  the President or to go to South-South, South-West, South-East, North and any other region, the party must have strategised to see how it will find their way to victory by the position it has taken. I can’t say more that.

On the issue of age, no democratic that I know will say it is going to bar a certain age group from contesting elections. The party may encourage the youth to participate in the election, you cannot say because I am 80 years old, 70 years old I cannot contest for election. The best democratic country in the world is the United States of America.

How old is Joe Biden? So let’s stop deceiving ourselves. I became a governor at the age of 50 something years and there was somebody who became a governor at the age of 32 years old in Nigeria. What are we talking about? The opportunities are there.

 

Are we displaying understanding enough? Are we accommodating enough? Are we working enough to ensure that the objective of the constitution gives us the opportunity? So once you are given the opportunity you can contest any position. So I don’t want to be bringing words from this, let us just be realistic. We have given them the opportunity. I believe there is the need for the useful exuberance among some who are among those age brackets in such that they do need some advice.

 

They do need some direction as to how they can get to realise their objective in politics.

If you go to some state Houses of Assembly in Nigeria there are people who are 25 to 30 years old. In this country some people are saying ‘give the youths a chance’. I have been in the western part of this country.

 

I’ve been in the eastern part of the country throughout my  life. I had the opportunity to visit because of my work. I’ve seen councilors over 60 years old. I personally will do anything to encourage the youth. I want them to prosper if they are interested in politics. I don’t want their age to be a hindrance.

 

The women differ because of cultural beliefs, particularly in the northern part of the country. It is very difficult for women but I’ve found that even in the South which is predominantly Christians. Women have the same problem.

 

We want to be where the United Kingdom is today. How did it take them where you see them today? These things take time, despite the fact that it may not take the same length of time to arrive but their experiences should give us some lessons.

 

Does the APC constitution have zoning?

By the time we are going into the national convention, offices were zoned. They will spread all the national party leaders to all the zones.

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