You have chosen to operate politically without any platform. Why?
I have taken it upon myself to practice a personal idea-based politics, because I have not seen any political party in Nigeria that is driven by ideas or formed by people of courage. What I do is try to find out people with potentials to take us to the next level and support them. Politics in Nigeria is like a personal or communal enterprise; if you join one party today and it doesn’t favour you, then you keep moving from one political party to another.
I have a friend who is currently in his ninth party since 1999; from the APGA, ANPP, CPC and the rest. If this kind of person is elected into an executive office, where will his loyalty be? How can he make an impact on society? He started in the morning in PDP and by afternoon, he was in the ANPP, in the evening he was already in the DPP. If you support this fellow in the morning, how do you form a partnership with him, if by evening he is already in another party?
Therefore for me, Nigeria is at a crossroads; that is why I do things on my own. For instance, two weeks ago, I came from my village in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa state where I took it upon myself to feed a secondary school. Government schools don’t have meals anymore and students hardly stay in school so I used my money to feed them.
Unfortunately, in Adamawa state where I come from, government has refused to pay WAEC fees; so, all the investment I have made have gone to the students who came to me and complained that they have finished WAEC but can’t get their results. The problem is that the nominal fees that government usually pays, our own state government has not paid.
As for the WAEC fees, it is paid by the government; WAEC only issues the candidates their number and certificates. In my state, this money has not been paid, but they will write the exams, alright. The only thing is that WAEC will withhold the results, until the money has been paid.
The parents are running helter-skelter, trying to see if they can pay it themselves. In the case of the school I told you, I have gotten their names and will pay the fees for them. That done, I can go to WAEC and request the release of their results.
When you say dividends of democracy, it has nothing to do with roads, electricity and all that – it is about the full participation of people like me and you. If participation is impossible, forget roads, electricity and the rest.
Like I was saying Nigeria is becoming really dysfunctional and unless we take up arms in protest, we are not likely to make it. If you see what is happening in the country today, I don’t think it can happen anywhere else.
By saying that unless we take up arms in protest, are you advocating for a violent revolution?
A disabled person is not a useless person; it is just that God wants him so to learn some lessons in life. Our disability as a nation is based on how this country was founded; this disability should have helped us like the case of the Paralympics games to London.
You are aware that it was people with physical disabilities that brought medals. What I am saying in essence is that, we can use our disability as our source of strength; if we come out of our disability, it will help us as to where we can go. But we need to talk.
Now that the process of reviewing the constitution has gone as far as the Zonal levels, what areas would you want to be addressed?
What I don’t even understand is why they should even take it to the zones? This is a Nigerian issue, why must it be zoned; why can’t we have a general idea of sitting together? How do we trust the people in the South-South zone now that their man is in power?
How can I trust someone in Kogi or someone up there in the north, who thinks his interests supersede any other person’s? Why don’t we have a national discourse where we can sit and agree on something? Why should an important issue like Constitution review be zoned again? Why don’t we agree in Abuja, Lagos or wherever so that we have a Constitution that is nationally addressed?
By sending these parliamentarians to the zones, seriously, what are we expecting? Most of them got there without the votes of the electorate, so whose interest are they going to serve?
But the National Assembly is composed of the peoples’ representatives, is it not so?
First and foremost, let us understand one thing. If you refer to the National Assembly as representatives of the people, we must understand one thing namely that 94 percent of all of them got their mandates through the courts; either at the Tribunals, Appeal Court or Supreme Court. Who are they then representing? If any member got his mandate either from the Tribunal, Appeal Court or Supreme Court, is he representing me? How can we come together when some want more states; are we then going to give everybody what they want?
The way this country has been designed, we will never break up; a country where you write free cheques, Jonathan will collect his own and share to others, the governors will also collect theirs and share. So, this fear of break up will not happen because nobody will collect free cheque and go. Therefore the idea that we will split doesn’t even exist because nobody will want to leave this free cheque; if this were possible, it would have been long ago.
We went through the civil war and several other crises but the only thing keeping us together is this monthly cheque. So, we can use this opportunity to agree and discuss this matter. From 1999 till date all the four presidential elections were decided by the Supreme Court. We have seven voters in the Supreme Court who decide presidential elections in Nigeria.
Are there lessons we could learn from the recently held US elections?
I don’t think we can learn any lessons from the US election because we are running a completely different system. This idea of America has been doing it for over 200 years does not count. If you are going on a journey, there must be a starting point. In this country, we don’t even have a starting point. If you look at the PDP, for instance, you can’t call it a political party because of the way it was formed. Even where we are now, you know that the PDP has been saying they will rule Nigeria for sixty years.
So, it is predetermined elections that we have been having which means the PDP will continue to win elections time and time again. If you want to make comparisms, there is no way the Democratic Party in the US can claim to rule America for two or three terms because they know they will get their mandate from the people. But PDP knows that their mandate will come from the Supreme Court; that is why they can continue to rule for the next sixty years.
You are known to be linked to candidates of different political parties. Why is this so?
Like I said earlier I identify with people that have ideas; people that can deliver in the midst of this confusion-whether in CPC, APGA or ACN. For instance, I supported ACN now in Adamawa State and already they have told me that I am doing Yoruba politics. The fact of the matter is that the PDP as a ruling party says they will continue to rule for sixty years and they know exactly what they are talking about.
You have been following trends within the ruling PDP; the current National chairman, Bamanga Tukur, has initiated a process of reconciliation and promised to entrench internal democracy. Is this feasible?
But you know the way Bamanga emerged. A situation whereby people were already discounted; when they said the PDP had zoned the National Chairmanship to the North East zone; what happened? All of us stupidly went to Bauchi, our zonal capital; conducted an election and Bamanga got two votes.
What manner of democracy are we talking about; the same Bamanga is now preaching internal democracy-the process that he did not follow?
Leadership
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