…Talks about the APC 2023 primaries, Abdullahi Adamu, Ahmad Lawal and emergence of Tinubu as party candidate, Ex-President Jonathan and Emefiele buying expression of interest forms, hardship in the country, why governors don’t consider their deputies as successors
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Deputy Governor Kebbi State, Suleiman Argungu, is among the northern politicians who know where the skeletons of Nigerian politics are buried.
Speaking to Sunday Sun in Abuja, Argungu discussed several political issues especially his shock at seeing former President Goodluck Jonathan and ex-CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, picking the APC Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the 2023 presidential election and the intrigue and division that characterised the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as the party’s candidate.
He also admitted the pressure and inducement from politicians to delegates during primaries to enable them emerge victorious and the validity of the threat from northerners to vote against Tinubu in 2027 over anti-northern policies, confessing that dictatorial tendencies, divide and rule tactics adopted by the former APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, was his greatest undoing.
Can you take us through the journey of your political trajectory?
My name is Suleiman Argungu, the APC National Organising Secretary. I am a former deputy governor of Kebbi State under the platform of the defunct APP, later ANPP. I contested for governor in 2011, but lost. I was the last National Organising Secretary of the defunct ANPP before political parties decided to merge which gave birth to what we now call APC. I was involved in so many committees and sub-committees that worked across the country to see how the merger of these political parties could become a reality. I am happy that the roles we played have now brought light to Nigerians that a new party won the presidential election in 2015, particularly taking power from an incumbent government. As of then, I was the most senior person in APC in my state by my position as former deputy governor. There was no former governor, no former deputy governor, no vice president or president. I was the leader of the party in my state then. There were about six or seven of us who aspired to be the governors under APC in Kebbi State. I was also leading the group of prominent Kebbi politicians in the APC. They include the former Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, former Senate Leader, Abdullahi, and a host of others in that aspiring group. Not until when APC, a party that did not have a counselor in the state then made a big catch in the person of the then serving senator, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who left his party, the PDP as senator representing Kebbi Central. We were so delighted that our party made a big catch in the person of Atiku Bagudu. He joined with other five principal officers from the State House, like the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader, Deputy Leader, and Chief Whip. They joined the APC without any conditions. At the time they joined, we had already held congresses, meaning that they didn’t have leaders at wards or local governments. So, they don’t have a single delegate to call their own, because they came when we concluded the congresses ahead of the primary election. Even when he did not indicate any interest, prominent people urged him to contest for governor, which he later did. Before then, I had started planning on how we could streamline the number of aspirants to a manageable size. I showed them leadership by example when I promised to withdraw my aspiration and promised to support anybody that the party chose. Some others withdrew during the primary election. But as God would want it, he emerged as both the candidate of the party and the governor. I became the Director General of the Campaign Organisation for the general elections, comprising the governorship, legislative and presidential 2014 elections. Immediately we won the election, then Governor Bagudu made me his Chief of Staff and I held the position for his first term of four years and retained it for the two terms, which I served diligently with pride.
Why is it too difficult for deputy governors to step into the shoes of their principals after serving them?
Constitutionally, a governor cannot be elected under the Nigerian law without a running mate. It is not like the legislators. It is expected that both should be well paired, meaning that the governor and his deputy should understand themselves. It is expected that they must be people from different senatorial districts. It is also expected that they have to understand themselves very well because at the end of the day if they win the election, they are going to work together. But, unfortunately deputising in Nigeria is very a difficult office to hold and that is why God does not have any deputy. To answer your question directly, immediately after the governor and his deputy governor are sworn in and as soon as they start working, there are so many acrimonious issues they will contend with. People will be criticised for whatever the deputy governor does. If the governor and his deputy are out on a visitation or a function, if the deputy governor stays by the side, he will be accused of rubbing shoulders with the governor. So people give it another meaning that he is competing with the governor. If he stays behind him, they will say that he is following in his footsteps again. And if he stays far behind him, some people will say he wouldn’t want to identify with the governor. Daily, there must be one thing or the other said against the deputy governor to the governor, even when he is not there. That seed of discord continues, especially from party stalwarts and party leaders trying to curry favour from the governor. If it continues, the governor will always treat the deputy governor as just a spare tyre only needed whenever either of the tyres punctured. And if the governor is nearer to a vulcanizer, he doesn’t even need a spare tyre because he will just hand it over to him to fix the tyre and return it to the car without using the spare. You realise that to the governors, the spare tyres are not even that important unless they see themselves outside the town where they cannot find vulcanizers. And even at that, they can only function as take-me-home spare tyres. By the executive power they have, especially enshrined by the Constitution as amended, the governors feel as if they are the alpha and omega. They feel that they can enrich and impoverish the deputy governors. It is even worse with the kind of budget for the two executives. If you look at the budget between the office of the governor and deputy governor in all the states in the federation, without exception, unless those that want to be a bit fair, you will find out that a governor is getting a budget of over N20 billion per annum and the deputy governor just have some N100 million to N200 million. If you compare the budgetary allocations of the governor and that of his deputy, you will now understand why deputy governors are side-lined. The office of the deputy governors is underfunded because they don’t want them to even have enough funds to give to their constituency. They don’t want him to be more popular. They don’t want them to have enough money to spread and service their political structures and the electorate. Daily, they are underfunded that they cannot even travel within the state let alone outside the state for a function without the consent of their principals even in their absence. Some people will give you another meaning and interpretations, labeling the deputies with all manners of accusations. My budget for the two terms I served as deputy governor never changed. What I received every month was constant. The budget of the office of the deputy governor never changed. In all the years I served as deputy, my budget never changed from consistently N2 million per month multiplied by 12 months and we have N24 million. It is from it that the deputy governor is expected to feed his household, pay allowances to maintain the office, maintain his official vehicles, and fuel them. The money is very much inadequate to service their political structure. The governors will ensure that they don’t have any structure so that they will continuously be their appendages and ensure that they don’t function very well.
As the Organising Secretary, will you say that APC has improved in its internal democracy to the point of reducing the number of post-primary litigations?
I will say that the APC has improved in its internal democracy because when the NWC was elected at the 2022 convention, precisely in March 2022, we worked as brothers’ housekeepers together and all the relevant party offices, given the opportunity to play their constitutional role as shrined in the constitution of the party. The office of the National Organising Secretary which I head has the responsibilities of conducting primary elections, and appeal congresses, in addition to many other things that will enhance the internal democracy and guarantee the electorate of having reputable aspirants and at the end of the day, and valuable party candidates. Having served as a former organising secretary of the defunct ANPP for close to four years, it aided my working as the organising secretary now. What it means is that I am very conversant with the workings of my office. And as soon as we were inaugurated, we were saddled with the responsibility of conducting primaries, and congresses to elect leaders from the aspirants that want to contest for the party’s candidates. There was very little time for us. I was happy that I had an able deputy. The administrative staff in my department were seasoned ones who knew so much about how to discharge their responsibility. They have helped me so much and as a team player, I also ensured that I carry every one of them along, no matter their positions. We try to bring everybody nearer to tap from their knowledge and ensure that we give them assignments to give them a sense of belonging. That was how we were able to organise all the primary elections, the congresses that produced the candidates, including President Tinubu, the senators, the House of Representatives, the governors, and the House of Assembly. I can delightfully claim that I organised the convention that brought Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidate of our party and participated as the Deputy Director General of the presidential campaign Council in the PTT secretariat. Twenty-eight presidential aspirants bought the expression of interest and nomination forms despite the huge sums of N100 million. But before their screening, about four or five of them did not return their forms, which automatically meant withdrawing from the contest since only those who submitted their completed forms usually go for screening. We had so many challenges and intricacies that cropped up, especially the division among some members of the national leadership of our party that took sides. We were sharply divided. Some were of the view that the presidential candidate should go to the South while others were of the view that it should remain in the North. In one of the meetings of the NWC, the situation further polarised us because some leaders, particularly former national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, sided with former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as anointed aspirant while the majority of us were of the view that power should go to the South because of the gentleman agreement, even as it was not enshrined in any of the Nigerian laws, that power should rotate between the North and South. The majority that sided with the power shift to the South were in support of the Northern Governors of our party who resolved anonymously to support the shift of power to the South. I led the NWC members who addressed the media that day in support of our brother governors from the North. That was the beginning of the crisis within our ranks and even during the convention, they further realised that some of us initially in support of the power shift from North to South were even particularly rooting for Bola Tinubu as our preferred presidential candidate, considering his antecedents as governor of Lagos State for eight years. My support for him is understandable because while I was deputy governor he was governor. I was very close to him even though we were not in the same party. We share so many things in common. We felt we needed a patriotic person, a politician like him, and a bridge builder, who could be supported to be the next president. We felt that he would be accepted by all across the geopolitical zones, irrespective of anything, he is a more popular person than somebody who is not. The choice of Tinubu also brought another division within the rank of the party because some people supported some southern aspirants instead of Tinubu. But as God wanted it, he emerged as both our candidate and the incumbent president. It also happened in so many states, and as God will want it we have about 20 governors under the platform of the APC and majority members at both the red and green chambers of the National Assembly. All the members of NWC are very happy and proud to say that we organised the primaries that brought all these people into political offices. So, the efforts resulted in several quarrels and litigations.
Can you single out two or three aspirants who bought APC presidential forms that surprised you?
Before answering this question, when we debated the amount of money to peg the nomination forms, some thought that as a ruling party, N100 million would not be too much while others objected. We agreed that anybody who wants to be the president of this country must afford such an amount. It was from there that we will really knew who was ready for a big show. Anybody who can afford the forms should also be ready for other expenditures to come. We wanted to avoid the situation where some people will be sponsored to do dirty jobs and at the end of the day will go for litigation to get the victory they missed at the convention. They are measures to reduce the number of litigations and rancour. To answer your question correctly, those that surprised me were about two or three aspirants. The first one is former president, Goodluck Jonathan. He did because I felt that somebody who has risen through such ranks, having worked with us as deputy governor, became the governor, the vice president, and then won the president. I felt like what did he forget at the State House Villa that he wanted to go back and pick. Yes, most of them did not personally purchase the forms because their representatives or groups came, but nobody will just go and buy forms for him without consulting and confirming whether he was interested or not, especially with the amount of money involved, N100 million, and other expenses they incurred during the processes of buying the forms because they come in a large group. At that time I became an instant celebrity because the aspirants wanted to take pictures with me. The second person who picked forms that really surprised me was former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele. I felt that by the Electoral Act, civil servants will not just declare interest to contest for president, especially as there is a stipulated time frame he must resign. I was surprised that I did not hear of his resignation when he bought forms to contest the APC presidential primary. The third person is, of course, the former Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva. He did not also resign his position. However, when about four or five aspirants who bought forms did not return them, we knew that they must have reconsidered their decision.
APC primaries have been riddled with allegations of bribery, what are the mechanisms you are putting in place to check such occurrences in future?
What is clear is that we are not bringing angels to come and conduct our party primaries for us. But we can only choose the best. Ahead of the 2023 general elections, we were very strict in organising congresses and primaries to ensure that whatever we do will be in consonant with the provision of the constitution of the land, the Electoral Act, and the party’s constitution. We worked within the ambit of the law. It was a near perfect organisation that even those that went to court lost their cases because we had our documents intact and tried as much as possible to follow the law. During some of these off-season elections, we tried as much as possible to go by what was done previously. Unfortunately, we have new people that want to go into this exercise. We never encouraged any aspirant to give money to anybody. I can beat my chest and say that I never bargained with anybody because of my integrity and honour which is at stake. What we rather did was to show them that we would provide a level playing ground to ensure that everybody participates in fairness and without intimidation or rancour. Unfortunately, politicians being what they are, some of the aspirants would induce the staff we sent out on assignment with money. We made sure that we provided them with everything they required to operate efficiently. We even pay for air tickets, local transport, hotel accommodation, and feeding. We do everything possible not to allow the politicians to induce them. We even went the extra mile to create a WhatsApp platform to monitor those on such assignments.
Are you among the northerners regretting voting for President Tinubu?
Personally, I am not regretting fighting for Tinubu to become president and I am not complaining even though some of the measures he has taken are very harsh. It is a fact that some of the measures he took are very harsh and we can feel it everywhere, especially politicians like us who travel to our villages frequently. And even here in Abuja, we all go to the market and feel how the prices of commodities are increasing by the day. We all believe that they are as a result of the fact that some of the measures taken by the government are very severe which brought hardship to the people. We believe that the government must have taken such tough measures in good faith only that you can hardly succeed without putting measures in place. The issue of petroleum subsidy in Nigeria is a confusing one many don’t understand what subsidy means. However, as time goes on and with the consistency in the demand to remove or leave subsidy, people in the rural areas now know what subsidy is all about. But you cannot take such a decision without people suffering. If we want to bring positive change, it must certainly not be good for others. And those that are not favoured will consistently try to instigate some issues, especially as it concerns some market forces. However, there are some measures that the government should have taken before implementing subsidy removal. Some of the measures include the issue of transportation, maybe through the National Union of Road Transport Workers or other agencies saddled with the responsibility of transportation to cushion the effects. But, I think that the measures the government is taking are reducing hardship day by day.
Don’t you think that this subsidy can cost APC presidential ticket in 2027?
If you want to know whether there is hair on your head, touch your head. We are all feeling the pain and I said earlier that some of us who can hardly stay without going home, know how difficult it is for some members of our constituencies to feed ourselves. However, there is no way any government can succeed when the people want subsidies to be removed. The hardship we are facing now is expected. We are hoping that it is going to be a temporary suffering. I believe strongly that we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel with the measures taken.
What brought some semblance of peace in the APC leadership, unlike the one-week, one-trouble under Abdullahi Adamu?
APC constitution is very clear that anybody elected to serve in the NWC has a specific role to play and that all the 25-member NWC are elected on the same platform, but there must be a political head who is the National Chairman, in addition to the two deputy national chairmen, and the National Secretary down the line. However, every leader, especially the governors and former governors who continue to see themselves in the manner of I am in charge, is expected that there must be a crisis because there is a difference between a state governor and the state commissioners and Special Assistants he appointed and the one occupying the seat of party’s chairman. What is obvious is that they are not of equal status. The governor fires and hires the people he is working with. But when he sees himself in that mode as the national chairman of a party and relates with his colleagues at the NWC like the governor and commissioners, there is every tendency for him to face such problems because they are his colleagues, not commissioners. There was a divide and rule in the era of Abdullahi Adamu. There were people he wanted to see their faces and others he did not want to see. That was what brought misunderstanding. For example, he has an interest in a presidential aspirant, but he told us that the presidency said we should adopt Ahmad Lawan. We told him that we are not robots and stooges and capable of making decisions on our own. And we believe that what we did was very good and very right at a better time. If that was not done, only God knows where Nigeria would have been by now for one region to dominate for 16 years, while other regions are just there watching. We just felt that there was no fairness in that. These are some of the tendencies that brought some misunderstanding with the former leadership. As for this one, even though he was a former governor, he has been very diplomatic. He carries all members of NWC as his colleagues, only that he is the leader. He listens more to every view from each of the members of the NWC. The difference is very, very clear. And that is why we are having that good relationship unlike before.
Will you dismiss as empty the threats from northerners to vote against Tinubu in 2027 if he continues with anti-northern policies?
It is a threat I will not call an empty one. Of course, we will not see things from the same perspective. So, it all depends. Those saying that the northerners will not vote may be right in their own conviction and like I said earlier, these hard measures may be behind their decision. However, regardless of the situation, APC members that love their party, I mean party men and women and those who believe that we cannot continue to be under the water, will still come out and vote for their parties because they believe that the harsh measures are temporary one we will soon come out of it.