From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Kogi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullah Bello, has certainly built himself as one of forces that decide the trajectory of the party in his state and the country at large.
He spoke to the Daily Sun recently on various issues including the party’s relationship with the immediate past and incumbent governors of his state, claiming that their style of leaderships were responsible for the relative peace in the party in Kogi State.
Is there peace now in the Kogi APC?
Well, if I recall vividly, the election that brought me was the election of the present exco at the national level. I want to disagree with the insinuations that I have been there for a long time now. This is just my very first tenure because after the election of former APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, which produced the 36 State chairmen, including FCT, he was removed and Caretaker Committee arrangement was put in place.
I am a beneficiary of that arrangement that Mai Mala-Buni was the head of the Caretaker Committee. Since that Caretaker arrangement was not substantive, not elective, that was not my first term. Having said that, I will tell you that there has been relative peace and cohesion in the party in the Kogi APC. The party has been more organised under my leadership. I was able to achieve this because we have a former governor, Yahaya Bello, who believed in party administration, party supremacy, and he gives priority to the party.
He made sure that the party’s leadership took charge. That is why there is no faction and no rancour in the party in the State. The party is one formidable family and a formidable machine that can win election anytime.
In retrospect, what are those things you can itemise as your achievements since you took charge of the state as chairman?
As a party chairman, who knows his onions, who is an ace politician, and who has been involved in party administration, I have tried to win all the elections. For instance, since I became the state chairman, APC has not lost the 21 local governments, not even a Councillor. It has also been 25 over 25 for the state House of Assembly, then seven out of nine in the House of Representatives.
We won the three Senatorial seats but lost one through the court of law. I won’t comment on it more than this. I can only say that it dented my record; otherwise I have 100 per cent record.
Today, I will say that I have 98 per cent in terms of performance, because party administration is all about winning elections, not making noise in the social media.
It is about having the people behind you, behind the candidate, behind the party at all time and we have tried to achieve that under (Governor Yahaya Bello) GYB’s leadership, and still doing it under the flower boy, Ahmed Usman Ododo-led administration.
What is the secret you applied to survive the leadership of GYB and now the current governor, Ododo?
It is not matter of being a strong man to survive those two strong leaders because it is not a boxing ring, but about deployment of diplomacy required to manage people and to manage the party. You must accommodate all views and allow people to participate.
And because we allow people to participate, consider the feelings of people in making choices about political positions, and we also adopted three ways of selecting our candidates, which are consensus, direct and indirect.
So, whichever way you look at it, most times we go for consensus, and it has been helping us. It is healthy, makes it sweet and viable for the people of Kogi APC extraction, especially.
In doing that, we ensure that we stick to the system we practice to ensure that the party is winning. We don’t deviate from it, otherwise we might run into trouble. However, sometimes when we have serious competitors that believe they can win, we will go for primary, and mostly direct primary, whereby nobody will maltreat anyone.
If the aspirants have people that believe in them, their supporters will line up for them. Direct primary is like Option A4, where those who believe in the aspirants will queue behind them, and they will see for themselves and count. It is a practical thing. But, if an aspirant is not popular and only claiming to be, that is where there will be problem.
As a party, we try to be just, we try to be fair, and the fear of God is uppermost in managing party administration. That is where I derived my strength from, money or whatever does not rule me.
How has it been easy for you to pocket the opposition parties in the Kogi State?
I didn’t pocket any opposition party. It is our work that speaks for itself. It is the courage, the political will, to bring people together to listen, to accommodate all views before taking decision. Let me tell you, the former and the incumbent governors don’t interfere in party administration. All they do is to guide us.
Yes, they are the leaders of the party in the state, but what they do is to guide the party chairman, making sure he is fair to everybody.
They ensure that the chairman runs the party transparently. They, most times warn people that the party is supreme. They don’t just say it, they also act it. They believe in me and have been supporting me and my exco members.
Will it be right to say that Kogi is now a one party state?
Well, for me, the work of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has earned us that status as a one party country and state that you just pronounced. His work has made us a brand that everybody wants to identify, associate with and be part of because Nigeria today is gradually sliding into one party system. It is because we have a president that is working. We have a president that has human face. We have a president that has a human feeling. We have a president that his hallmark is development and transformation. He is doing it effortlessly. Yes, again, I will say that it takes a leader with large heart, a leader with courage, to take some of the bold steps Mr. President has taken, and I know it will be for the benefit of this country and for everybody to enjoy, in the long run. But, we just have to be patient because things are changing gradually for good now. That is what is giving us the confidence to say that APC will win every election in 2027.
Don’t you think that Nigerians are not happy with the APC because of the suffering in the country?
It is wrong to say that Nigerians are not happy with APC. This administration met some of these mess on ground, and it has been working very hard with good hand, capable hand, to see how he can change some of them. And things are already changing.
So, you will agree with me that if the president is not doing well, members of the opposition parties would not have been abandoning their parties to join APC? It is because the ruling party is doing well that they now want to be part of this team transforming Nigeria as a nation.
Does it bother you that Nigeria is becoming a one party state?
It does not bother me if Nigeria becomes a one party state provided that the government is doing well.
How will you rate this government?
It will not be proper for me to score it 100 per cent. I will score my governor 90 percent and I will reserve the 10 percent because there is still room for improvement. It can be better. Governor Ododo is doing wonderfully well, sometimes I look at him as a magician.
My former governor, the White Lion (Bello), served Kogi State with distinction, and despite all the noise, he brought out Ododo and people voted him without looking back because the man has not only put a formidable structure in place, he has also worked very hard for the state. He has changed the narrative as far as politics is concerned in the Kogi State. Why won’t they follow him?
Do you see him winning his second tenure?
He will win with even 60 per cent but the 90 percent score mark means that there will be no opposition in the state again. All forms of opposition has been dismantled within the one year of Governor Ododo in office. There is none. Other party members, groups are decamping every day. They are trooping into the APC every blessed day.
Is it true that members of the forum of APC Chairmen are not happy with the national leadership?
Please, does the way we embraced ourselves during the last NEC meeting signify that we are not happy with each other? If we are not happy with each other, you would have seen some state chairmen squeezing their faces while some national officers will show that they are unhappy with us.
We are one and there is no complaint.
They are good, we are good, and we work as a united family, without any problem. If we are not happy with the national chairman, you would have noticec it. We are also happy with Mr. President by extension. We are happy with the leadership of the party.