From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The National Chairman of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Yabaji Sani, has given reasons Nigerians should not vote for former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi, in the 2023 general poll.
Sani, in this interview, described the trio as regional candidates who would further divide the country along ethnic lines if elected.
The ADP presidential candidate also expressed fear over manual collation of results, stating that it is the simplest way for handlers to steal votes.
He, therefore, advised the Federal Government to digitalize the electoral process.
Sani, who is also the chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said if elected as president, he would sanitise the oil and gas sector.
Ahead of next year’s general elections, do you have faith in INEC?
For me, it is work in process. Because we have digitalized the system of conducting elections. When you look at it critically you will know that what has been digitalized to me that is not the weakest link in the entire process. The weakest link is carrying of the votes from one polling unit to the collation centre and the collating itself. The saying goes that it is not he who casts the vote determines who wins, it is the person who counts the votes. Why have we not digitalized the collation? It is still manually done. Prof Yakubu Mahmood may still be committed because he has his name to protect, but it does not stop at the BVAS. The BVAS is a step forward. I understand that you are able to eliminate multiple voting in the course of accreditation and identification, but it does not stop there. I do not have problem with INEC. But what has been given to them does not meet the minimum requirements. The problem is when you complain that what has been counted is not correct, they tell you to go to court. We are not yet out of the woods.
How prepared are you for the 2023 presidential election?
We cannot go into this election if we are not sure of winning. What is involved in election is not child’s play. It’s a lot; mentally, physically, financially, to go into a presidential election. The fact of the matter is 2023 for us in ADP cannot be brighter than what we have today. Because if you observe critically you will see that by the outlook of what you have today it is as if we are further deepening those things that separate us. The frontline are just being exploited to the advantage of few and at the expense of the entire nation. Critically, you will see that the three major tribes have brought out their own presidential candidates. The question is: Is it about the ethnic groups or it is about Nigeria? If you look at the Hausa, you have Atiku on one side as the major candidate from the Hausa. If you look at the Igbo, you have Peter Obi as the major candidate from the Igbo. If you look at the Yoruba, you have Tinubu as the major candidate from the Yoruba. So, it is like a contest of tribe and ethnicity. So, if you are looking for any major frontline in the Nigerian nation is what this election is all about. So, when you come to our party, ADP, we can easily be called the unifier. We will unify this country by geographical and by our makeup. We are not in the extreme by any of the sentiments which have bedevilled this country. And in this election, it has become the issue. So, the only way to solve the problem of this country and without a little way further subjecting the nation to unnecessary retrogression and crisis of confidence, it is safer for Nigerians to look at Action Democratic Party and my candidature. Because my candidature is what easily represents what this country needs now as a matter of unifying and not having some ethnic champions. It should be like: if Obi wins, Igbo have won. If Tinubu wins, we, the Yoruba, have won. If Atiku wins, we, the Hausa, have won. That is not what we need. That is not how to advance the progress of the country. It will further divide this country. All the things we are talking about today; nepotism, restiveness, economic problems we are having today will only be heightened hitherto. I believe that if we go out people will begin to realise the danger of allowing this scenario to become a reality that we are going to have ethic champions that will pretend to be Nigerians to superintend over the affairs of Nigeria. How do we expect these champions to really fight the cause of Nigeria and unite Nigeria without taking advantage of what God has given to us? The only reason we are where we are today is because the present administration is a typical scenario of what we are going to have forward because there is this impression of retaliation because the ‘Hausa have schemed us out of power. If we get there, we are going to scheme the Hausa out of power, too’. ‘And we will make sure the Igbo do not get, for reasons best know to me’. So, these candidates you have today, believe me are the very scenario that Nigerians should runaway from because if care is not taken, we will meet up with warlords. I am not praying that we have the sort of things we have in places like Somalia and other countries that have been divided along ethic champions because their only base is their ethic group. And that does not help our course as a united country that the world is looking up to lead. And that is why I believe that people like me are the saviour of this country. Not because it is my person or I am running, but if I find somebody like myself, I will give him my vote. Because if I vote for him, I am voting for the unity of this country, the progress of this country and for this country to really become what it is supposed to be. What we have had is enough. People say that it’s turn by turn or whatever they call it. People say if equity is what they are talking of, fairness is what they are talking of, it’s what I represent. The North-central is the only region that has not had even a vice president in this civilian regime. Yes, in the military regime, we had. But everybody has had it too. But in military, nobody knows whenever or whoever they are appointing the head of government. They use a different yardstick to pick whoever they wanted. But if you talk of fairness in Nigeria, I think my candidature represents the present and future as to who can get a country that everybody will be happy to have and we all live happily together and really engage these God-given resources that God has given to us to enable this country to achieve its mandate of greatness which has been given by nature. So, in winning this election, the things I am telling you will become more apparent. People will see it. If we allow any of these three champions to win, if care is not taken, we will be starting a process of balkanization of this country along ethic groups. Perhaps it would be difficult to reverse it into becoming one united nation.
What are you bringing to the table if elected?
First of all, I look at this election as a marathon race. You do not run a marathon race with a spring approach. Those that are out and shouting at each other are likened to the saying that an empty barrel makes the loudest noise. We know what we have and by the time we launch our campaign, it will be the campaign that every Nigerian will identify with. Because we have the knowledge, we have the skills. We know what the problems are. These ones do not know the problems of this country. I have watched one of the major presidential candidates and he was asked what he was going to do about crude oil theft and he said he does not know. All he said was he will look for those who know when he is elected. Is that the kind of person you want to give your country to? When your house is on fire, do you want to call somebody who does not know anything about fire-fighting? The organisation and management of the oil and gas sector is the secret to the success of governance in this country. It is the secret to the solution of the problem we are having in this country. The so-called developed economy, most of them have what you call cash cow. It is like if you have a business, a segment of your market that you tag as your cash cow. You do not joke with your cash cow. In Nigeria, it is the other way round whether people want to believe it or not. The oil and gas sector is the engine room and the cash cow both domestically and internationally. Our comparative advantage is in the cash cow that is why we have bilateral relations with other countries. You do not joke with that sector. The point I am trying to make is that we are bringing reorganisation of the most important sector of our economy. I have the knowledge. I have done it for successive governments. I have given them ideas which have worked. Even the fuel subsidy thing you are talking about, I solved the problem of fuel subsidy in 1967, when we had the military administration of Babangida. I was the one who gave the idea of the two tier system. It is there. Singlehandedly, I carried out a study on how we can solve the problem at that time and it was solved. Today, they are talking about N6 trillion. It is all fraud. Either ignorance or wilfull intent to steal Nigeria’s money in a way that nobody can really detect. The oil and gas sector you have in this country today is an organised crime and I can support it because I know of the Acts of parliament that are made to institutionalise fraud that are made today. I have written severally on what we need to do about that Act which the oil and gas sector operators are taking advantage of to steal our money in billions. They call it the Pre-shipment Inspection Act. It is a fraud. Even when PIA was passed into law, they left that Act as bad as it is. They proscribed all the remaining Acts, but one was left untouched. I have been shouting since and I said the biggest swindle in Nigeria is the PIA. I can prove it because I went to the Senate the day they were passing that bill. I went to some of the senators who stood up and I said this is inimical to the interest of this country. It was removed at the plenary. How it was included when it got to Mr President is what we will investigate when we come to power. That is the greatest crime anybody can commit against this country. I am bringing solutions to the country because I have the knowledge. I am not somebody that will sit and expect somebody to go and find out for me and bring solutions to me. I have the solution already which has been tested. These are documented things. I am not just saying it. Anybody who really wants can find out. I will give you the records of what I have done. I am not going to be an arm-chair president. I am going to be a working president because I have the knowledge. If you can solve the economy of this country by getting the oil and gas sector organised believe me you have solved almost 99 per cent of problems of the country. You know why? You would have been able to reduce corruption in the economy to the barest minimum.
Are you not threatened by Peter Obi’s movement?
This is democracy. And in democracy there is fanfare and noise making. But that does not translate to votes. Yes, they have the theme of what Nigerians are looking for; positive change, solving economic problems, creating environment of peace, tackling insecurity and things like that. That is the theme that will change the scenario. Everybody wants to hear that. But where are the plots to win the election? How do you satisfy the constitutional requirements for you to become the president of the country? It is not by noise making; it is about going to the grassroots and ensuring that you are able to secure the minimum requirements of the votes for you to be able to say you have the two-third of the 36 states which is about 24 states. So, the issue now is not the ‘Obi-dient’ movement. People are demonstrating their frustration with what is happening. Unfortunately, it is not anchored on our political realities. It does not capture what gets to become a reality as far as the economy is concerned. I am not going to say it is exactly like EndSARS, but it is akin to it. When EndSARS came it was an outburst; people have had it enough. So, how do you get it to be actualized? How do you get the required change? I mean in spite of all the things that happened, government has not in anyway changed. I have not seen anything that has changed. All that happened was that government just changed the name of the problem. From SARS to something they are calling it now. Those ones are even worse than what SARS was doing. So, yes, it is okay because it gives people the opportunity to ventilate and express themselves in a way. But that does not translate to reality of our political arrangement. That is why I say ADP and my candidature is the solution because as much as the ‘Obi-dent’ euphoria is, when you listen to the Yoruba’s Emilokan also have their own self entitlement which also does not give you the required winning formula because you think it is your turn. Why I say we are the solution and you will see it. We will sanitise the system. Nigeria needs to be sanitised and we will bring a symbol that everybody can identify with. If you bring an Hausa symbol, Igbo symbol, Yoruba symbol, then it is the fastest way of ruining the country further. Because those are the frontline we are trying to get away from to see how we can unite ourselves as one indivisible country, focus in the direction of revamping the economy so that it can work for everybody because it is a promise of greatness of what God has given to us. And I have the solution. I have been tested. And I believe that if we can solve that problem and because of what it represents, it can substantially solve the problem. We have no business borrowing. If you know the amount of stolen crude oil sitting in the facilities of China, American, they are billions of naira. I introduced a system to one of the government agencies and about 96 billion barrels of crude oil was intercepted. The records are there. These are things you can verify. But what happened? They stopped the system. If you can solve the problem of revenue, you will be able to develop the key sectors of the economy. You will be able to solve the problem in education. There will be no need for ASUU to go on strike that will bring us to this stalemate. There will be no need for health challenges we are having in this country because facilities will be there to address basic problem we are having. There will be no need for all these unpardonable high level of youth unemployment which is about 40 per cent. But when you add employment we are pushing about 70 per cent. So, that is a time bomb. I can guarantee that that will be solved because we have the money. We can stop it. No country with oil is being run the way Nigeria is run. Not even Saudi Arabia. They do not run it that way.
What is your take on the factionalisation of ASUU?
For me, if in the wisdom of any dispute and there is an extraordinary way to solve the problem without disrupting the system, I think I am for it. Because this stalemate that we have I do not know who is benefitting from it. It is not the nation, it is not the students, I am not sure the lecturers are benefitting from it. So, if there is any extra measures that can be taken because some situations require such. That is why it is the government, and lecturers too because they are academia, they should be able to think outside the box. If you find yourself forward or backward, which is like a bicycle on a standstill, we would not want the educational system to collapse. If this is what will solve the problem and students will be called back to school, lecturers will agree to now go on teaching them, I am in support.