Follow Us on Google
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has argued that those criticising supporters of Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are not true democrats.
The Director General, Voice of Nigeria (VON) also spoke on various issues, including his party’s loss at the recently concluded Osun State governorship election and comparison between violation of zoning convention by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and adoption of Muslim-Muslim joint presidential ticket.
How do you feel that some of you who strongly supported Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket have come under harsh and vicious criticism?
First without sounding immodest and without any intent to denigrate anyone, one would humbly answer that those who berated some of us for supporting Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket are more or less not true democrats. If they are true democrats, they could have known that in real politics, Asiwaju has no straightforward solution for, among other supportive tendencies, prominent in the Northern Governors Forum, no presidential candidate will choose a vice presidential candidate without their buy-in. The buy-in of Northern Governors is essential for a Muslim from the South who in the milieu of religious thermometer is a minority. Hence Asiwaju truly has no straightforward solution. Secondly, they could have spared time to listen or take note of the advice of the iconic Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah, or elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark. Kukah said that, if people feel unhappy with the kind of choice that have been made, that is why we are democrats, you can’t force a choice of any candidate… And there is no guarantee that all Christians will vote for Christians and all Muslims will vote for Muslims. For Chief Edwin Clark, ‘because I am an old man of 95, I no longer belong to a political party. Whereas if I were to vote, and you put only two parties, APC and PDP, I will vote for APC for zoning the presidency to the South and listening to our appeal.’
He added that “the governors of the states feel they are so powerful. But the only thing your party has done that has made me to withdraw my support, is its Muslim-Muslim ticket.” I won’t talk about it. Goodluck Jonathan was the President for some time. The Northerners said it was their turn. In 2015, the Northern PDP leaders ganged up with APC to remove Jonathan from office. They didn’t campaign. Jonathan was on his own.
Why do you say this in the midst of a country highly polarised along fault lines?
Please, permit me to ask that if today, we are polarised along ethno-religious lines, will it continue if Asiwaju wins? I don’t think so. Please, don’t throw away the baby and bath water. Asiwaju I know and indeed the Yorubas’ DNA has no traces of religious extremism or bigotry. Therefore, I repeat, we should not throw away the baby with the bath water. In my assessment, both Tinubu and Kassim are moderate Muslims.
Can we take it that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria (PFN), and a host of others are wrong and you, Asiwaju’s fan, is right?
I am not a judge, but take note that among the 30 presidential aspirants of our great party, I was not in Asiwaju’s camp. I was in Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi’s camp. And don’t forget that at the beginning of the presidential primary campaign of my great party, APC, I issued a public statement advising our leader, Bola Tinubu, as a kingmaker to consider supporting anyone from Ndigbo and by extension the Southeastern geopolitical zone for the presidential race. My argument was that going by our rotation convention, which is embedded in equity, fairness, and natural justice, it is the turn of Ndigbo. I had further noted that since the advent of the 4th Republic, which incidentally was birthed by rotation convention, our brothers, the Yoruba, have presided over Nigeria for eight years and deputising today with our support. I went ahead to espouse that it will unite the southern belt which has been fractured since the 50s Western Region House of Assembly election. Instantly, public reply was issued by Asiwaju’s camp that the kingmaker wants to be king. To cut the story short, the race ensured and he won, and as a democrat and a party man, one has to support him. Thus, the issue of being fanatical is not on the card, but the nuances of partisan chess. Is it worthy for Asiwaju to reward Shettima for his unalloyed support?
So, do you think it is enough reason to support a Muslim-Muslim ticket when there are Christians of northern stock and across the country in your party, who are outraged?
Once more, permit me to state that I share the complaints against the non-inclusion of a Christian on the ticket. But I am also saying that there are abundant solutions to assuage my Northern Christian brothers. In critical political analysis, there are instances where the vice president is not as powerful as the Chief of Staff etc. Accordingly, as a democrat, immediately Asiwaju won the primaries, I, as a party man, have no option, but to offer my unalloyed and undiluted support. I am by nature a sportsman, and like in every honourable sports, one cannot walk away whether I supported him or not, during the contest. Therefore, immediately he emerged as our presidential candidate. I am bound to support him. Secondly, no one can close his eyes to the tendencies in our great party that helped in some measure to actualise his victory. As I said before it is good to reward service. In this instance, no politician can forget the immense role played by the Northern Governors Forum led by my friend, His Excellency, Atiku Bagudu. For me, it will be undemocratic to walk away, I am a sportsman.
What is your take on the argument that fairness, inclusiveness, and faith balance could have governed Tinubu’s decision on this running mate matter?
That is the crux of my submission that the fact that Osita’s preferred choice of vice presidential candidate was not adopted does not in any way make the choice undemocratic. As many argued, Asiwaju was between the devil and the deep blue sea. He cherished the concern of Christians; however, as a minority Christian in the South, his choice is different in the North. That was my point, and a close analysis of the strong condemnation from some quarters will make a casual observer assume that Nigeria is under a totalitarian one-party state. By Almighty God’s grace, we operate a multiparty system and as Bishop Kukah submitted earlier, there was no need for caustic words like satanic or Islamization of Nigeria. To be exact, nobody has the power to Islamise Nigeria. A lot of people forget that even Egypt, Dubai, Saudi Arabia are not strictly in true word Islamic states. They’re not.
What about the debate that President Buhari avoided the pitfall Asiwaju has entered?
To be frank, there is some veil of difference between the two options; it will be more suicidal for Northern presidential candidates to choose a Southern Muslim. I don’t want to go into details, use your tongue to count your teeth. Let us play down this dangerous fault line.
Some will also counter by insisting that APC is the ruling party, with a huge chance of victory, and therefore it is the choice of such delicate positions that impacts or shakes the country…?
I subscribe to your position that APC with 22 state governors out of 36 and a majority at both chambers of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly has about 60 per cent permutation of victory. However, such assumptions call to question the degree or depth of democratic culture in our political hemisphere. Take it or leave it, a lot of Nigerians did not, up to date, appreciate the immense democratic ethos ingrained in our electoral process. Or the challenge of the Electoral Act 2022 President Buhari has bequeathed to us. We, of the APC stock, are careful and reticent. If others do, then the uproar over the Muslim-Muslim ticket could have been more moderate or less than the uproar over the breach of the rotation convention by our sister political party, the PDP. We behaved as if we are in a totalitarian regime, where APC is the only top dog, thus brushing aside the multi-party system we cultivated for over six decades.
Is this what guided your classification of the agitators as anti-democrats?
I didn’t use the word anti-democrats, but the word is not true democrats. My canvas is in the sense that we must imbibe the age-long democratic culture and, in fact, be proud that we have advanced democratic culture in Nigeria. We are in a multi-party system where out of the 18 registered political parties anyone of them can win. When we are appreciative of how long we have advanced on our democratic project, the less hullabaloo on the fault lines of the ethno-religious ilk.
How can you equate the same faith breach of your party with the rotation convention breach of the PDP when many will tell you that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a more existential threat than the rotation convention existential threat?
Both dangerously fan the embers of fault lines, especially exclusion, marginalisation, and erode national loyalty. Hence faith or religious breach and rotation convention or geopolitical breach both variants touch on the nerves of people in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like ours. In such a sordid scenario as hurt as my Christian brothers and sisters are by APC’s presidential ticket; that is how some of us were hurt by PDP’s presidential ticket’s violent breach of rotation convention. In comparison, the geopolitical breach is more because it is always more penetrating, and more divisive but less pronounced than the religious breach, which is more emotional and sentimental. And in our case, we have a joint ticket that will neither marginalize Christians nor Muslims.
Contrary to your position there are more outcries on faith in balance, don’t you think the PDP will be the beneficiary?
I don’t think so unless you are talking of religion like our sister political parties are spin doctors, who are trying to harvest mountains out of a molehill. If that is the case, we are all tainted in one way or the other concerning religion. Don’t forget Atiku Abubukar’s ambivalence posture over the late Debora imbroglio in Sokoto. If you are looking for a protector of Christians, methinks he may not be the one. As I said before, between us and our sister political party we breached the faith balance and they breached the geo-political balance.
What do you think about the perception of some pundits that APC’s loss in the recent Osun State governorship election, is an ominous signpost for 2023?
For me, our loss of the Osun governorship election is regrettable; however, I vehemently disagree with such submission. Without resorting to the ancient blame game syndrome, every arrow about the Osun mishap points to in-house wrangling in the state chapter of the party, not PDP’s machine. That is the true analysis of our failure in Osun. The second was the popularity of the Adelekes, which some have dubbed the Adeleke brand. Therefore, PDP as the national body cannot innocently claim victory. They are beneficiaries by accident and will not use it as a yardstick to penetrate Asiwaju’s stronghold. If you think they will do, then it will be the height of delusion.
