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By Billy Graham Abel
Dr. Sani Adamu is a PDP stalwart and an avid pro -Atiku campaigner. In this interview, the PDP chieftain described President Muhammadu Buhari as the architect of numerous violence in the country.
The Adamawa born politician tasks his party, PDP, to ignore every presidential clamour within the party, and handover the presidential ticket of the party to Atiku Abubukar as the surest way to kick APC out of office. He described the APC as a national collective mistake that must be corrected in 2023.
How did you get into politics?
For me, I have been an observer of State and National affairs for a very long time. However, venturing into active politics came about after the 2011 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries which Atiku lost. I was disturbed because the ballot boxes were arranged according to states. Only a few delegates from Adamawa State voted for him. He got less than 20% of the votes cast despite his popularity. But Atiku has touched the lives of Adamawa people through his investment and non-profit initiatives. He became very popular reaching out to ordinary Nigerians and members of his immediate community in Adamawa, so, the election was not a true reflection of the minds of the electorate.
I could not understand why the delegates from his home constituency betrayed him or to say betrayed themselves. So, I sat down and pondered over the matter. These delegates were less than point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero one percent of the Adamawa State population, but we elected them to be our representatives but they just failed us. Unfortunately, when they returned from Abuja where the primaries was conducted, nobody in Adamawa challenged them for their actions. I wrote an open letter to all major stakeholders in the affairs of Adamawa State, including political leaders, traditional rulers, elected and appointed officials, asking them why they allowed that to happen in the first place.
He has followers all over the country but I believe, we, in Adamawa, must blaze the trail for other states to follow. There was a time I had a visitor from Cameroon. When I took him round the town and he saw industries and world class investments, he asked me who built them. I told him it was Atiku. He asked about the number of the tiers of government in Nigeria. I said three -federal, state and local governments. The man could not believe it. He then asked “what of Atiku?” because he thought Atiku was another tier of government.
So, I explained to him that Atiku Abubakar was an individual who invested heavily to generate employment and spur economic growth in Nigeria.
So, I launched my movement against 2015 electioneering between the primaries and the 2011 general elections, which I named as “Desrvation.org.” The rest is history today, and the struggle continues.
In government, Atiku prevailed based on good principles, and out of office, he did not change. This character of Atiku Abubakar is what attracted me to fight on his behalf to rescue this Country.
So in your quest to rescue Nigeria, how did Atiku come into the picture and how did you get connected to him politically?
Connecting with Alhaji Atiku came naturally to me. I have a soft spot for the Waziri for a long time. After studying his struggles and identifying a gap in his core support base and machinery, I decided to launch my movement to fill the identified gap. Most of our interventions were practical and ICT based. We initiated a sustained social media campaign to project the accomplishment of the Waziri and show his readiness to lead this great country.
The 2011 Presidential elections were to be Atiku Abubakar’s moment, but the country lost it. We lost it again and again, 2015 and 2019. Nigeria has been suffering from poor leadership since then. I believe we have all learnt our lessons, which will shape our thinking as we once again prepare for 2023 Presidential elections. The truth is, Nigeria still needs the leadership of Atiku Abubakar. The looming threat and instability in the polity, leading to discontentment and unreasonable agitations, calls for the likes of Atiku Abubakar.
That seems like a direct attack on APC and Buhari, when you say Nigeria is still suffering from poor leadership and still lacks leadership?
Take it for a direct attack on PMB and his party, APC, if you like. At the time Muhammadu Buhari was elected, he promised to provide good leadership to solve most of the problems within six months, including the fixing of exchange rate of the Naira to Dollar. We can safely conclude after seven years in office that PMB took Nigerians for a ride. He was simply pretentious or outrightly deceptive. APC existed only on paper, as they could neither control nor advise the President. PMB lacks the qualities of a leader. Look at all the places he worked, even as an Army Officer. He has never achieved anything. Even the honesty being attributed to him was actually misplaced. He never understood the problems of Nigeria or Nigerians. Look at just three campaign promises of the APC -economy, security and corruption. None of these was improved upon. Things have got far worst than what he met in 2015. PMB leads the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria. The NPN government he overthrew in 1983 is 100 per cent better then this APC government. Almighty God has endowed Nigeria with all resources for development, but the leadership of Buhari has made nonsense of these resources.
We’ve seen PMB at his worst. History has pointed out that Buhari thinks everyone must suffer, as if suffering solves problems. He lacks compassion, empathy, hard work, and simple knowledge and understanding of his followers. He leads for himself, for his family, friends, and those he personally knew. Is that the leadership qualities Nigerians fought and died for in 2015 and 2019? Of course not; it is unfortunate and regrettable.
I also remember the promise of PMB with regards to price of petrol, the refineries, and the subsidy payments. Buhari has neither built a refinery nor has he maintained the three old ones. PMB is paying subsidy today. Remember PMB said subsidy payment was a scam. He is now presiding the worst scam in the history of the world. At this late hour and after seven years in office, Buhari suddenly remembered to waste billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance of the three very old refineries. Ask the price of a litre of PMS in 2015 and 2021.
Drawing from your statement above, one could point fingers at you and your party, the PDP which was in power for 16 years, how would you say APC fared in its seven years in office compared to PDP?
The answer to this question is simple, ask the common man on the street if he is better off today with seven years of APC government or the past 16 years of PDP in office?
The answer would be that of regrets, recriminations and lamentations of the collective mistake this nation made in electing the APC government led by General Buhari; this in my opinion, is crystal clear situation; Nigeria has never had it so bad. Let us start with three cardinal promises of the APC Government -security, corruption, and the economy.
Under Buhari, Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world. Look at the poverty data from the World Bank and even the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS). Nigeria is also number two on the World Terrorist indicators. Looking at the Corruption index, Nigeria under President Buhari has dropped to the worst since 2015. Nigeria has never witnessed this level of corruption from the cronies and family of the President. Nigeria slides back by two points annually on the corruption index from Transparency International. In 2020, Nigeria was 149th out of 180 but Nigeria was 136th out of 180 countries in 2015. The corrupt practices have eaten deep into the very fabric of social and economic system. Employment into the Federal Civil Service is now allocated to family members and cronies, who in turn auction them to the
highest bidder. This practice is going on under the watch of Mr. President. Check out the price of 50kg bag of rice; it was N6,000 under PDP in 2015, and N35,000 under PMB in 2020; check out the exchange rate of Naira to the dollar; it was N180 to the Dollar, now it is almost N570 to the Dollar. Unemployment rate in 2015 was 12 per cent compared to 33.28 per cent in 2020.
Nigeria is also the 146th out of 190 countries in the ease of doing business. Nigeria lags behind all its peers on access to electricity, and foreign direct investment (FDI) flow to Nigeria is skewed towards a narrow sector with relatively limited potential for creating jobs for our teeming youth.
Even the agricultural sector remains largely uncompetitive and underperforms in all the value chains. You can see that we took one step forward under the PDP-led government and several steps backwards under the APC.
But these statistics you are now floating were under the then president Goodluck Jonathan, whom you and your boss Atiku abandoned to support APC?
There was a collective mistake by some PDP stakeholders, when they abandoned their Party and GEJ to join APC and assist Buhari to win elections in 2015. Those who know me could tell you that I was vehemently against that move by PDP in 2015. All of them regretted that move in 2015. Nigerians were betrayed in assisting Buhari to win the 2015 elections.
The statistics left behind by President GEJ was fantastic. We wrongly believed GEJ was doing badly as a Leader. We brought PMB who turned out to be 1000% worst than GEJ. Doesn’t it surprise you that PMB has made the habit of meeting with GEJ from time to time? Haven’t you heard APC or PMB wants GEJ to be their Presidential Candidate? Haven’t you seen or heard those PDP stalwarts begging GEJ for Forgiveness?
Ask the average Nigerian if he is better off today than he was in 2015? The answer is we are all worst off, except for a few family and friends in the corridors of power.
That is why we stand by the leadership of Atiku Abubakar. He is a tested politician, a successful buisiness man, an international citizen, and a leader with no region. He was the first to abandon PMB as soon as he noticed what was to come. He came to contest against PMB in 2019. He told Nigerians the whole truth, Nigerians voted for him. He actually won the election in 2019, but the corrupt government with instruments of coercion ensured the daylight rigging and stealing of votes in Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Bornu, Kebbi, and Zamfara States.
We are telling voters never to forget or forgive the suffering brought on them by PMB. Come out and vote, defend your vote and make sure it’s counted and collated. 2023 election will be year of liberation for the people of Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar is the answer to this Wahala from day one. He is ready to lead, he knows how to lead, and he has compassion and capacity to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians, and thus make this country great again. PDP and Atiku Abubakar are the answer in 2023, Insha Allah.
Despite your elaborate statistics of misrule by the APC administration, we have been witnessing a migration of politicians to APC, why?
Regrettably yes, looking at the above picture of the devastation and suffering brought about by the APC government, you would expect that the enlightened group in Nigeria will lead their people aright by turning their back on the APC government; however, I would like to differentiate the selfishness, the use and dump attitude of unscrupulous politicians and elites, and the genuine citizens who had not fared better with this government.
I wish to assure you that when the time comes, you will find these politicians regretting their actions, because they will discover, when it is too late that, the self-interest attached to this movement would be their undoing, the masses will certainly not follow them. You will in no distant future see them trying to stage a return to the PDP.
Nigeria is 60 plus years now, would you say that we have made progress as a nation and has democracy added any value to our system of governance?
In terms of continuous democratic practices, we had some interruptions of the military, who came at various times when the politicians fail to deliver service and play politics by the rules. However, since the return of the Second republic, PDP has been in power for 16 years as I established earlier. The PDP has done a lot to strengthen internal democracy, based on the ideals for development and rule of law. However, the APC Government seemed to have reversed all the gains made in the democratic space. What we see now is a government led by aristocrats, for the benefits of few individuals.
We are witnessing a crass dictatorship, which has turned into a take-it -or-live-it government. We are all helpless, the National Assembly has woefully failed to serve their constitutional mandate of checks and balances. It has allowed itself to be a rubber-stamp assembly or another arm of the Executive branch.
So, the 60 years of independence in Nigeria is a mixed bag of course brought about by the APC’s corrupt leadership and a reversal of the blessings of PDP’s 16 years, which has been eroded by the present inept government led by President Buhari.
But observers of your political activities would say you have not been too active with Atiku like you were before, is it a sign that you are also planning to dump him and his party, PDP to APC?
I can tell you categorically that for me, there is no rest until we deliver Atiku Abubakar to Aso Rock Villa as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Since 2011, all my activities two-four-seven, three hundred and sixty five days, have revolved around the Atiku Agenda for Nigeria and Nigerians. This is the task I willingly and ably have taken upon myself. Since then, I have not seen an alternative to Atiku Abubakar. I believe in his capacity to rescue Nigeria and Nigerians. The right platform to deliver Atiku Abubakar to Nigerians remain the PDP.
I must admit that I have working groups across the 36 states and FCT. I have also received invitations from high calibre politicians and political parties, but my heart and soul remain with the Waziri of Adamawa. I have refused to have a closed door meeting with anyone with a different agenda. I have also interacted with governors, ministers and ambassadors, for other reasons. My commitment to Atiku Abubakar remains unshaken, solid and for a better Nigeria. Insha Allahu, Atiku’s time to be the President of Nigeria has come.
As someone who knows Atiku well and campaigns for him vehemently, what positive impact or difference do you think he would make in Nigeria if Nigerians decide to give him their mandate to rule this country?
As far as Atiku Abubakar is concerned, Nigeria has on three occasions missed his leadership dynamism and capacity that he has practically implemented in starting and growing businesses. I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that Nigeria would have been better off with Atiku Abubakar, than with President Buhari.
Most voters now question themselves, saying how come did we elect this Man? Remember, all the things Atiku Abubakar predicted during the 2015 and 2019 election have come to pass.
Atiku’s impact would have been things that Nigerians everywhere in the world would have been proud of. The future looks bleak, we seem hopeless, the strong are cynical, taking advantage of the weak and the present leadership is rudderless. This situation calls for the leadership of Atiku Abubakar. His sincerity can never be repressed.
With the Not Too Young to Run movement gaining traction in the country, don’t you think Alh. Atiku has aged to rule Nigeria, would it not be better for him to remain an elder statesman?
Atiku Abubakar is a successful businessman in and out of office. He is an employer of labour in many industries he has founded. His daily interactions with leaders and businesses around the world keeps him abreast of developmental issues around the world. In fact, Atiku Abubakar has become better with his age (check his twitter handle). He is the kind of person you could count on any day with current development and leadership matters, so his reach and influence around the world is a plus for him and an edge he has over all the person’s laying claims to the leadership of this country. His management acumen and the successful enterprises he has been leading has sharpened his skills and makes him a true leader. I can tell you that today in Nigeria, no one is better prepared than Atiku Abubakar to lead Nigeria to the Promised Land. He is extremely healthy, and even looks younger than his age. His stamina and resilience are much more than that of young men. Therefore, this is a case where his age is an added advantage. He has promised to serve one term and ensure the youth are well prepared to take over the leadership of this country. This is because he has seen, in practical terms, the capacity of young people employed by him directly or indirectly. Atiku Abubakar will ensure the generational shift in the leadership of this country. If anyone would do it, it is Atiku Abubakar. He is prepared to succeed through the practice of good conduct, which our youth need to carry on further in the task of nation building.
In view of the numerous security challenges in the country, what do you think are the chances that there would be elections in 2023?
While the security situation is precarious, I am sure that no one in the government of APC would attempt to use the security crisis they created, to delay or tamper with the timetable for all elections going forward to 2023.
We are operating a constitution, and we shall remain vigilant to ensure that the timetable is followed to its logical conclusion. We know that the APC-led administration will attempt some funny moves once the reality of defeat stares them in the eyes, but I assure you that we shall not allow any funny moves by the government. I am sure the elections will hold as planned, and transition to another elected government will happen, Insha-Allah.
If PDP goes with your advocacy of consensus to give Atiku the ticket as their flag bearer, who do you suggest to be his running mate?
My candid advice to all PDP stakeholders is to learn from experience and ensure less expensive and acrimonious conventions and nominations. This is common sense. Atiku Abubakar needs not waste resources in intra-party processes. He has nothing more to say about himself that PDP and the majority of Nigerians do not know. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that he is the best for Nigeria at this time.
I can tell you that nationally speaking, Atiku is the man over which Nigerians will not want to repeat the mistake of 2015 and 2019 and choose someone like President Muhammadu Buhari or any person he recommends because he is a complete failure and a political disaster. Do you think any sensible Nigerian will trust him enough to vote for any APC candidate? Of course not. Then PDP should pick its fights smartly instead of wasting time and effort within the Party.
Consensus is the way to go for PDP presidential candidate for 2023 elections. The same applies to the Vice President nominee. The principles of consensus can be applied to all major political and government positions. We must as well recognise PDP faithful, who held the party and ensured its survival when others looked away. Strong party faithful should be given due recognition and their loyalty rewarded.
Politics is a game of numbers and strength of party members. Strength in terms of resource mobilization, fearlessness, and support to other party members, I respect Gov. Nyesom Wike for that. I can tell you that Atiku Abubakar himself knows those who stood by the PDP when it mattered most. It shall be his duty to lead the process of consensus through give and take.
We are confident that Atiku has something for all members and all hard work will surely be rewarded. The nomination of the Vice Presidential candidate would be based on several permutations, most which are numerous to mention here.
