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• Why I dumped President for Waziri Adamawa
• Says Obi, Kwankwaso are Obasanjo’s boys working to stop Atiku
By Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Hajia Najaatu Mohammed is the Deputy National Chairman (North West) of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). She is one of the most prominent female politicians in Northern Nigeria. She is also renowned as a fighter for justice and a strong promoter of the interest of the people of Northern Nigeria. In this interview, she offered insight on the forthcoming 2027 General Election, particularly concerning the electability of the major candidates: President Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi. She also speaks on the role of the judiciary ahead of the 2027 elections.
Activities relating to the 2027 elections are increasing in pace, and you now occupy a high office in the ADC. What has the experience been like?
When I got this position, I wasn’t aware of it. I have been in politics for quite a long time and have held similar positions. But this one is different in the sense that I did even vie for it. It was networked by people like Aminu Tambuwal and Waziri to make sure that I emerged. They wanted somebody that was prominent in the North-West with a very good reputation, upright and highly respected and very popular, and who commands a lot of influence. They wanted something similar to these, especially a woman. For the ADC, even in our constitution, 50 percent of the political office holders should be the youths and 30 percent should be women. They put these into consideration. Having picked all these men from various geo-political zones, they thought it wise for me as a woman, who is outspoken and somebody that is already a household name to be given that position. So that was how I emerged.
So, your reputation did more of the work?
I believed so!
What has been the experience working as a woman at that level and for a very serious party? What are the challenges?
As you know, for every woman the challenges include male chauvinism, a few men are misogynistic. This is not peculiar to Nigeria; it is all over the world. Men tend to look down on women and their abilities and their capabilities. You always have to go an extra mile to show that you can actually do it. You do 1000 things that men cannot do but still when it comes to making and taking decisions, they tend to say, ‘Oh no she is a woman.’
I know that I have had to put my life several times on the line just to defend justice and I know that 1000 men cannot take the risks I have taken for my people. But in spite of that, they still want to bring me down simply because I am a woman.
Is it not also exciting to deal with the challenges?
Yes, it is. Every time I look at it, I am so grateful to Allah for putting me where He has kept me. It is not a gift that He has given to many men and women. So, I say thank you God. I know that everything has its positives and its negatives. In times of struggle, you have to know that it is quite painful fighting for justice. But that is my overall objective. It does not matter where I am and it does not matter which party I am, I always want to do the right thing for my people.
You parted ways with President Tinubu three and half years ago. Do you have any regrets?
A: No! No!! No!!! I am very grateful to Allah for giving me the heart to take the position that I took and it is on record that I have nothing personal against Tinubu. Let it be very, very clear: there is mutual respect between us. I have known him for quite a while and quite honestly, I cannot say that he has ever disrespected me. No! First, the problem I had in 2023 was that I didn’t believe that a person like him should be President. I supported Osibanjo. I was in the APC because I thought that Osibanjo was forthright, focused and can be very firm in taking decisions. Now, Tinubu has all sorts of records, all sorts of allegations are wrapped around him. Even if they are allegations, you can’t put somebody that is alleged to have done those things in a position of power. Number two is that in spite of everything, I never wanted to work for him as a President. But having won the primary elections, I was still in the party, but my conscience did not allow me to work for him. But he pleaded with me. He pleaded with me to come and sit with me and I went to London and I sat with him at his request. He pleaded with me and I did. I didn’t want to be arrogant. The first question I asked him was that if I have to campaign for you, I have to have a reason to campaign for you. What do you have or what is your blueprint for the North? We have a lot of challenges in the North and he looked at me point blank and said “Nothing.” And then I asked him what blueprint he had for the country. He said he had the part
Considering the decision you took and what has happened so far, do you feel vindicated?
Oh very much so! A lot of people out of greed did not even believe me. They insulted me and some said that I was ordained to be rich – because Tinubu would have given a lot of money for this kind of thing. . Quite honestly, I have never done anything in my life for material gains but Allah has blessed me. He has blessed me with good business. I have never worked for the government, I have never really earned a salary and I am okay! So why do I need to disparage myself? Why do I need to betray my people? The reason I keep going is because of the confidence the people of Northern Nigerian have in me. When I told them in 2023 what would happen if they voted for Tinubu, quite a few of them insulted me because they felt that they would get money from Tinubu. But now, I have been vindicated. Right now after everything has happened, I have to cover my face when I go to the market because as soon as somebody recognizes my face or my voice, people in the market would be shouting, and saying, “Oh! You told us,” and be praying for us. The market will become a mini-meeting place. I cannot betray my people for the life of it.
You referred to allegations against Tinubu, but the ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was alleged to have mismanaged funds when he was Vice President. How come you are opposed to one person due to allegations but comfortable with another who also has issues of allegations?
You have to look at it objectively. What is the power of a vice president in Nigeria in terms of holding any kind of economic power? For instance, the president appoints the ministers, the CBN Governor and so on. At point were allegations made against Atiku? And I quite remember that there was a time he was investigated by Nuhu Ribadu; he voluntarily set aside his constitutional immunity and challenged Ribadu at that time. I have never seen any kind of explicit allegations against Atiku, Waziri Adamawa. In terms of corruption, you cannot compare Atiku with Tinubu. Today, you have a whole parastatal that is legally existent, but a state governor is heading it and doling out billions for campaigns.
What is your assessment of the Tinubu administration in the last three and half years?
Honestly, there is no need for anybody to talk about this because everybody is having a feel of it. I mean Generals are being killed by bandits. Bandits are making statements and declaratory pronouncements and nobody has ever been arrested. Instead, the government would go after a normal citizen on TikTok. No one is safe. Even the question of security is enough for everybody. Look, Kano was relatively safe until now. Go to Tsanyawa and Rogo, kidnappings now happen in those places. And even here within the city, you have hundreds of youths. They will just block the road for the whole evening or the whole afternoon, snatching phones and cutting the throats of people. Or they jump through your fence at night. So what are we talking about? The first responsibility of any government is security. That is the fundamental reason for the creation of any form of government. It is to assure security of life and property to its people and protect the territorial integrity of the country. So, which one is being done now? I mean without security, what can we really do? With all these – inflation, naira devaluation, total breakdown of our health services and education, so what is there? There is nothing for the Nigerian! You have to provide yourself electricity (generator or solar), security and water from a borehole. Going to the farm is becoming a serious challenge for me.
Regarding the level of domestic and foreign borrowing by the Federal Government, are you seeing the impact of the loans taken on the economy? Do we really need to borrow this much when we have stopped the fuel subsidy?
On the day that the Presidential Campaign Council was inaugurated (when I was in APC), Tinubu stood up and said that everybody was borrowing and so he would borrow and borrow and borrow. These were his words from inception. The next question to ask is where is all the money going? The administration said it is making billions or trillions from internal revenue (from Customs, etc) and it removed fuel subsidies. Trillions are supposed to be coming in, but you don’t see it on the ground. Instead you hear allegations of this or that minister stealing huge amounts of money. The money is not trickling down. Indigenous contractors have not been paid since he came in. So, everyone has been crippled. Every Nigerian now is hypertensive because life is so uncertain. You are thinking of how to get through to the next day. You cannot plan beyond tomorrow. How do I get to work tomorrow? How do I buy my food tomorrow? How do I pay my rent, how do I pay children school fees? What if somebody falls ill? And if somebody falls ill, what is the government providing?
The reason Japan was able to develop faster than China in the 1800s was because China was borrowing. When you borrow, there are conditions for borrowing. You don’t just borrow? You have to devalue your currency and the rights of your people to develop have to be undermined because you are not supposed to develop. It is bondage. And so Japan realized that. When they did the Restoration in 1830, they did one thing: the country resolved not to borrow, because if you borrow, you lose your independence. They determine who gets what. They even determine your elections!
The issue of state police is topical today. Do you think we really need one? Will it in the long run be in the best interest of all of us, help us fight insecurity locally and stuff like that? Or are we embarking on a journey of a time bomb?
We have been on a time bomb (jokingly), but God forbid, it should not explode! State police is a hoax because if you look at the police as it is today, it is so structured. You know for decades, since the colonial days and it has been thoroughly, thoroughly institutionalized and they go through training. I worked at the Police Service Commission and I know about that. At the end when and how do you begin to recruit, train, buy arms and ammunition for the state police? How long would it take for you to do that at the state level? Apart from that, then what happens to the Federal police? Do they become like the FBI and they have no responsibility in the states? What would they be doing? As far as I am concerned, I think that the Tinubu government, in addition to everything else, wants to shift the blame for security failure to the governors. Another thing is that I know that he has been trying to restructure, and have us go back to regional authorities. I don’t know how they want to do that. But if it works, then this so-called state police has to be done. But remember, even at the regional level at that time, the police structure was still as it is today. We didn’t have regional police then.
Some have argued that the governors abuse the state police more than they have mismanaged the State Independent Electoral Committee (SEIC). What is your view?
There are genuine reasons for concern. Here in Kano, I remember there was a time when we had a police commissioner who was referred to as “Deputy Governor” because of his link with the then governor. Then, the security of the state was all about who the governor wanted locked up. If you criticized the governor, you got picked up. So if they can do that with the Federal Police, then you can best imagine what they would do with the state police, which would just be like their political thugs.
Isn’t that too harsh?
No, it is not.
Why do you say so?
I am saying so because you just said the same thing about the state electoral commission? It is bastardized by the governors. You will see that the party in which the governor is ruling gets 100 percent.
How do you look at the emergence of Kwankwaso and Peter Obi? Do you see them as a major political threat in 2027?
Let me tell you what is happening. I said it before. Kwankwaso came to ADC on a transit to NDC because he was in ADC for less than a month and he was in ADC when we had problems before the Supreme Court judgment and he left after the Supreme Court judgment. So the excuse that he gave that we had problems in the ADC and that was why he left is not true. As for Peter Obi, he has never really contested (primary) elections. It is not in his character to contest primary elections. He has always wriggled his way to be a candidate. Even when he was Atiku’s running mate, it was because he went through a primary election, but he lobbied his way to that position. So, it is a weakness as far as I am concerned because people should be able to sling it out as politicians. He failed to do that. And then coming back to your question, I can say yes or no. I am a fighter so I tend not to see hurdles. But if you remember in 2023, when Kwankwaso contested the presidential elections, everybody in the North pleaded with him not to contest. And I remember very well, he told his people and they accepted and they did it. When they were thumb printing in that election, they would say in Hausa “Let’s spoil the votes.” So they spoiled over a million votes against the North, against Atiku and he is doing the very same thing. If you remember after the elections, he went to Paris to meet Tinubu. Their pictures were all over. I remember the one that hurt me most was the one with Bisi Akande, who grabbed him and almost pulled him off the floor to thank him for what he did against the North in Kano. And I will tell you also that every Northern elder called to plead with him to step down so as not to spoil the votes. But he did not. This time around, it is believed and I know for sure that Obi and Kwankwaso are Obasanjo boys. I don’t know why Obasanjo has such hatred for Atiku. And he can do anything to ensure that Atiku does not become the President. So these two Obasanjo boys are really not contesting against any other person but Atiku. But somehow, it will also affect Tinubu’s vote in the South because in the last election, you know 63 percent of his votes came from the North. He got quite a few votes in Igbo land. And he lost Lagos. I don’t think he would go to Lagos again because the authorities in Lagos are very strict and they are really dealing with the Igbo – their means of livelihood is being tampered with so I don’t think that they can risk even coming out to vote. So that is that. But for me I know that a week is a long time in politics and things can change. The situation Nigerians found themselves in 2023 is not the same as it is today. So a lot will change I believe.
At some point in time will there be some talk between your party and the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket?
Absolutely. Absolutely!! There is no doubt. I think that they are still talking and we are still talking. But you see the problem of the Nigerian politician is that they don’t look at the larger picture, they don’t look at the interest of their followers. They have accumulated so much wealth and sometimes they get some blind followers! But they don’t care about the lives of their followers, the situation of their followers and that is really unfortunate.
When we talk of dialogue, it means any of the party could make the sacrifice for the other. Do you see the chances of an Atiku sacrificing his ambition for Obi-Kwankwaso’s ambition?
Atiku is the major shareholder in the whole thing. ADC is a bigger party than all the other parties. Let’s face it, in NDC today there are so many slots that are not even filled by candidates, especially up North. So how do you even begin to negotiate with that kind of party when you are the major shareholder and say that you are stepping down for them? Obi cannot go beyond the Southeast. I can bet you my life. Obi cannot make it in the North. Those that even voted for Obi in the last election were the Igbo that settled in the North. That is it.
Is it because of his weakness or because there is a belief against what he represents?
No, let me tell you Obi cannot build bridges. He could make bridges. You see, Northerners are not tribalistic. We are not. Abiola won in Kano against an indigenous person of Kano, Bashir Tofa. He won in Bashir Tofa’s ward. We are not tribal. I know an Igbo man from Kano, who has gone all the way to the National Assembly and he won three times in the National Assembly – an Igbo man. So we are not tribalistic. Even from Abubakar Rimi’s days we have had Igbo in the cabinet.
Obi does not build bridges?
He does not build bridges. He is like a cocoon. He loves everything easy. No! Power doesn’t come easy, you earn it!
How popular is Kwankwaso in Kano State and beyond?
He has lost a lot since after the backlash, after what he did. In Hausa, we say that if you have your grains on the sand, you cannot pack everything. You leave some. So if you move from NNPP to ADC and from ADC to NDC, you will lose a lot of your followers. That is one. Number two what made it very bad for him was that having left the ADC and he went to the NDC , there was this outcry from Northerners that he was selling us to the Igbo, that Igbos killed Sarduna. But instead of him just keeping quiet on this, he now got his followers to be saying a lot of things. And then, they started insulting Uthman Dan Fodio. So when you lose your sense of judgment and you become an extreme, then you lose a lot, because not everyone is senseless.
Looking at many court judgments, what is your take on the Judiciary from 2023 till now?
Like what I said earlier, if a ruler decides that he is a monarch or a boss of the bosses, the institutions will only serve him. This is what is happening at the judiciary. They are giving all sorts of judgments and in fact even some of the judgments are not adhered to when it does not suit the government or its cronies.
I will give you a typical example. Take the case of el-Rufai. Who gave the court order for el-Rufai to come out of detention and bury his mother? No! It was not a court order. It was even on a weekend. But the government decided to bring him out to bury his mother for two days and then they took him right back! And then after which the question of bail now became impossible for him. So you get to know that the judiciary is totally controlled. I have seen the judiciary in America going against Trump. They cannot do that in Nigeria. They can only do what suits the government. This is the position of things in our country. Institutions in Nigeria are now serving the emperor; they are not serving the people. The instruments of coercion have turned many into lame ducks.
Are you not worried that you might be running back to the judiciary?
We have no choice. Do you? It is like our hospitals. Much as you know that there are no doctors and there are no facilities, but you still have to go there. Where else do you go?
Almost all the governors have moved to the APC. Do you people in the opposition feel threatened by the defection gale?
A: No! I don’t feel like seeing it as such. If you have 36 governors, you have 36 votes. Tinubu is depending on them because he thinks that with them he can win the election and they think that with him, they can win the elections. So something is amiss. That gives comfort. It shows a high degree of comfort. It shows that they are unsure. The governors are unsure and the President is unsure. So why should we be bothered? I mean we have had something similar to this in 2015. Remember how many governors went to Jonathan. He lost and they also lost. So Nigerians are used to this kind of thing. This is a sycophantic country and after what happened to the governor of Rivers State. Remember it was after that that they all decided to vote for Tinubu.
What is your assessment of the Kano State governor in the last three and half years?
Governance is all about human development, giving security to lives and property and developing potentials of the individuals. So if you look at it from that prism, I cannot say that Governor Abba has done well. The only thing that is visible, which he is doing, is to build bridges. But in terms of education, healthcare (which is very, very crucial) and utilities such as drinking water (which is the least the government can offer), these things are non-existent in Kano State. And when it comes to human development, you have to come up with projects that would engage the youths, projects that would have impact on the youths – not just in skill acquisition and providing jobs, but projects that would make life easy for the people by giving them houses. This is just an example. You have to take the question of industries seriously. When you don’t have electricity and you can’t provide your own electricity from Kano. Some states have done that. Why is he not doing that? Quite honestly, the only thing that I have seen Abba doing is to build bridges. There are so many bridges. And when you build the bridges, how many people partake in the construction of the bridges? So the money does not trickle down. And all of these bridges are concentrated inside the Kano metropolitan area. Outside the metropolis there are no roads not to talk of bridges.
But the Kano State government has one of the biggest budgets in education. So what is happening?
There are two things here. There is a difference between having a budget and implementing the content of the budget. Go to all our schools, even here in the city, they are all dilapidated. No roofs, nothing! And then where are the teachers?
