How we’ll sack APC, PDP in 2019 — ADP chairman
April 30, 2018 BY WALE ELEGBEDE
Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani is the National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP). In this interview with WALE ELEGBEDE, he speaks on the 2019 general elections and the country’s leadership recruitment process, among other salient issues.
What is your assessment of the current democratic system in the country vis-à-vis the progress made so far?
The survival of democracy is crucial. Nigeria has everything that you can look for in a nation that can be counted as one of the most performing of the nations of the world. What else do you need? We have the human capital, we have the natural resources, we have a country that is virtually free of all natural disasters and we have a young population waiting for fantastic opportunities to convert and make the country great. To find ourselves where we are is a paradox given the rate of unemployment, the slow growth rate of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the daily wanton killings all over the place and everything that shouldn’t be our portion is now what is happening to our country. It is unfortunate and we know why all these are happening.
What do you think is responsible for these problems confronting the country today?
It is simply leadership question. The underlying issue is that the process of our leadership recruitment is faulty and fraught with corruption. If you have an environment that is corrupt, anything coming out of the system will be corrupt. There is no magic or two ways about it. That is why the present administration, and most especially President Muhammadu Buhari, who was described as the most reputable and credible individual that we can have in this country in terms of integrity, to now come out and all these things that are happening are still happening, is to say the least disheartening.
How can these challenges be addressed?
This was why we came up with the Action Democratic Party. We took time to study the system and asked where we got it wrong. We got it wrong when democracy that was supposed to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people became a government of the few, by the few and for the few. What I am saying is that today; if APC and PDP want to elect their candidates, all of us here know, it is a delegate system they are going to use. Delegate system means that you have few people in Abuja that decide the number of people that comes from each of the state for the convention. Then they now calculate how much to give to each candidate, either in hard currency or naira, and they will now tell the delegates the person doling out the money for them and strictly warn them to vote for him or her.
So, when that person now emerges from being a candidate to the so-called elected office, the first task is to recoup the money he has spent. How do you expect such a person to work for the people, when the people did not actually elect him ab initio. The current political system we are operating is a merchandise type of arrangement and it has to change, that is why ADP came on board. The media is also crucial in making the system get better. The truth is that our system is corrupt and there is no way an angel can come out of this system and will not be corrupt.
Are you saying that there is a nexus between performance in office and the process of selection?
The credentials that recommended Buhari for solutions to the problems we are facing today in this country were enough to move the nation forward. He is a Muslim, he is a Northerner, a Fulani man, a Hausa man, a former head of state, a retired General. He personified the solution to the problems of Boko Haram, insecurity, unity of the country and we didn’t need anybody else. Before he became the president, even the Boko Haram people will not sit down with anybody unless Buhari was there. So, something somewhere is not working and what is not working is that Buhari is a product of a corrupt system even as a president of this country today and he knows it.
I shudder when people ask why Buhari is not performing. Buhari can’t perform because when he ran in the APC primaries in 2014, some former governors brought out billions of Naira for him to secure the votes of delegates. When he scaled the primaries, they bought his nomination form for him, repackaged him and hired jets for him to campaign. So, how can such a man come out now and fight those people who massively bankrolled his election?
Where and how does he start doing that? We should be frank with ourselves and call a spade a spade for us to move forward. The only way we can move forward is when we change the process of leadership recruitment in this country. If I have to pay billions of Naira before I can become a candidate of a party, what do you expect from me?
How can this faulty leadership recruitment process you mentioned be changed?
Political parties can only be relevant except they are effectively engaged by the public, civil society and the media. The sad thing is that when people and the media talk, you don’t hear of political parties that are trying to change the system; you only hear of those political parties that have been rejected by the citizens of this country, the parties that give Nigerians nightmare and they are on their way out. Nigerians have had it enough with PDP and APC. So, many things that are never heard of in the past are now happening in this country with impunity. The saviour of this country is in getting it right.
God has so blessed our country, we are so intelligent and we must wake up our people. This is not a democracy and it cannot survive as presently operated. It was never designed or made by the laws in such a manner. As a party, we are doing our bit. We are taking the fight to the average man on the street, everywhere you go, we have ADP offices all over the country up till polling units; ADP is already a movement and we want everyone to buy into it with their hearts.
You can see what is happening to the PDP today and you will see what is going to happen to the APC because those parties don’t belong to the people, they belong to a few; and when those few are not there, the party crumbles, that is what is happening now. That is why we said let us build a party that can stand the test of time and that is what ADP is all about. Look at our constitution, we say democratic empowerment of youth and women; all-inclusiveness, party supremacy and others are building blocks of our party and we don’t negotiate these fundamentals.
Ahead of 2019, a lot of Nigerians are looking between PDP and APC for presidential candidates. Is it possible for the other parties to have a consensus candidate for the election?
Democracy is a benevolent system of governance and it allows people to express interest to run the affairs of the country. I think already the process of identifying a credible individual for 2019, has started and that is why ADP is here because we believe that there is a need to introduce a new system of recruitment of leaders. What is wrong with our system is the leadership selection process, which is the delegate system.
That is the corrupt system that the APC and PDP have been using and that is the system that has produced corrupt leaders. That is why a person like President Buhari, who has been described as the most forthright and reputable individual cannot perform the magic because he is a product of a corrupt system. That is why the ADP has brought a system that gives the power of who leads to the people.
Can your candidate defeat Buhari?
Yes, our candidate will defeat Buhari hands down, just wait and see who will come out as our candidate. This person will come out through a process that is self-propelling. It is not a process that you need wands of Dollars or Naira for. The point I am making is that Nigerians are tired and they haven’t had it so bad. Nigerians are looking for something fresh, something different from what we are doing before and what we presently have. That is why we are bringing up a system that gives us a result. We have a young population that can transform our potentials to real growth.
For us to progress as a nation and achieve our mandate, we have to get the political system right, and the recruitment process is fundamental t what we are trying to say. If you don’t have a corrupt leader which is produced by a corrupt system, he will be somebody who would work for the good of the people and the country. As ADP, we are bringing the real change and that is why we are not in a rush. We have a process and we won’t compromise our process for anything.
