Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, the immediate past governor of Zamfara state, is one of the front-line national chairmanship aspirants of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks about his aspiration, how the party can win the 2023 elections and the controversial issue of zoning. BODE OLAGOKE, reports.
Why do you feel so certain that your political experience really stands you out as a candidate for the National Chairmanship of the APC?
Number one, let me point out that even before the formation of APP, AD and other political parties – that is, during the period of the defunct UNCP and DPP – I contested under the platform of DPN for the membership of the House of Assembly. You know how the military behaved at the time. The elections were not concluded before the parties became defunct immediately General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over and had his transition programme which went on for nine months and culminated into handing over power to a democratically-elected government in 1999.
Then, two parties emerged and I was part of negotiations for the formation of APP. We went into the convention despite my young age and we were part of the scheming that took place until the exit of the South West through the covert influence of the military because they knew that if the South West at that time and the northern bloc came together as a political party for sure, the PDP will not have a chance to install a leadership. The government of the day and the military had made up their minds about what they wanted to do for the so-called stability of the country, they were going to give the Presidency to a particular section of the country which was the South West. It was not only about shifting power to the South West but to a particular person, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and this did not go down well with us. We tried our best to reach out to our seniors like Chief Alani Bankole, Chief Bode George and others in the South West, for them to know that there was a game that was being played out. Even the late former Governor of Oyo state and former Minister of Power, Chief Bola Ige too; we told them that the military was playing a game, influencing several minds and that we should not insist on putting their demand for presidential ticket into the party’s constitution. That demand, subtly encouraged behind the scenes, became what brought about the division that led to the exit of AD leaders from APP. The northern bloc of the leadership agreed that yes, the APP presidential candidate is coming from the South but what the South West which later became the AD power bloc was looking for, was an emphatically explicit documentation that what should be in the constitution of this party is that the presidency is coming to the South West.
But you can’t play politics like that; the northern bloc would not like to start with such explicit indications that could discourage the followership and cause feelings or assumptions in the North, right from the beginning that people were only being mobilized to play second fiddle. Our elder, Marafan Sokoto and others argued and argued to a point that they reached a deadlock. The South West bloc then exited and formed the Alliance for Democracy (AD) the next day. We had to do our convention and launch APP on the Parade Ground which was successfully done because preparations had taken much time and several meetings. Some of them agreed, people like Alani Bankole, Chief Olabode George agreed to stay with us and others went to stay with AD.
In all these, my experience and the lessons learnt about bringing together divergent interests for national cohesion and party success are very significant; I did not learn as a mere onlooker but as someone who has been part of the real process that birthed the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria. I feel much empowered to lead in the national interest and lead a truly national party to much success nationwide.
What’s your view regarding the clamour for young people’s increased involvement in governance?
Seriously, one of the major things that qualifies one for pursuit of national leadership position in a political party is dynamic experience and as one who was lucky to start garnering such experience in my 20s, I wholeheartedly support the involvement of the young generation.
I have given a background of how we started political mobilisation, long before contesting for office. I was under 30 and it is a matter of what you can get done. In any case, several of the governors at that time (1999) were in their early 30s, so it is not really the age that matters but what you are able to deliver.
Sometime in 1999, I became party secretary in my state and we worked hard, preparing for elections but when we had the election, we were overwhelmed because our thinking or calculation was based on the fact that we were solidly on ground but the unexpected influence of those at the centre and other factors made us to end up sharing the local governments equally, with seven each. Our earlier analysis made us not to expect the PDP to win more than three local governments. It was surprising. We identified two or three LGAs where PDP can make impact but unfortunately, we didn’t know how they did it despite the support we had. All of a sudden, we lost more councils than expected but we came out with a huge vote margin. If that local government election that was held in 1998 was the governorship, we would have had our way but that was how it happened. They took seven and we took seven but when it came to the government, we had taken the lead we worked hard for; thus, in the National Assembly election which followed, we took all three Senate seats and then we took five House of Representatives seats; we lost only Anka Federal Constituency but Shinkafi/Zurmi we cleared it, Birnin-Magaji, we cleared Maru /Bungudu, we cleared Gumi and Bukkuyum, we cleared Gusau Tsafe – all that was in 1998. When it came to the governorship elections, we led our party to victory in 19 out of 24 local government areas of Zamfara state. Five of them were PDP, that’s where we had been until 2003.
Don’t you think that leading a party towards general elections involves much weightier responsibilities than being a young, lucky politician?
In 2003, I became party secretary in my state, I was the Director-General of the Muhammadu Buhari presidential campaign as well as that of Yerima’s governorship campaign as well as that of every other person who was contesting on the platform of the defunct ANPP. We won the seats in the State House of Assembly and National Assembly 100 per cent and we won the governorship. In 2004, I became the state chairman of the party and our success stories continued. Although there were intense calls from people urging me to contest for the governorship seat and succeed Governor Ahmad Sani, there was a logical reason why that could not be done. I clearly understood the perspective of the governor that since we are almost from the same Local Government – he is from Bakura and I am from Talatan Mafara – so, it was practical for the governorship ticket to remain within that axis. If you recall, Bakura was carved out of Talatan Mafara local government so, technically, we are from the same local government. The then governor said no, let us take it to another zone so that we can get their buy-in, so that ‘you are going to be the Deputy Governor.’ There was a misunderstanding so I decided not to go for the position of Deputy Governor and came to the House of Representatives after finishing my term as party chairman. I was in the House of Representatives when the then governor, Aliyu Shinkafi defected to the PDP and we remained in the ANPP.
The PDP had everything – President (Goodluck Jonathan), oil money and federal power but God had decided the destiny that I will win and be governor of zamfara state in 2011. I became the governor and then came the process of merger to form the APC. We were then 11 governors: Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Edo, Osun, Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, about eleven of us including one from APGA. That’s how we started the merger process. We wanted to be the progressives in the sense that we wanted to bring all the opposition on board. Ondo was a Labour Party member, Anambra was APGA, but Anambra and Ondo defected to PDP finally and then we remained 11. That’s where we started this struggle up to 2013 when the PDP had their congresses and we had the New PDP joining us, with four states: Kwara, Rivers, Kano and Sokoto states and we became 14. We started this process of merger and then in the 2015 election, we won all the state’s seats in the National Assembly and also, our party, APC won the Presidency.
This is where we are today and at the same time in 2015, my colleague governors unanimously accepted me to be the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). If you look at what we have done in the past and what is on ground now, the issue or responsibilities of chairmanship will not be a difficult task for me to deal with because I know the right buttons to press to bring the people together and win elections.
Sir, you said that running for party chairmanship or leading your party shouldn’t be a difficult thing but one notices that things are being said about you, including an allegation published few weeks ago by a little-known online website alleging that N8 billion gold bars owned by you has been seized at Kotoka International airport in Accra. How do you react to this?
Publishing absolute rubbish can easily get quacks into big trouble when a maligned or libeled person decides to sue. I never knew anyone in that place and contrary to a few person’s very wild speculations, I never had any such gold. The baseless allegation easily fizzled out because genuine publications who had colleagues and other contacts in Ghana found that there was no substance to it.
Well, some persons can fabricate lies but at the end of the day, the truth will prevail. There are so many other things they have said that are mere tissue of lies meant to try get a good man down but they will never succeed.
They have circulated rumours that I got money from the London Paris Club, blah, blah , that I robbed the state and did this that and that but I challenge anyone either in the Governors’ Forum or in the state – anybody!
I have mentioned it time without number, that if there is any fronts man or collaborator within or outside who is holding money on my behalf or who knows where I kept money, I say that God should not spare him if he decides to cover me up! I made it very clear but at least, I know myself what I’ve been doing and what I did for my people and the (Governors’) Forum, what I even did for my party the APC… So, whatever lie someone wants to tell, he should put the facts on the ground that’s the most important; not using some faceless cowards like himself to disseminate fabricated lies. If there is anybody who knows any account of mine anywhere, either in Nigeria or anywhere or that of any of my associates, they should come and put it before the public.
As a governor, what was my job? It was to utilise resources, spend money for the good of my people – that was the job given to me. Take budget/plans to the House of Assembly, pass the law and execute projects. Therefore, if giving out contracts for development purposes meant that I was spend money on contracts to make money, let the current governor give out even more contracts and make money. There are simple, easily understood things that some mischief-makers try to deliberately misinterpret; for instance, now, we have the multi-billion naira Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road contract which was initially demarcated into portions. Now, the entire stretch has been given out in full but are they saying that President Buhari gave out that contract in order to make money? Or are you trying to tell me that the entire projects that are being executed by the federal Government, Buhari is giving them out because he wants to make money? It is a very wrong scenario to paint, that is not correct. But if you have any allegation against someone, use facts. These are my facts.
Someone went to the EFCC and reported (against me) and I am happy with the way they handled that matter; they said okay, come and explain to us. He said I was reimbursed with N22 billion, that he knew where that N22 billion was kept. They called him, ‘come show us where the N22 billion were kept’ and he started giving them information and eventually they found out that contractors were paid and some other components include even counterpart funds, some pension and gratuity. With the scenario he initially tried to paint, it was as if this money was moved from this place to that place in favour of the governor, all those kinds of things. It seems inevitable that when you occupy the governorship seat, you may not be able to avoid all sorts of spurious allegations; you can’t go away from it. The only thing is that they mostly tend to be frivolous ones; if anyone has facts that is where you can say, we have this one, we have that one, then you come and explain that is what it is.
My view is that if somebody says that there is an allegation against you, yes you were entrusted with public funds and they found out that this money was taken for the purpose of XYZ and that XYZ is not being executed and the money is being taken to AB and C, people have a right to know what really happened (to the funds). I think that should be very clear for everyone to know. But you can’t just come up with frivolous allegations against me anyhow. Let us work on the real issues.
