Mallam Saliu Mustapha, a frontline national chairmanship aspirant of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), in this interactive session with newsmen, speaks on his plans for the party, his relationship with Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara state and how APC should consider him for the exalted seat. BODE OLAGOKE reports.
What would you bring on board if you become the next national chairman of APC?
I am bringing a lot on board. One, I’m bringing goodwill, experience, youthfulness not with exuberance but with experience. First and foremost, I want to see a party that promotes equity, fairness and justice. It is when you have a party of that sort that you are able to allow popular candidates to emerge. When popular candidates emerge based on their merit, then you don’t suffer the fear of election rigging. It is when you bring unpopular candidate on board, then you start thinking of how to go and rig the general election. And when you rig the general election with bad products, the end result is bad governance or bad representation. So, I want to bring on board a party that will promote internal discipline, that will be held to account for their manifesto and their promises where you will have fairness, equity and justice so that we all can sit back at home and enjoy the dividends of democracy. And I want to also be able to bridge the gap.
What stands you out among other aspirants?
Like I earlier said, I believe I have the experience. I believe age is on my side. More importantly, I believe I have the goodwill and the administrative skills. Political party administration is not an executive administrative work. As a political party administrator, the most important thing is for you to be able to accommodate everybody, for you to be able to give the listening ears and to be able to tampee justice because you must have at the back of your mind. That being a chairman of a party is not where it ends. The most important thing is for your party to be victorious and for you to deliver the dividends or the promises of your manifesto. So, like I said, I want to come on board to do things differently. Yes, APC has done well, but I believe there is room for improvement. And one of the reasons why I’ve called you people here is not just for questions and answers is for us to partner, for us to see ourselves as stakeholders in this. You must not be a card-carrying member for you to get involved because we all operate from the same market forces. I count myself as one of you. So, if you are on this other side and trying to enlighten and to direct the people on what is wrong and right, I found myself on this other side to help, to serve as that messenger. So, one of my main reason of calling you people here is like I said to form that bond of partnership so that you can always advice, guide and also let me know where where getting it wrong. So, these are part of the things I ought to bring on board. I don’t want to be a chairman that when it’s time, I will say go and deal with the Director of Publicity or Publicity Secretary. No, I want to be a Chairman that we can interact because you (journalists) see better than some of us. So these are some of the things that I want to bring on board, to do things differently.
What are your plans to keep APC as one family?
Part of these qualities I have told you, even this interaction with you, these are part of the things that I think I will do if I become Chairman. Such that APC will not be a cabal to itself. It will be an open book. And when you have an open book, then there is no room for a lot of dissenting minds or voices. So there is a lot I will do to keep APC as one. My goodwill, my experience, my way of administration, which will be teamwork. This idea one man show does not go well. That is why, I always tell people sometimes, a political party administrator is somebody who gives people the listening ear but an executive governor, they tell him what he wants to hear. But the chairman of a party, you must listen to what people want to say and I believe I have this in me.
Earler this week, a group within the party declared parallel leadership and some others have called for the Caretaker Committee to be dissolved or to continue in office, what is your take?
For me, these are internal issues of my party. We have our party mechanism on how some of these things will be addressed and I think the party Constitution is there, it’s very clear. The Caretaker Committee is an Extraordinary Convention Caretaker Committee. So we must not forget, the work is still in progress. They are not there to remain there forever. They are doing their work. So we must support and see that we bring it to a successful ending. It is not time for us to say this person is right, this person is wrong. It was because something went wrong, that was why they came on board. So it is not time to start pushing blame again. What we should do is to look for solutions so that we bring this thing to a successful end in a very successful convention.
Could you talk about your relationship with Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state?
I share a very cordial relationship with Governor Abdulrazag in the sense that if you could cast your mind back, I was also an aspirant for the governorship seat of Kwara. Due to some irregularities in the party, then I was disqualified. I did not go to court because I felt we were one and the same. I was looking at the bigger goal; if I had gone to court, I think my own case was more serious than that of Zamfara or Rivers states. And we would have had another Zamfara or Rivers in Kwara. It was based on our friendship and understanding that made me not to go to court, and we still share the same as I’m talking to you. If you were there during my turbaning recently, he (Governor) was not only there in person but he excorted me throughout the traditional rite of how my traditional leader turbaned me.And during the recent state congress, infact, he (governor) picked me up in my house, we drove down together to the congress. He is also one of those canvassing for me because it is an advantage for the state to have a National Chairman in me. And if you don’t know, we have come a long way with him. When I was Deputy National Chairman in CPC, he was my Gubernatorial candidate in CPC then. So, we have a lot of history together, positive one for that matter.
There is currently no love lost between Governor Abdulrahman and the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. What have you done in trying to reconcile these APC leaders in Kwara state?
From your records, you notice that the recognized body in Kwara is the one headed by the governor. Of course, we don’t have to be a divided house. It’s work in progress. I am doing all I can and I think it will be a litmus test for me if I become the chairman of APC to make sure I bring an end to this differences in the state because all hands need to be on deck. It’s not about pushing the blame on this person or that person. The most important thing is we came out, we canvassed for the peoples’ vote and your support. It is time for us to give them the dividends of that democracy. So, for me there is room for improvement and there is enough to go round in terms of participation. One of my major responsibilities will be as Chairman to make sure my state which is the Harmony State, also comes out united and strong as an APC family. So, leave that to me when I get there, I’m sure my goodwill I enjoy from both sides will also come to fore by then to see that I bring everybody on board and we try and accommodate one another.
How come some chieftains of APC are so quiet about the happening in the party?
We are not quiet. Sometimes, we don’t believe we must wash our dirty linens in public. For some of us that struggled hard to bring this merger, it’s not in our character for us to throw the baby away with the water bath. There are so many party mechanisms on how to resolve internal problems. We must exhaust every possible option because we have the opposition out there, waiting to take any opportunity. So, we are not quiet we are strategizing and we’re also reconciling our differences. There is no perfection, there is nobody that is perfect in life. As human beings, we even have our little shortcomings. So as a political party where you have strange fellows come together, it’s about managing everybody’s opinions or ideas or ideals. The most important thing is let us subject ourselves to the rules and norms of the party and adhere to the party manifesto that we preach, we promised the people. So we are not quiet, we are working and that is why you can see, as we speak now we’re waiting for the date which I told you is work in progress.
What is your take on direct or indirect primaries controversy?
Some of these things I believe should be the strategy of a party on how to win its elections. So I might not want to tell you where I stand on that publicly here, because for me as a party, we must always look at what will favour us, how do we come out victorious.
Do you know the date for the national convention?
There is a timeline that has been given in February. Now, they are working out the details and in working out the details they will arrive at the actual date and possibly arrive at some zoning formula in order to reduce the acrimony. So it is a work in progress, we will get there. The most important thing is for us to come out victorious as a united family so as to be able to forge ahead for the general election.
