Engr. Yabaji Yusuf, National Chairman of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, speaks on the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and agitation for restructuring, among others
Your party is coming on board less than two years to the general elections. Come 2019 what would be your selling points? You see people are saying that 2019 is something that Nigerians may have never dreamt of as a matter of what could emerge as the climax of the whole thing. ADP like we have always said is not an opposition party, we are the credible alternative for Nigerians and that is why we came onboard. We believe that the two political parties you have today are parties that have outlived their usefulness. Th ey are in total disarray.
Th ey are not even being run as political parties. You have odd couples in these parties particularly in APC that is in government. Th e only thing that you have that is welding that party together is the fact that Buhari is still there as the President because if you remember when APC was campaigning what they were campaign about was Buhari, Buhari and Buhari. Th ey didn’t tell Nigerians exactly what they are coming to do other than saying we will reform the economy, we will put a stop to the Boko Haram menace. What we are coming with and what makes us believe that 2019 is for us is that Nigerians today have seen through the gimmicks that is called APC and they have already been disappointed by the PDP. PDP, like you all know is a party that came with impunity in terms of stealing Nigeria’s money and not practicing democracy at all, that is why the whole thing collapsed and because there is no leadership in that party, there is no discipline, in fact, it is even worse in APC. Indiscipline in APC, PDP So what you have is individuals coming together to see how they can grab some infl uences and patronages from the government. Th at is what APC is all about. Th e only person that you can see to an extent that is there for Nigerians and is there to implement programs that develop this country, unfortunately, is Buhari and you know a tree doesn’t make a forest and after Buhari there is no other person. You can’t point at any other person that you can say the same thing about in that administration and that is why the only thing you will hear every time is Buhari. Th e issue now is 2019, believe me is for ADP and the reason why I am telling you it is for ADP is that both APC and PDP will crumble because they will be a war of attrition where they will fi ght each other to fi nish and sensible Nigerians of course will look for a sane political party like ADP this is why we believeit is not a matter of time like it is few years away or so; yes even if it is a year away I am sure of what this country needs.
Nigerians are already disillusioned, unsatisfi ed, they have lost confi dence in APC and PDP. Th ere is no gain saying that Nigerians have lost confi dence in both parties, they are looking for a credible alternative and that is what we are providing. But is your party considering an alliance with other political parties or merger, since it is not popular with Nigerians? What we believe will happen is that PDP will disintegrate. Forget about the euphoria that they won at the Supreme Court and all that talk of working things together. It will disintegrate and when that disintegration happens the sane ones in PDP, I am not saying all members in PDP are bad, but the sane ones will fi nd their way to a sane environment which ADP is going to provide. Also as you have already seen APC is already disintegrating.
We have been hearing of the explosive statements even from the serving Minister and those that you will refer to as the key stakeholders in that party, the kind of statements we are hearing from them which tells you that all isn’t well. It is easier for us as ADP to come out as a strong party and those ones that have issues against themselves that are so antagonistic to themselves to come together, we have a better chance to come together. Th e issue of whether a merger or alliance; yes in politics there is always collaboration.
We need to collaborate, any party that wants to collaborate with us should come so that we can give the country the kind of government it deserves. So we believe that this Roller-coaster that we are on with APC and PDP, believe me it will soon end. We already have a road map andthe road map is that this country will need to quickly address the issue of unity fi rstly and that is what has suff ered a lot of depletion in terms of the ingredient that this country is made up of in terms of unity and how do you do it? Can you give me some of the names of these credible individuals that you are looking forward to joining the party?
Th ey are many but for purpose of strategy it may not be right for me to start mentioning names now, but the good thing is that we are getting a lot of reception and acceptance from them because they can see that there is no future in PDP and APC for obvious reasons, everybody can see. Th is is why we believe the hope of Nigeria will become great again, stable again, reliable again, united to have the purposeful leadership that this country deserves and for us to take advantage of all these God given and fabulous resources that is in abundance everywhere you go, is for us to organise ourselves fi rst politically, because it isn’t just for the sake of mentioning, it is because even the constitution of this country mentions political party.
So we need to go back to the drawing board on the issue of political party not the kind of arrangement you have in APC and PDP soiled with impunity and all the rest. Still on 2019 some people are saying that Buhari is a factor because of what his government has been able to achieve. Can these factors undermine the chance of opposition like you? How much value can you attach to that anymore? It isn’t about a star person or credible person, I am not saying credibility isn’t good but can that put food on the table of Nigerians. So the issue now is that you need a Mr. Buhari as the head of government but you need also a well organised political party that can superintend over what is happening and what is lacking. You need two hands to wash for both hands to be clean. So if that is missing then tragically we are getting it wrong and Nigerians are being taken for a ride. What is the position of your party as regard the issue of restructuring? All these things are coming to the front burner because it is a disorganised environment otherwise if people believe that the federalism that we have which we are practicing, if effi cient governance was there, nobody will talk about restructuring. If people are being employed, the economy is performing, people are not being kidnapped, armed robbery isn’t on the increase and things like that, people won’t be thinking about the comfort zones of their tribal unions or regions or things like that. So restructuring to me is a fall out of failure of the government. It is because the government has failed that is why people are looking for the unthinkable things. Even in your house if you cannot provide the right leadership in the house everybody will take his own way. So that is what is happening in this country. Restructuring; yes, thank God we have a system of governance and if this system tolerates change that it has to be done in an organised manner within the context of the federalism we are operating you can bring any kind of improvement. We made a mistake to bring a wrong government to superintend over the aff airs of the people of this country.
Th at is what is wrong. You faulted the claim by the government that Nigerian has exited the economic recession. Can you explain better your reasons for that? It is very obvious. How many people have been employed in the last quarter that they are talking about that we exited recession? Go to the market, the government will tell you that it takes time before the prices of things change and all that but that is a lie. Th e only time you can tell me that the economy has improved is if our naira can be independent of foreign currencies, if it can sustain itself then fi ne they can go ahead but what is happening today? Th at is why I said it is a fl ash in the pan; it isn’t something you can sustain. What is happening is that we are having problems. And oil itself is on its way out though it may take some time but the point I am making is that the real state of the economy has to be developed fi rst before you can say you are out of recession because this is not something you can build on.
It isn’t sustainable. Look at how much they said they spent on defending the naira; about 9 billion dollars or so in the last seven months to defend the naira and keep it at the level it is, so how are you going to continue getting this money to defend the naira? So the issue is that the fundamentals have to be right. Th e fundamental in any economy is the productivity of that economy. Th e productivity of the economy is more in the real sector; agricultural sector, the manufacturing sector of the economy. Just because the price of oil goes up a little bit and we have a little money to push into the economy and if care isn’t taken you will have a relapse. Sir, your party recently wrote a letter to the President Buhari. Did you also advise him concerning his cabinet because a lot of people have been calling on him to reshuffle his cabinet? Th e content of the letter was to tell Mr. President that we welcome him back. We are happy he is back, but the fact is that all isn’t well and to start with his cabinet. He must look inward he must fi nd out why he is not performing. Why is he not achieving any meaningful target?
Why are we retrogressing? Why is the economy going backward? Why is there insecurity everywhere? Why are more people out of job? Why are people unhappy and why are Nigerians angry. So the issue is that you look at your cabinet and because we believe that cabinet is more of PDP than the so called APC. Th e last PDP convention that took place it was a PDP man in that APC government that funded that convention. It was an APC man that gave the money for the live coverage of that PDP non elective convention that took place. Th e records are there to show you. Th at is just to tell you that there is no party really. Buhari unfortunately now personifi es all these things so he has to in fact overhaul his cabinet. It isn’t only Aisha Alhassan, there are so many Mama Tarabas in that cabinet he needs to change whether he likes it or not and that is what his wife told him. His wife came out to tell him that all isn’t well, this people are not with us, they don’t know where we are coming from not to talk of where we are going; they are not with us. Bring people that will help you fi ght this war, this campaign and people that have something to off er. So this is what is happening and you are as good as your friend; the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with your enemies and you think they are your friends you are in trouble. You said a certain minister sponsored the live coverage of PDP non elective convention, can you explain better? Go and fi nd out. Th e government has a way of leaving out all these things. Th ey can be discredited. Th ey have the people that can trace the money too. Th e money that was paid where was it coming from? And the government has the machineries to do all that and I am sure they are aware of that. Are you challenging President Muhammadu Buhari to take it up? Yes of course, he should take it up because if he doesn’t he is in trouble and why did they make him to meet with PDP when he came back instead of meeting with all the political parties? Th ey were trying to destroy him, to discredit him to make him look as if he is apologizing to PDP and it is PDP members in his cabinet that made that meeting, it was an inside job. Th ey organised it otherwise how can you explain it. Th e president would have called the IPAC and say I want to meet you all. PDP members will be there. I want to meet with you political parties because this nation belongs to every one of us. Th at would give a kind of credibility to even the government itself. If it isn’t true that PDP members are in the cabinet of Buhari and they are trying to do damage to him so that his credibility won’t be there anymore so that it will look as if he is apologizing to them, he wouldn’t do that, but they took advantage
