August 24, 2018.
Segun Showumi is a public affairs commentator and the Director of Media and Publicity of the Atiku Campaign Organisation.
In this interview, he speaks about how former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would restructure Nigeria if voted into office in 2019.
He also enumerates what he calls the Atiku Agenda for presidency, among other issues.
AS the spokesman of the campaign organisation of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, how would you define his key agenda ahead of the 2019 election?
Atiku believes in hard security, which is calling a crime a crime and not to be looking for all the nice names to call it, other than a crime, and applying justice to it, and doing the sub-security, which is, sit down with the leaders at the lower level to figure out how we can do information gathering.
Maybe community policing as it relates to them, and find out how they can best be encouraged to be able to manage the issues around security and even to investigate all those security issues that people around government are tackling.
Atiku believes that these are the four-point agenda, which means J for jobs, O for opportunities, B for being united, S for security. So, the central theme is J.O.B.S. and part of the major items is jobs creation.
This J.o.b.s. agenda appears to have covered a lot of grounds, but restructuring has been Atiku’s refrain for a while now. What would you say are the key ingredients of the restructuring agenda he professes?
One of the things that Atiku has been telling anybody that bothers to listen is that, first of all, Atiku has a big compendium on why Nigeria should be restructured and it’s a book he gives people.
But one of the things that Atiku has promised that will happen almost immediately is that, one, all of those things and items that are on the concurrent list of the Federal Government today, he is going to give executive orders to sign them off to the states because he has that power to so do. Atiku believes that there is no point in having a Federal Ministry of Agriculture, saying they are doing agriculture. Just fan the thing to the states and let the money that belong to that area go to the states.
Atiku believes that the areas that require constitutional adjustments need somebody like him, who knows how to build consensus, to call people together so that they can quickly sit with the legislature and adjust the Constitution.
It’s almost becoming clear now that we cannot escape state police, with all of its errors, because you can’t be a nation where people are dying everyday and the only reason you cannot provide policing for them is because you are talking about whether the state governors should use the police or not.
Atiku believes that it’s time now for us to look at that issue and create a framework that can allow those that want to do state police to do it within the ambits of the law. Then they can run a system that is similar to what other countries in the world run, where you have county police, city police and federal police, the way they overlay and everybody is able to get the job done. So, those are the kinds of great adjustments that Atiku is talking about.
On the restructuring part, Atiku is completely sold. He’s been on that agenda now for close to 14 years and if given a chance to rule the country, at least those of us who want restructuring, who want fiscal federalism, those who want resource control will have somebody in the villa who also believes that you can create greater leverage for Nigerians, if you give each of the component parts of the country the opportunity to be able to plan and work at their own pace, without having to be held back by the Federal Government.
A lot of people will say that largely in the North, Atiku appears to be standing alone on this restructuring thing. A lot of commentators from the North will say restructuring means different things to different people and all those different kinds of alibi to diffuse the restructuring agenda. Can we not say that it’s his way of buying into South-West, South-South?
In actual fact, Atiku even believes that the North will profit from restructuring much more than they know, and Atiku thinks that the role and responsibility of a leader is first of all to find a way, to know the way, to show the way and to lead.
Can you imagine when you take all of those monies that are on the concurrent list and you fan it to the states. Will the northern states not get their share? Some areas of the country today, irrigation agriculture is what is going to be critical for them and there is great technological advancement in the world today, especially from the Israeli’s, when you can use minimum water to grow your plant, by targeting it with drones to be able to deliver the water where it is needed.
So, Atiku is looking for a situation where each of the components of the country can be unleashed to achieve its potentials.
Atiku envisions a North that will begin to move close to Dubai. He envisions a South East that will be moving close to Malaysia in terms of manufacturing and all that. He envisions a South West that is going to be moving close to Canada or the Scandinavian countries, in terms of human capital.
He envisions a Middle-Belt that is going to be an agricultural hub. He envisions a South-South that is going to be able to do with a better petrochemical industry, where they can get a lot of extractive industry from the petro chemical and get people gainfully employed.
Atiku envisions a restructuring that serves the purposes of everybody. Those who are unwilling to tolerate the idea are thinking that by restructuring, one part of the country is going to be weaker than the other. But that is far from it. In actual fact, the level and the bounty energy that is available in some of the Northern states may just be the catalyst for them to even do better than most others. We have seen predominantly Islamic states in the world that are doing better that secular states and we have seen secular states that are not even able to figure out what to do with themselves now.
The nations of the world are in a turmoil trying to reinvent themselves for the future. Nigeria cannot be left behind. We can even see in Africa, places like Rwanda, trying to reinvent themselves and move on, so, Nigeria too must do same and that is what Atiku is standing for. Atiku is for a united Nigeria. Atiku is for a peaceful Nigeria, Atiku is for a stable Nigeria, Atiku is for a prosperous Nigeria. Atiku is for a Nigeria where all Nigerians themselves matter and government knows that every citizen must matter.
One other thing that a lot of people will say about Atiku is that he has been accused of being an itinerant politician. If you trace his history in this particular 4th Republic, from this party to that party. It was the first time in 2015 that he didn’t defect because he lost presidential primaries. Has he settled finally in PDP now or is there any possibility that if the PDP does not pick him, he will go to another party?
First of all, Atiku’s life has been the reason why we have two strong parties today and if he hadn’t done some of the things he had done, if nature had not used him or God had not used him the way he used him, you may not even have some of these strong parties and he worked very hard to make sure that PDP came back. Atiku was pushed out of the PDP as a result of the aborted third term and all of the things that happened and obviously, as a politician, he must preserve himself somewhere and try elsewhere.
Atiku stood in that opposition until he was able to help them come together again to form another national party. So, now we have two national parties – the APC and the PDP. You will see Atiku’s fingerprints in all of them and how they came about.
So, when those who are just profiting at the expense of political structures are being mentioned, they remove Atiku’s name from there. In actual fact, it is the political parties that have profited from Atiku’s capacity, his industry,his resolve. Every reputation that Atiku has earned, he has earned it the very hard way and now that he is in the PDP trying to be President,
Atiku is not a young man; he is not going to be somebody who is going to be willing to constantly be putting himself into a lot of troubles for Nigeria. He has put himself forward, he is trying his best, and he is trying to move Nigeria in the right direction.
This is the best time for all Nigerians to take advantage of the creative genius that God has put in Atiku and let him come and do for Nigeria what Nigeria deserves and the kind of leadership that this time demands. I tell you for real, Atiku is a consummate politician, but one that goes after an agenda that is in the best interest of Nigeria.
Age is also an issue. The last time President Buhari became President, I think one of the first visits to South Africa, he mentioned that age will slow him down. Atiku is also getting into that age rank, don’t you see age slowing him down in achieving some of these lofty ideals?
Whatever someone like Atiku loses with age, he makes up for it significantly by vitality, experience, agility and vision. A nation cannot tag and insist that the only parameter it’s looking for is age. Other things must matter. In this world, the oldest person who won an election is the President of either Malaysia or Indonesia, who at 91 just won an election and his people thought that he is going to make a good President.
In the case of Atiku Abubakar, I wish all the candidates and aspirants in the country will subject themselves to a public display of their medical record so that we may be able to see how well they are doing. Atiku is fit as a fiddle. We thank goodness for that. He has preserved himself well, he has the energy, he’s got good genes, he is very lucky, very energetic, he can last the pace that even young men cannot last and over, and above all of that, Atiku is supposed to come and be President to prepare this nation for succession.
You cannot take a nation as complex as Nigeria and just dump it on the shoulder of the young man who is not properly prepared, properly groomed or properly exposed to the nuances of how to manage power. It’s not just about one small country called Nigeria.
Nigeria is a very significant part of the world order and therefore, you need a leader that can manage the nuances of power, that can take charge and then mentor people and bring then on board and he has promised to constitute about 40 percent of the cabinet to be young people so that they can learn very fast and then we can speed up the process of getting them to be able to now take the country to the next level.
But I tell you that Nigeria did not plan its succession well. It is somebody like Atiku that has been very heavy on bringing young people to come and be in charge of the country and being President, especially now that the country is so divided, you need somebody that has capabilities and experience to bring it together and then they can bestow it to the next generation, people like you and me. By the grace of God, He will help Atiku and I hope all Nigerians stand beside him on this very onerous yeoman’s job.
The not too young to run class of politicians is another group that could pose a challenge following the passage into law of the Not too young to run bill. Don’t you see the possibility they may want to clear out the old guard in 2019?
Yes, not too young to run, the bill has been passed and that’s alright. I’m a young man too. I want to be President one day. But am I going to be so naïve as to not know that we have a divide in the country where the North is supposed to produce President now and thereafter it goes to the South East or some other parts of Southern Nigeria?
Anybody who cannot even read that simple dichotomy between how we are managing to keep our country united, between the old ancient protectorates, he is not serious because the person is trying to suggest that only people that can rule will come from one particular tribe and that’s not how to run the country.
This is country is not that yet matured. We have to still take it at the reasonable cautious place. It’s time for us to get leaders of the Northern extraction to come and lead. When they are done, the power comes back to the South and then we can begin to look at some of the not too young to run. But before then, you must look at what is right, you must look at what is practical. But Nigeria cannot afford experimentation now.
The crisis in the country is just too much. The level of human killings is just too high. The clashes between the tribes and even the ethnic groups, between the family groups and the farmers and the herders are just too much.
The agitation in the South East is just like a volcano waiting to erupt. You need a leader first of all that will bring all Nigerians together and get us to get a country. We must first of all be in Nigeria before we can be thinking of leading it and Atiku is the one that has the best credential to be able to achieve this.
Your party really celebrated the defection of some bigwigs to its fold recently, do you really see the defection having real impact on the 2019 election?
The first and most important thing is that political parties must be run in such a way that you can hold the confidence of your members. Once you are not able to hold their confidence and they no longer feel safe around your party, it is human nature to try to survive and they can only go to a place where they feel they would be better treated, where there is an element of fairness, element of inclusiveness and transparency in the processes.
Therefore for the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria, we are the party that is open, we are the party that is accessible. If people want to come into our party, obviously the political party can’t drive them out, you can’t tell them they are not welcome, especially high network people that are coming.
Certainly, I’m sure that any politician worth his salt will know that the loss of one electable member who has ever won an election is a loss for party because you are going to have to pay for it in his constituency in one way or the other. So, for the PDP, we welcome them.
We are happy that a party we are party that is robust enough that can accommodate them and our institutions are strong enough that can also keep them in check, so that they can come in there and obey the rules and regulations of the party. But the place is open and accommodating enough to be able to take them. We make bold to say that PDP is the only truly national democratic institution in Nigeria and therefore, we are not surprised that a good number of them are coming back to the PDP.
What impact can the defections have on 2019 elections?
Anybody who understands how the political game is played in this country will tell you that, in the first instance, prior to the 2015 presidential elections, President Muhammadu Buhari had contested about two or three times and he had not been able to win until some of these big players moved in with their members. I like those who like to take things for granted and I like politicians who keep reminding them that one man makes the party and one man is the brand in the coming elections.
They will be weaned of their daydream in fullness of time. You have lost Kwankwaso in Kano and you are not bothered. I wish you well. You have lost Ortom in Benue and you are not bothered. Well done to you. You have lost Saraki in Kwara, nothing concerns you. What I can only say is I wish you luck
Some Nigerians are of the view that your party would find it hard to contest against a candidate like President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. Do you think so?
Our party has within its rank the former Vice President, a consummate politician, a bridge builder, a consensus person, a democrat, a man who knows how to create jobs, an experienced politician, a man that is comfortable across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria that all Nigerians are comfortable of in the person of the former Vice President, Waziri Atiku Abubakar.
Vice President 1999 to 2007. He is somebody who will be able to give us a very good outing and all Nigerians can expect that he will defeat Buhari. The only time that Muhammadu Buhari did not get 12 million votes was when he was challenged by someone from the North, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
People must remember that we are going to be choosing between two Fulani men; we are going to be choosing one that has a lot of network across the country and people have confidence in him.
Source: Nigerian Tribune.
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