A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Mallam Adamu Garba, who recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) after ‘raising N83m’ for a nomination form, speaks on perceived disrepute, degradation, hunger, epidemic, death, and confusion, among others that the ruling APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has brought to the country since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, in this interview with LINUS ALEKE

Why did you not pick the presidential nomination and expression of interest form of the ruling APC?

I did not pick the APC presidential nomination and expression of interest form because the moment we saw the money, it became a separation between the quality of people that should be candidates, and we put a question mark. If you recall, I was all over the media complaining. You cannot use the money to define who should occupy an elective office that is supposed to deliver public good. There should be other better criteria like policy presentation, debate, competence, capacity, and credibility of the candidate, etc. These are things that they should prioritize before coming up with an acceptable candidate. But a situation whereby you just put money ahead, it means that we are monetizing the process and anybody including criminals and thieves, armed robbers and kidnappers, terrorists and bandits, provided they have the N100m, they can go and buy the form. So, we decided to adopt a certain strategy called a strategy of wait, let us strategically wait and see what happens. And it seems like our waiting has paid off. The party chairman said that they deliberately hiked the price so that they can separate the men from the boys, as well as discourage jokers. But you see what has happened, we have about 28 people that have declared interest to succeed Buhari. So far, about 18 persons have paid the N100m to pick up the nomination form. It clearly shows that the party is now more confused. Supposing we put competence and capacity, credibility, quality of delivery, and presentation, in terms of problems that we have in Nigeria and the solutions that will be agreeable and sellable to Nigerians, maybe 90 per cent of the aspirants would not have emerged. It means the party followed the wrong direction and they are going to pay the price for following this wrong direction.

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Do you think the high cost of nomination and expression of interest form by the major political parties can scare away the youths from participating in the 2023 presidential contest?

One hundred per cent supposing as a 40 years old man I take N100m to buy only nomination and expression of interest form to contest for the office of the president on the platform of the APC, People will call me a thief, and I will not blame any person who calls me a thief. As a 40-year-old man, what kind of business am I doing to bring out N100m to buy form? What is my profit in the business? Or should I sell my properties which means I am insane? It is only a mad person that will sell his property just to buy form to aspire for an office. It does not even make sense in the first place because it is something that is supposed to be collective, I am not buying the office, I am trying to get an office to deliver public good. So the public should send me to the office but we now put a barrier of N100m to discourage the youths from aspiring to leadership positions. This is an indirect way of telling the youth that for you to aspire to lead, you must go and steal first. Go and do anything and get money, it doesn’t matter how you get the money. No quality, no preparation, no research, just go and get the money first. Even if you want to go and do yahoo, or go into kidnapping, just do that and pay the N100m.

Are you saying that the N100m nomination form and expression of interest form in APC is indirectly encouraging stealing and criminality in the country?

Yes, of course, a hundred per cent. When you tell me that I only need N100m to go and get the form and I know that next time it may increase to N250m, what do you expect me to do? It means that even if I am elected afterward I should steal public money and pack it somewhere in preparation for the next election.

Some have said that the election may not even hold in 2023 due to the rising insecurity in Nigeria. Do you share such an opinion?

No, I don’t. I think the election is going to hold, I think that there are certain things that people don’t understand about Nigeria’s election. Maybe we need to make it clear, that we have done extensive research on the security crisis that Nigeria has been having since 1999. We discovered that almost 95 per cent of the cases of security problem is driven by politics. It is the political actors and politicians that bring about the insecurity and it is their lack of political will that is sustaining the insecurity. Certain dangerous security issues could occur and the political actors will refuse to give order to the security agencies to nip it in the bud until it escalates. Therefore, it means that at the point where there is going to be politics, the political actors will put the necessary measures in place to discourage criminalities because it could hinder smooth electioneering that will guarantee their return to the position of authority. Take for instance the uprising of Boko Haram in 2015 before the election, Boko Haram was reported to be controlling as many as 14 local government areas in the northeast but by the time the election date approached, Boko Haram lost all the local government areas to state forces. In 2019, there was a similar scenario where every zone was challenged security-wise. But when the election time came all the security threats melted away like candle wax. The same thing is going to happen in 2023. That means that the security problems in Nigeria are driven, activated, and orchestrated by political actors. That is why I believe the election is going to hold.

Some elites in the country, like Afe Babalola, recently called for an Interim National Government in 2023 to allow the new government to draft a new constitution and restructure Nigeria before calling for elections. Do you agree with this proposal?

I like Afe Babalola, he is an elder statesman, a professor of repute, who has done so much for Nigeria but in this particular case, he erred. This is a constitutional democracy, where we already have the executive, legislature, and judiciary. All we need to do is to ensure that elder statesmen like Afe Babalola should educate our incoming lawmakers so that when they are inaugurated, they can come up with a legal framework that can change the system. I tell you that we don’t need Interim National Government, which is not supported by our constitution to restructure Nigeria. We don’t need to create disorder in other to create an order. We must have an orderly government in other to bring a better order. What he is asking for is that we should throw away the orderly government that we have now, and create a disorder before we start creating a better order. That is not good for Nigeria, it is going to be very risky. Let me give you a simple example when I become the president, I will solve the security problems in Nigeria by establishing a strong social justice system that will be consultative, active, and at the same time very strategic. We call it the council for political and security affairs. As I told you earlier, the security crisis in the country is usually driven by political actors. So, we create a platform, where the security agencies in Nigeria, the NSA, NIA, DIA, DSS, Police, and Army are all in one group with the political actors in all the areas and all our traditional rulers seating in one council to discuss Nigeria’s security problems and proffer solutions. I will create this council within one week of my presidency, through executive order, that is how to change things for the better. Get the right people in place, they will create a way to be able to change the system.

Away from security issues, Nigeria today ranks very low in all indices of human development. If you emerge President in 2023, what are you going to do to reverse this ugly trend?

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What sank us into the troubles of rapid degeneration was precipitated by the faulty foundational structure of the country. The country was founded on the premise of political agitation. Meanwhile, the foundation of establishing a better, more inclusive, and more prosperous state is economic integration, not politics. But in our case, we were founded as three regions in one country. But you now have different Presidents in that country. Let me call it different Presidents, they keep dividing and dividing, now we have up to 37 states including the FCT. So, how do you expect this country to function when there are always political interests in every economic, health, security, and education issue. We cannot move forward in that kind of atmosphere. In the education sector, for instance, the examination body is now divided into two, WAEC and NECO, it is believed that WAEC is pro-south, while NECO is pro-north. Education that should exist for the common good of all has become a subject of political interest. How can a country that is one talk about six geo-political zones? So, what we would do is restructure Nigeria away from this politicization to rapid economic integration. We would remove politics from the Nigerian system by decentralizing the political system. You look at people based on where they are and give them the political setting that fit them. In Nigeria today, we have the Biafra secessionist group, they said that they want to go, they need Biafra. It is not a bad thing to have Biafra. Give them their political identity, tribal, religious, and culture. Create the Biafra Republic inside the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Let them have their leaders, let them have their actors, now, everybody knows Nnamdi Kanu, what is wrong if Nnamdi Kanu becomes their President? Is that a bad thing? Did we say that they should kill each other? Now, everybody knows that Peter Obi is a very popular candidate, from the south eastern part of Nigeria but it is very difficult for him to get the votes from the north and South-West to become the president. Why deny him the opportunity of becoming a president? There is a way this thing is done elsewhere, China has the same model, Russia has a similar arrangement, and the Philippines also adopted the same model. Create a republic inside a federation. So that they can have their Biafra and operate the way they deem fit. Integrate the economy, let them use naira, let them use our airport and seaport, let them use everything, and let us share the economy. Let us sell shoes and let us buy their clothes, let them buy our foods, and let us buy their chemicals. Let us share the economy, identity of tribe, religion, and culture, and allow people to operate the way they want. That is how we establish a federation but as long as we continue to pay attention to politics as opposed to the economy, we will marginalise others and the concept of minority in a democracy is the biggest injustice. So, allow people to operate based on their configuration, as soon as we do that, we will see that every part will just be serious, everybody will pay attention to the money, growth, development, and prosperity as opposed to the politics of identity and confusion. That is why we are going to pay more attention to economic integration and decentralize the political setting. My Presidency, I promise is going to focus on only two things, the macro economy and foreign policy, those are the only areas.

Almost every interest group in the country believes that power should shift to the south. Do you agree with that?

I agree that we should have a country. Unfortunately, we are calling for a power shift, that demand is what is causing the problem in the polity. The sense of entitlement, let us assume that power should shift to the south, let us assume that there is a consensus by all the critical stakeholders in Nigeria that power must shit to the south. Which part of the south are we talking about? Are we saying that power should shift to the South-South, which had about six years of presidency and two years of the vice presidency, or the South-West which had eight years of presidency and another eight years of vice president? Or the South-East that has none. Let us also assume that the South-East has nothing, will the South-South and South-West allow the South-East to take the presidency? They will not, I don’t know if you understand this thing. Again if you go back, let us take Rivers, for example, a state that cannot practice zoning is talking about zoning at the confusing centre. That is why I am telling you that all these things are just gimmicks. We should look at Nigeria as a country, for instance, in the Rivers that I mentioned, Nyesom Wike is an Ikwere man, and he had been governor for seven years now. Rotimi Amaechi is an Ikwere man, he also led the state for eight years, why did they not take it to Kalabari or Ogoni, or other smaller tribes, if zoning is very important. Why don’t they practice it at home first before bringing it to the centre? This zoning thing does not make sense to me, let us pay attention to the Nigeria that everyone will belong to, that everyone will be happy to be part of, and that everyone will be able to grow. Let us pay attention to the economy, prosperity, and development, then people just coming from the west, or south or north that have been giving us a series of problems, that gave us APC, Niger Delta Militancy, Boko Haram, banditry, and kidnapping and only God knows what they are going to give us again tomorrow.

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A lot of Nigerians are saying that APC, your former party has succeeded in offering Nigerians hunger, poverty, and death. Do you agree with such a derogatory description of your political party?

I want to agree that the system in Nigeria from 1999 under PDP and 2015 under APC to date succeeded in bringing all this disrepute, degradation, hunger, epidemic, death, confusion, and more bloodshed to Nigeria. The system is the problem and that is why the elder statesman was talking about Interim National Government that will recreate the system because he believes the system is not working. The system is not working, the system is outdated, it is not in tune with modernity, it doesn’t accept our sincere reality, it doesn’t create a social justice system, and it is a confusing system. If PDP or APC continues in power, there will be a continuation of this aberration. The difference is not Buhari or Jonathan or Yar’Adua or Obasanjo, it is the system. So, we have to revamp the system and that is one of the proposals we are bringing on board.

Before going into revamping the system, you seem to have wonderful ideas of how to change the current situation for the better. Don’t you think the APC as a party will de-market your ideas before the electorate?

Yes, we have done our best with APC. We have been working with APC since 2015, and in 2019 I aspired and brought wonderful ideas but the president said no, and told us to wait for the next election. Here we are and the president came up with a party administrative system that is so exclusionary. The party has used its broom to sweep the youths out of the party.