A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Prince Kassim Afegbua, speaks on why his former boss, Atiku Abubakar, should jettison his 2023 Presidential ambition, among other sundry issues in this interview with Ben Ogbemudia

You were in the news recently trying to tell Nigerians why your party, the PDP must look towards the South instead of the North. What informed your latest discussion?

Well, I think as a country with so many ethnic nationalities, it is important for us to understand that there has to be a kind of balancing in our politics so that there could be some level of national stability and cohesion that will help the country to grow.

So, with this kind of arrangement that we have, six political zones- three in the North, three in the South, the expectation will be that when the North takes its turn, the South takes its turn no matter the party.

So, in 2023, with Buhari finishing his eight years in office, both the two dominant parties must as a matter of necessity, justice, and fairness, and equity, look down South in choosing presidential flag-bearers. Within the PDP, we had Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice-president who stood for the party in 2019.

With the kind of performance he put up, very strong one and we were unable to get it, it is expected of him to allow the South to have their shot at the presidency so my point is just to alert him as an individual, to alert the country as a nation that irrespective of the internal dynamics of the PDP, we from the South, we have our eyes wide open. We want a presidency or nothing.

Chief Raymond Dokpesi is in the front of ensuring that Atiku emerges as the flag-bearer of PDP. He recently said stakeholders in 24 states across the country have already endorsed Atiku, how true is this?
Nobody is endorsing anybody, I can tell you. I was a member of the technical committee, they call it T-COM, for Atiku. I attended two or three of their meetings but when I saw what they were plotting that has to do with Atiku presenting himself again, after that, both from the platform, I have to exit myself from the WhatsApp group and their meetings. Dokpesi is a fantastic Nigerian whom I have known for years.

Once he has chosen to do anything, he will put his all but I have personally told him that the binoculars are not picking the Atiku image in 2023. Now, it’s either you pick failure, you fail in 2023 with him, and someone else will try, or that someone else has to be from the South. We can’t allow sixteen years of unbroken illegal rule in the North. No! There will be no equity in that, there will be no justice in that, and there will be no fairness in that.

So, you can decide to follow Atiku from the North to come and win the election for you, that is your estimation but in the eyes of the law and the eyes of morality, I never expect Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who will be seventy- seven years old in 2023 to be standing in for election.

He will be eighty-one first term if that were to be the case. We are not a cursed country. We need to begin to generate the awareness that no, we need upwardly mobile young vibrant Nigerians to represent us, people we can connect to. We don’t want magisterial personalities who think that they are more important than all of us.

My grouse with the Atiku presidency is the fact that when he did in 2019, I was the spokesman of the PDP presidential council. That has to be captured properly because I saw some newspaper reporting me as an aid of Atiku. I am not and will never be an aide of Atiku. I was an aide to IBB, fine. I was a member of the Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP as a party. Atiku didn’t hire me. So, as a member, they conscripted us into spokesmen jobs. There were eight of us and we discharged our responsibilities to the best of our ability.

We didn’t collect a kobo, a dime from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the candidate. Me, I didn’t but if others collected, I don’t know but as for me, Kazeem Afegbua, no. Now, as soon as the elections were over, I was expecting that he will be around to meet with us, sit down with us, brainstorm with us, thank God for the good show that we put up for him, instead, he bolted away to Dubai where he stayed for about two years.

Leaders are like Generals on the war-front, when they abandon their troops when the ashes and dust of war are just getting over, we need your General or leader to rally around you and show you a road map. We didn’t see that, that was a big shame on him. When he came back, he wrote letters to some people. I got a letter from him, appealing and all that. As soon as I got that letter, I knew that something was in the offing and here we are, that’s Atiku himself.

So as far as I am concerned in this contemporary age in Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has become the “Mugabe” of Nigerian politics. He should please decently just leave the stage and say “Well, I love this country so much but I am unable to govern you, please I think it’s enough”. He will be so respected till the end of time.

If eventually, he muscles his way with all his finances, what will happen?

There is nothing like “muscle”. Where is he going to muscle his way through? We are going to use delegates. Do you think some of us don’t have muscle or do you think we don’t have money? We will do primaries, delegates will participate. They are not the only one who has an office.

When he conducted primaries in APC in 2015, did he not have money? General Muhammadu Buhari, who didn’t have money, did he not defeat him? So, party primaries are not about how much resources you have to spend. Certain considerations made him win the 2018 primaries in Port Harcourt. Those considerations do no longer exist. So, as we speak, the South wants the presidency, APC, PDP give us the presidency. Anybody, we are viable, godly people from the South. It is our turn, don’t take it away from us.

Let’s say south, which of the region Southwest or Southeast, who is equally clamouring for it if there is going to be equity. The Southeast has said you should give it to them. The Southeast is my number one consideration, South-south is my second choice. Southwest should rest for now.

What about the Secondus factor, is its history?

He is not history, Secondus is a Nigerian, and he is a member of the PDP. The engagement we had, is just a matter of principles, no bad blood. If he has, I don’t know but I don’t have any bad blood. I just want things to be done properly in politics but the problem I have is when you are honest in politics, you will become a lonely man. Those who speak the truth in politics often operate at the level of loneliness.

What is wrong with him? Kassim is up for hire. Oh, they gave him N500 million. Oh, they’ve given him this money”. They say all manner of things, they will not interrogate the message that I’m trying to pass across. Whether it is because of my person but it does not bother me.

Once I’m convinced about what I’m doing, I have considered all variables, I have weighed all the options. Ben, how will you feel if you wake up after Buhari’s monstrous leadership, this calamitous leadership, this leadership that has not added value to the well-being of Nigerians, this leadership has impoverished us? After that, the next thing you start hearing is another Muslim from the North, how will you feel?

This country is a circular state. This country is a plural state. This country permits different ethnic configurations which require some balancing to have the stability that can drive governance. If you don’t get your politics right, your governance will fail, so I will not subscribe to sixteen years of presidential governance or presidential rule in the North. They should please allow the South to present candidates from the two parties, let them present them. It is obvious the APC has given a Southerner fine, that Southerner will likely be a Christian. If he’s a Muslim, then we must get a Northern Christian. We must balance our religious configurations, we must balance our ethnic configurations, our tribal sentiments, and all of that because politics is all about emotions and sentiments so once you get there, you can now add “in good faith”, based on your oath of office. But for some people to think that “Oh, A can win an election for us”.

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No, I don’t see that as strategic because there can be protest votes from the South. If you deny the South tickets, there can be protest votes. If the party gives a Southerner ticket, there will be protest votes, you can rest assured. Our people down South are very enlightened, very knowledgeable in the dynamics of politics and the politics of politricks. So, for me, with all decency of responsibility, I have tremendous respect for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar but it’s not about me, Kassim Afegbua, that young man versus a man who is old enough to be my father. No, it’s about the destiny of the nation, it’s about the future of this country, it’s about how to create peace where there is none. It’s about getting an upwardly mobile Nigerian who can connect all the geo-political zones and try to assuage the feelings of the people.

With all the agitations in the Southeast, with all the agitations in the Southwest, and all of that, we still carry the presidency and throw it to the North in 2023? Anybody who is pursuing that is either a person who does not like Nigeria or for selfish reasons, out of self-aggrandisement, they are trying to bring in someone so that they can form themselves into another cabal. After Buhari, we should be done with cabal.

Some loyalists of Atiku said you are fronting for some governors, how true is that?