In this interview with select journalists, Deputy Whip of the Senate, Senator Sabi Abdullahi allays fears about the health status of the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, insisting that Nigeria would experience economic buoyancy if he’s elected next President. Nathaniel Zacchaeus was there.
Barely 24hrs after you commissioned the New Bussa Township Stadium that you rehabilitated and remodelled, the place was locked up, what happened? Didn’t you inform the police?
We are in the political campaign season, is anybody expected to write and take permission before embarking on the campaign? My understanding as a lawmaker is that this is the season of the campaign. I have campaigned twice and to the best of my knowledge, I have never written to anybody that I am going to campaign because this is the period of the campaign. The law has already declared that this is a period for the campaign. However, let me say that this campaign is for my party and so as a party man, I know the right thing to do we have written to the State party chairman, we wrote to the zonal party chairman, we wrote to all the local government party chairmen and as you can see today the zonal party chairman was here, the eight local government areas under the Niger North Senatorial District. All of them were here, those that could not make it, we already had engagements. The point to be made here is that to the best of my knowledge, I have done what I am expected to do by law and as a party man. I am not in any position to give the reason as to why force and power were unleashed on the effort I was trying to make for my party.
I have no explanation for it but let me say this, I took in good fate. Whoever has the responsibility and the duty decides to take or do certain things that are his cup of tea. We did the work, it is not my personal property. It is a project for the community and so if they say we should not use it we have left it for them. By the time we came to the stadium all the people we invited had come around, we decided to showcase ourselves to show our love for Jagaban Borgu and Kashim Shettima, and all the other candidates of our party, and that are what we have done. You saw the mammoth crowd, and it is even because we had to do a road walk. Some people are old and frail and could not join us but you saw people from their homes who came to join us, women, in particular, came to greet me, this is my hometown, everybody you see in this town is my relation one way or the other. So for me, I give glory and thanks to God. What is important is, what we have done today has laid to rest in the minds of our people whether I am still an APC person, yes I have said I am an APC person. I have never gone out of APC but some people out of mischief will say that I am not a member of the APC. So by this today we have laid all that to rest and by the grace of God, we are going to vote Jagaban and Kashim Shettima as our president and vice. We will also vote for Bago and all other candidates in our party.
Is your loyalty to APC shaken?
Not at all. I’m a member of this party at inception. I contributed to its formation. I’m not abandoning it. I never thought of it. If I were to leave the party, I should have done so immediately I was robbed of APC senatorial ticket for Niger North in the sham primary but I accepted it in good faith. I’m not going to court and I’m not leaving the party. I have been traveling with the presidential campaign council to different states. I also realise that the home front needed someone to bring divergent and aggrieved people together to support the party. With the roadshow, we passed the message that we should do our party. I have not excluded any candidate.
What are the chances of Tinubu, as of today, winning the presidency?
Jagaban Borgu (Tinubu) has proven beyond reasonable doubt that he’s prepared to govern the country. He’s only waiting for God to confirm the mandate to move the country forward. I don’t have any doubt. It is God that gives power. The indices and indicators show that he is a better candidate. Every good leader is concerned about what happened after he or she leaves office. That’s why Lagos has consistently produced a set of focused leadership that has continued the trajectory of development set by Asiwaju in 1999. No other state has that and the results are clear. Shettima, the running mate has equally shown the same qualities. He brought Babagana Zulum, who has also continued on the trajectory of development he has set. Do you expect anything less for Nigeria from these two persons? Not at all. I want to say very clearly that Nigerians are not fools. Despite all the challenges that we are facing, which are the carryover of the mis-governance in the past. If you check our laws, some things became obsolete because the previous governments never cared. For instance, the Deep Offshore Act is one of them and Nigeria was short-changed by international oil companies for many years. The country was losing money and by the grace of God, the current 9th National Assembly has addressed it. We hope to do better and that is why we believe in the present candidate who can come and do the needful because the candidate of our party had proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are capable and Nigerians have seen it. I was shocked when I saw a video clip of a man, who is an illiterate and an ordinary Nigerian, telling the Delta State residents on a field that he had heard great things that Tinubu had done in Lagos and he would be glad if he could come and replicate those projects in entire Nigeria. That is the message. Nobody wants to wear a rag. So, if I see a man who is wearing a rag and he promised to gift me a cloth, I will be cautious considering the type of clothes he is wearing. However, if a man who is wearing good cloth promised me one, I will believe he could afford to give me a good one. The words of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, are their bonds and I don’t have any doubts in the fact that they had been tried, tested, trusted and they have the character, the quality, and the capability to deliver Nigeria, this very moment.
There are concerns in the minds of some Nigerians that the Northern elite would take advantage of Tinubu’s fragile health to take over government in case he dies shortly after he had been sworn in. What’s your reaction?
I don’t know whether those saying that had assumed the role of God Almighty. Let me say clearly that even if somebody is sick, does not mean it would be his or her death sentence. Some people go through debilitating sickness and we’re bedridden for months or even for years but God would heal them at the end of the day. They would recover and enjoy a long life I’d seen somebody who visited his sick father and was crying that the old man was going to die considering the condition he met him. Unfortunately, as he was travelling back to his base, he had an accident and died. Death and life belong to God. Anybody sensible and reasonable should know that a sick man couldn’t be on a campaign train on daily basis consistently, from one state to another, in the last 30 days. I am not sure there is any Nigerian who has attained the age of 40 that does not have one health challenge or the other that he or she is nursing. They are carrying out their daily activities without the health challenge disturbing them. Expect anybody is playing God, nobody has a right to pass a death sentence on another person based on the sickness the fellow is nursing in his or her body, or on the account of old age. If Tinubu was pretending about his health status, he would have collapsed during one of the campaigns because it was a rigorous exercise. Even those who are going on the campaign with him are wondering where he’s deriving his health from. If God has given him that grace, no one can take it away. As far as I am concerned, I know Tinubu is someone who is at peace with his intelligence, thought process, vision, and mission to make Nigeria great again. Considering the things he exhibited in the period that he served as governor of Lagos State, I know that he has the capacity and a knack to identify credible performers and genuine people who are passionate about development. He does this without discrimination. His only interest is to work with performers because he knows leadership is about performance.
