Why it’ll be difficult for ongoing coalition to work – Sani, ADP National Chairman

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Says Nigeria is under state captureBy Daniel Kanu Yabagi Sani is the national chairman, Action Democratic Party (ADP) and the immediate past chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC ).In this encounter with Sunday Sun, he speaks on the gale of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing President Bola Tinubu of engaging in state capture. googletag.



cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0'); }); He also sheds light on the PDP woes and major impediment to coalition talks, among other contending issues.

Excerpts: Let’s begin with the issue around the gale of defec-tions to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. What’s your view concerning this political game?Well, it’s not a political game or anything surpris-ing because when you have a situ-ation where people have captured the state, it’s what you will witness. State capture means all the institutions that composed what you call democratic struc-tures.

Once you’re able to capture all of them, then there’s no lon-ger a space for any other party or any other person outside your own compliance. In this case, the political party that you represent and I’m talking about the APC. If you look at the way our constitution, which is the grundnorm, is struc-tured and the electoral law itself, you will discover that opposition parties in Nigeria, it’s a very diffi-cult effort for anybody who wants to really manage a political party or contest elections against some-body who, like I said, has captured the state.

Why do I say state cap-ture? When you look at institu-tions that will declare you, even if you have won, as when the people have given you their votes, their votes are not enough. It doesn’t stop there. You have agencies of the government that will now say, yes, you’re the one that has been elected.

So, in an event where you have all these agencies, not a sin-gle one, is outside the control of your opponent, you are in trouble. We have an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for example, and then the judicial arm of government..

.look at INEC, and you ask yourself how independent is INEC? We all know what is obtained in the country. It’s an institution that should be independent, but is it so? $(document).

ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({})}); But if you had some of these heavyweights defecting to your party, ADP, wouldn’t you have said that democracy is working, that things are going well, you commend Nigerians and you will not be singing this tune ?Yes, I agree with you, but we won’t use EFCC to intimidate anybody.

We won’t quietly call them that, you have this issue, which we can use against you, but why don’t we collaborate and then see how we can move this country forward. Like in the case of Delta, we’re all aware Okowa was facing EFCC, and perhaps we don’t know what the governor also was going to do, and others, who they say are on their way to APC. Our party won’t use that intimidation method.

We won’t use co-ercion.Are you saying that the APC should feel ashamed accepting people who are defecting to the party who have cases with anti-graft agencies?Of course, yes. It’s a shameful act done in the open, with no regard to what anybody may think.

We must subscribe to higher ideals of value, of integrity.That’s the call to service. It’s not for you to come and then use whatever means, like the un-justified means.

It’s unfortunate that this is happening under the watch of Bola Tinubu, who in the past, we thought is a democrat, a thoroughbred democrat that we believe will come and then change the scenario that we had before. We could forgive President Mohammadu Buhari because of his background, right? You can’t sep-arate him from the background he’s coming from. But Tinu-bu grew through the ranks to become who he is today.

So, one would have thought that he would do everything to ensure that this system is entrenched, the roots of democracy are entrenched in the largest economy or the big-gest country of Africa. But look at what is happening today. It’s the com-plete opposite that is happening, as if it’s not Bola Ahmed Tinubu that is on the saddle.

So, this is why I’m saying that what is happen-ing in this country is a shameful thing. How will Bola Tinubu, who was a Senator before, agree to violate our consti-tution just to grab power?People will say that those defecting have not violated any constitution. Maybe these things fall within the realms of morality, which is outside the constitution?But you and I know that politics has morality.

How can ev-erybody be saying no and only you and the APC say, you are right. Only Tinubu and APC are always right..

.That’s not the kind of system we want to operate. And I think it is not too late for Bola Ahmed Tinubu to change and build this democracy for us.

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push({})}); Let’s talk about this coalition that’s been built up to challenge the ruling APC. The presidency is just mocking Atiku Abubakar and el-Rufai and the others. You have been in the game for quite some time.

Do you think that if all the opposition po-litical parties come together, whether coalition or alliance, they can defeat the APC. Is there a possibility?Well, there’s nothing that is im-possible. And politics is about im-possibilities, if you look at it.

But again, you have to be realistic for you to really be able to convince other people. Because you see, the proponents of this coalition that you are talking about, even the message is not a relatable message. I mean, the citizens of Nigeria cannot even relate to the messages there because there are so many different messages.

You see somebody today who stood up in the National Assembly to become the minister and was de-nied, and today he’s doing a coali-tion against where he wanted to serve as the minister. Or you see somebody today who, in fact, brought a whole party to its knees for his own interest and is now coming down to say he wants to form a coalition. And the fact of the matter is that we must not lose sight of what this country is.

Let me come back to the issue of state capture. You know, today, our judiciary is APC.Well, that’s an allegation.

The Judiciary has said that it’s not. (Cuts in) Judiciary was appointed by APC, or as some will say by the Federal Government. But who is the head of the Federal Government? It’s Bola Tinubu, and he is in-charge of all federal appointments.

Fortunately or unfortunately, to-day, the Federal Government is led by President Bola Tinubu, and he appointed a Yoruba person to become the Chief Justice of the Federation.But we’ve had those kinds of incidents happening before. Buhari, for instance, also had someone from the North.

Let’s get your view on the allegation that the APC is destroying other parties? $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).

push({})}); There have been talks that the APC is infiltrat-ing several political parties. And the former vice president, had alleged that some parties would be giving N50 million and all of that, though the APC denied it. In other political parties, we are having problems where nobody knows who is the national secretary of the PDP at the moment.

In the Labour Party also, nobody knows who is the chairman. Do you put all these blame to APC infiltration of the parties to destroy them? No, I would not blame the APC. The polit-ical parties are refusing to actually put their houses in order even if there is state capture.

If I have a house I built and then somebody comes from outside and wants to cause trouble for me in the house, can I allow that trouble? Who do you blame, APC?. You blame me, the own-er of the house. I don’t blame the APC at all.

Let them fix their houses. The PDP is paying for its own nemesis of what they did in 2015. You can’t eat your cake and have it.

Let’s reflect back, the PDP. Bukola Saraki former president of the Senate is now blaming Okowa and others for defecting, saying that we have never fallen so low like this, that a vice presidential candidate of a party would defect alongside his governor, but they started it in 2013. In 2013, Bukola Sara-ki was the man behind the new PDP that was formed, which was headed by Kawu Baraji.

So, that is the beginning of the end of PDP. So then, his governor was among the about seven governors that left PDP for APC. Those who didn’t leave, worked against Jonathan.

So, today, they are now crying, lamenting that the governor is leaving PDP for APC. So, I have no sympa-thy for that. He created this scenario.

He’s paying for his sins. Wike will also regret what he did to PDP in the future. Because you cannot undermine, you know, your own structure and expect that you will go scot-freePeople also blame Atiku Abubakar and say that he too also defected in 2016 from the APC?(Cuts in) But that is what I’m telling you.

You see, that’s why I say there is no party su-premacy in this part of the world, in this part of our country. Look at John Mahama of Ghana. He lost the elec-tion under NDC.

He never defected any-where. He stayed and built and contest-ed again and again and got it this time. That’s what we call loyalty.

We’re giving it a better name, calling it defection.The post Why it’ll be difficult for ongoing coalition to work – Sani, ADP National Chairman appeared first on The Sun Nigeria..