Babachir David Lawal is National Vice Chairman (North-east) of All Progressives Congress. In this interview with journalists in Abuja recently, Lawal talks about the controversial impeachment of ex-Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and other national issues. He says APC would return to power in the state at the forthcoming governorship bye-election. Onyebuchi Ezigbo was at the meeting:

Do you think there is a strong chance of APC returning to power in Adamawa State at the forthcoming bye-election?

We are going to get a good candidate. The party is going to get a good candidate that is young, vibrant and has been tested as a performer. That is our goal and we have such people in abundance in our party. Adamawa has always been an APC state from day one. If you look at the statistics of 2012 elections, PDP defeated APC with only 60,000 votes. CPC came third with about 100,000 votes. If you combine their strength, it will exceed that of PDP. Murtala Nyako’s defection to APC also added value. As it is, APC has about 75 per cent chance of winning elections in Adamawa State. The impeachment process has made people angry in Adamawa State. They just trampled on the rules and laws of the land to remove Nyako. Everybody is waiting for this election to pay them back.

Don’t you think the exit of the 2011 governorship candidates of CPC and ACN from APC will negatively affect the party in Adamawa State?

Let me tell you what happened. Gundiri of ACN was more relevant to our cause. By the time he was leaving, he left alone. I will tell you why. The national deputy chairman of ACN then was from our state. He did not leave with Gundiri. Nuhu Ribadu, who was the presidential candidate of ACN, did not leave with him as well. The only person who left with him was the former chairman of the party. One remote and illiterate man. Buba Marwa, as you know, is my friend. He came and joined us in CPC. He got the ticket. Long before he left for PDP, his structure did not join APC. He instructed them to return to PDP. He was hoping things will be better for him there. Maybe there are cooks and drivers who defected with them.

Don’t you think the takeover of Adamawa State by PDP will affect the chances of APC in the state?

It will affect our chances, but positively. Let me tell you the truth. I do not see how anybody from the North-east today can vote for the PDP. This insurgency thing is not just about Boko Haram killing our people. All our rural communities are affected. Nobody goes to the farm now because of fear of being kidnapped. They are so angry that the federal government has been unable to do anything. During this next dry season, our people will be so impoverished. No farm products or anything to sell. Our children are not going to school in the rural areas because their parents are afraid that they will be kidnapped. All the schools have been shut. I do not see how a people that have been traumatised like this will turn round to vote for this government. Another thing is that Nyako was a very amiable person. The people are so angry at the way he was humiliated out of office. It is just that we are a peaceful people and we are under a state of occupation by the military. So our people were denied the opportunity to protest. Come this election, it is payback time for the PDP.

Some stakeholders from Adamawa State have alleged the underdevelopment of the state during Nyako’s government. Does that speak well of the APC as a party?


If you want to talk about underdevelopment of Adamawa State we really have to put it at the doorstep of the PDP. Nyako was a PDP governor for over six years. The little he has been able to do was done when he joined APC. He was able to imbibe the culture of APC, where there is no looting. There is no sharing of the commonwealth in APC. That was why he was able to do what he did. Anybody who tells you that is lying. The House of Assembly that removed Nyako, in March this year, passed a vote of confidence on him. They had started seeing the transformation as a result of his defection to the APC. You have to distinguish between the government and the process that removed him. If you were an armed robber, for example, the policeman is not allowed to execute you just because you were caught in the process. You should allow due process to take its course. People were so desperate to remove Nyako and they did not care at all whether they were obeying the law. You listened to the acting governor when he paid a courtesy call to the PDP headquarters. He said, “I have recovered our mandate.” That was their game. Just to remove Nyako and the speaker had delivered. They removed him with the connivance of a corrupt judiciary. The same acting Chief Justice who said they must serve Nyako personally saw the “light” a few days later and constituted a panel without vacating his own order. Nyako was impeached without being given an opportunity to defend himself. They have removed him and that is the truth. In another three months, we will recover our mandate.

It appears Marwa would get the PDP ticket for the bye-election. How do you see him squaring up to APC in Adamawa State?

Marwa is my friend. I do not know much about the workings of the PDP. I wonder where you get your figures from that Marwa is going to win. I understand that he has declared. I also understand one of the frontline career contestants has taken the PDP to court that whoever has not spent two years in the party cannot contest. I do not know if that is true because I am not a member of the PDP. But the stakeholders of PDP in Adamawa have held a meeting and agreed that they will not allow anyone who has not spent two years in the party to get any ticket. Another thing is that Marwa is not the only aspirant. He went back to the PDP, a house that is already full. Gundiri is there and I have seen his posters. Godson to Professor Jubril Aminu has also indicated interest. I have seen all his posters. I am aware that there is a deal between the PDP chairman and President Goodluck Jonathan to give the ticket to his son. There are thousands and thousands of PDP heavyweights who think it is their turn to become governor. That is why they were impatient and they had to remove Nyako. I think PDP will self-destruct in the process of this nomination.

Some PDP members have alleged that Boko Haram is the brainchild of APC. How would you react to this?

I am from the North-east and I grew up in Borno State. I am familiar with all the six states in the region. With due respect to President Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram did not start during the time of the president. That is the truth. Boko Haram started manifesting its evil inclination during late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s government and that was a PDP government. Senator Ali Modu Sherif was the governor then. During Olusegun Obasanjo, it was there. It became full blown during Yar-Adua-Jonathan period. Boko Haram was created, nurtured and and matured under the PDP government. Rumours associating one individual with Boko Haram have always centred around one prominent mole planted in the APC. He was an agent the PDP was hoping will destabilise the merger of APC. He could not do that. He tried with the interim government and failed.

He also tried sabotaging the convention, but failed. Now he has returned home to PDP. The person credited with the creation of Boko Haram has returned to PDP. If you speak to any brave and bold northerner, they will tell you that Boko Haram is a creation of the PDP. They created it in order to decimate the voters’ population on the North-east. They know that the region is 100 per cent APC. They are doing it so massively. Today, Boko Haram will kill 300 and the next day, the military will kill 50. Forces of the Army and Boko Haram are decimating the voting population in the region. They have occupied the land so that the people will not be able to vote. We have reasons to believe that the biggest beneficiary of Boko Haram and the destabilisation of the North-east. They are the major beneficiary. Boko Haram was sponsored to initially get sympathy for President Jonathan.

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The party is going to get a good candidate that is young, vibrant and has been tested as a performer. That is our goal and we have such people in abundance in our party.

If you want to talk about underdevelopment of Adamawa State we really have to put it at the doorstep of the PDP. [b][color=#006600]Nyako was a PDP governor for over six years. The little he has been able to do was done when he joined APC. He was able to imbibe the culture of APC, where there is no looting.

thegoodone2: okay. where is Maruwa?

Clerverly:

Na who i go ask?

kokoA: See why it's good to be patient? Bubar Marwa would have gotten APC ticket without serious headache but his selfishness made him to dump a party where he was a chieftain to a party where he will be treated as a commoner.. Adamawa PDP is like 3 political parties in 1.. Bamangar Tukur, Jubril Aminu and now Marwa/Gundiri all have their agenda, it's obvious that nobody will agree for his candidate to step down for another.. I forsee the loosing parties teaming up with a united APC at the end of the day.. Most likely Nuhu Ribadu is getting the APC ticket. . The impeachment plan may work in favour of APC finally.

chukwudi44: RECOVER KE? CAN YOU RECOVER WHAT YOU NEVER HAD? DID APC OR ANY OF ITS CONSTITUENT PARTIES EVER WIN A GUBERNATORIAL POLL IN ADAMAWA STATE?