The National woman leader of the ruling
party, the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Ramatu Aliyu has said that the party will not
accept the rumoured deputy choice of
Yahaya Bello, the Kogi state governor-elect.
The governor-elect has been reported to
choose Aisha Audu the ex-wife of the late
former Kogi state governor, Abubakar Audu,
to work as his deputy – Tijani Aliyu said she
is not a party member.
In this exclusive interview with Aderonke
Bello of naij.com , she explained and
defended the government slowness in policy
making by saying they are moving ‘slow and
steady’ instead of ‘speed and crash’. She
also said she cannot wait to see ‘Mama
Taraba’ sworn in as the first female governor
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

APC National Woman Leader, Hajia Ramatu
Tijani Aliyu
Read the excerpts:

Naij.com: Before the elections, a lot of
women in Nigeria were looking forward to
this administration with hope that it would
make a lot of difference in their respective
lives. But since the government came up, we
have heard less and less about women.
What is going on?

Aliyu: Before the elections we campaigned
and made promises to the Nigerian women.
They believed in us and the voted the party
and we came on board. So far, we have
about six women on board now in terms of
ministerial appointments. We are waiting to
see more women in the agencies and
parastatals, special advisers, senior special
assistants, director-generals, managing
directors that would be unveiled soon.
You know the electioneering period basically
to convince people. But the implementation
part of it is a silent one. You don’t make too
much noise about it but take actions.
Hopefully, Nigerian women would be carried
along.

Naij.com: Some notable women were at the
forefront during the campaign period for the
party. But when the list of ministerial
nominees was presented, none of these
women were considered despite their
passion for women in governance. What is
going on?

Aliyu: Come to think of it, we cannot be
ministers at the same time. Hopefully, there
are other sectors of the economy that would
accommodate most of us. Not because we
are not ambitious. We could have been
ministers as well, but that can’t happen at
the same time. The president made it
categorically clear that he was bringing in
technocrats and also carry everybody along.
If he had not picked some people, he would
have been labelled as not carrying people
along. Maybe the women in the party are
bearing the brunt now. Hopefully, we will all
be accommodated because he is somebody
who believes in putting the round pegs in the
round holes and square pegs in square holes.

Naij.com: Hajiya Aisha Alhassan (Mama
Taraba) has resumed duties as minister of
women affairs and she is awaiting a court
injunction as the first female governor in
Nigeria. To witness such a time given you
position, how does that make you feel?

Aliyu: My joy knows no bound. I am so
excited that this happened during my regime.
On than mandate we stand. If they go to
court, we are ready to follow it down to the
supreme court. But if they don’t, we are
waiting for Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan
who has been already declared winner of the
election to be sworn in as the first female
governor in Nigeria. She has already left her
footprints in the sands of time. She is just
doing what she is suppose to do as the
minister of women affairs but I believe that
she is the governor of Taraba state.


Naij.com: What is your relationship with
her…….?
Cool. A good working relationship. We both
understand one another and we are working
together as it should be. But I am not
excited about her being the minister of
women affairs, I am more passionate about
seeing her as the governor. I led over a
thousand women in a match to her house.
My enthusiasm is to see her as the governor
of Taraba state. She is also waiting for that
day because she is not as excited as being
the minister of women affairs because she
can do better.

Naij.com: There has been a lot of crisis in
the party rising from the Kogi elections and
the unfortunate death of Prince Abubakar
Audu. What do you think should be done to
calm the air given Yahaya Bello’
emergence? What is your stand as well as
that of the party on this?

Aliyu: I am a Kogite (Kogi Indigene) and I
will speak to you as the daughter of the soil.
Prince Abubakar Audu’s death is a great loss
to Kogi state, the APC and Nigeria at large.
He has been the face of opposition right
from 2003. He has contested in about four
to five elections but he has been denied of
this mandate. Until this last election when he
clearly won, and he died.
Looking at the situation because the election
was declared inconclusive before his
demise. If APC had been declared winner of
the election before his demise, Faleke would
have assumed the position of governor-elect,
that is constitutional. But the constitution
and electoral act is silent about when there
is a death before the announcement of
results. This left us in a kind of quagmire
which we has never been experienced in the
history of Nigeria. we were left in the hands
of the judiciary and INEC for interpretation.
but we heard from the attorney-general of
the federation that the party should produce
a substitution.
The party was trying to avoid playing into
the hands of opposition by declaring the
deputy governor because they would go to
court to contest his election. Faleke was
only hand picked after the primaries. we had
to go back to the primaries and Yahaya
Bello was chosen because he was the
second runner up to conclude the election.
despite the power tussle and struggle,
petitions from the deputy governor, INEC, a
day before then a verdict was given that the
injunction would not be granted because the
election must be concluded. but i think they
are still in court insisting that the deputy
should have been declared.
I am saying that as law abiding party
members, we should obey the rules and let
peace reign. there is even that section in
the constitution that is you take the party to
court, you stand the chance of losing your
position as a member except if the party
settles the dispute. several attempts have
been made despite our inability to settle, but
after the elections, we will be meeting again
with Falake to plead with him to be more
law abiding and to believe that power
belongs to God. If God says he will be the
governor of kogi state, someday, somehow
he will get to that position. For now, he
should continue to be the deputy governor.

Naij.com: An issue came up this week this
week about the deputy-governor elect,
Faleke and the wife of late Abubakar Audu,
Aisha Audu. That the party is trying to bring
Aisha Audu up to work with Yahaya Bello
while Faleke is still left hanging. Do you
think that is fair? What do you think the
party will do at this stage?
I will say this categorically because I have
always been an APC person and a founding
member of the party, we wrote the
constitution of the APC. I moved from ANPP
as the national leader into the amalgamation
that formed the APC, together we got the
logo, flag and broom. Aisha Abubakar Audu
is not an APC member, we do not know her
within the party. She has never been a part
of the APC, she has been in the PDP. If she
is joining the party, it has not come to my
notice as the number one female in the
party, I am not aware.
As a woman, I would have loved to see a
female deputy governor especially from
northern Nigeria. I would have supported
that, but if we are to consider any female
from Kogi state, it would be the likes of
Halima Alfa who dared, picked her form,
contested the primaries before she stepped
down for Abubakar Audu. I believe in due
process. If we pick her, it would become a
muslim-muslim ticket and they wont be that
balance because they are all muslims. we
need a christian from a dominant race to
cover the vacuum created by Abubakar
Audu’s death.
They have produced a minister and so it was
okay that Yahaya emerged from the central,
then deputy from tehe west where Faleke is
from. There is nothing wrong in sitting with
Faleke again to pacify and plead with him
except in a condition where he comes up
with a letter to decline totally with the
party’s position. that is when we will begin
to think of replacing him with another
person. Not for anybody to meet and begin
to bribe their way from the villa and
national secretariat to be imposed on the
people of Kogi state. That is not acceptable.
Many have come to my house despite my
health condition with various complains. I
told them that I have not been officially
informed. so we want it to remain as a
rumor, and rumor shall it remain.

Naij.com: What if Faleke refuses to
continue, do you still think…

Aliyu: No please! we will go straight to those
in the party who toiled with that state for
goodness sake. They were party people who
believed in change. for thirteen years, they
never stepped the Lugard house, or
presidency because they were waiting for
this change. the worked hard for it and they
are qualified. Let the new person join the
queue please.

Naij.com: Nigerians are waiting for the
president to fulfill some of his election
promises like the N5,000 which they
promised the unemployed youths, improving
the power situation and so on. what do you
think is happening?

Aliyu: I will like to say this even as a
Nigerian that we are so impatient and we
forget quickly. Damages done in the past
thirteen years cannot be corrected in just six
months, these were anomalies that existed
and broken the spine of our existence as a
nation, corruption has eaten so deep into the
fabric of our nation, maladministration was
the order of the day, impunity was at its
highest mark, lack of social amenities,
breakdown of law and order… and you
expect all these to be corrected in just six
months? we forget easily due to our
impatience. it is better things go slow but
steady so that the right things would done
that to speed and crash.
In the past thirteen years, we didn’t only
speed crash, they ran us down. we are not
taking us back to history, but the correction
will also take some time. I want Nigerians to
please exercise patience. Yes, most of the
agencies and parastatals have not been
fixed but if you want to do justice, replace
sanity with insanity, you must take time, if
you get to a ministry and you find out that
the permanent secretary, directors and
others are corrupt and you remove them, to
clean up the system, that will take time or
else, we will run back to the same thing,
make the same mistake and the same
Nigerians will still complain, so i want to
plead with Nigerians to be more tolerant
because this is a trying period for us, the
hunger, wants, needs and lack is at its
highest peak because we inherited this.
Nigerians were expecting us to perform
magic but we made it clear during the
elections that we wont be performing magic
but that we were just coming to correct
anomalies and it will take some time. But we
must not forget that the government we
took out is not just watching. some of them
are part of this system and they are trying
to sabotage it.
For instance, the power supply in Lekki, the
man in charge told me that the generator
and diesel sellers in the area discovered that
they were not selling so they contributed
money to bribe them so that they can effect
power seizure not long, people began to buy
diesel in drums and they went back to the
generators. How is that the problem of the
president or his administration?
Until Nigerians begin to look at the system
as part of them and they as part of the
government, that is when we will be able to
effect that correction, we must realize that
the job is not just for the government.

Naij.com: As the president of the women
wing for the prestigious council of African
political affairs, what have you been able to
do for political parties in general?

Aliyu: I emerged the president of African
Political parties (women wing), in an election
in Katung after which I have been able to
visit about three countries now advocating.
we organised conferences, seminars in South
Africa, Sudan and Addis-Ababa. I am also a
standing member of the International
Council of African Political Parties (ICAPP)
worldwide. we attended a conference in
Beijing, China. we will be due to go to Kuala
Lampur, in Malaysia next week for another
conference. Most of these is on advocacy,
enlightenment, bringing in people with the
know-how to developing African countries to
embark on capacity building and
developmental projects that would enhance
and better the life of women like teaching
them how to make tie and dye, agriculture,
poultry and so on. in Niger, where we taught
women some of these things, they were so
excited because they were not exposed to
these things, it is becoming a way of life
because some of these places are so poor.

When we went to Senegal, given my position,
we have been able to opportunity given to
African women and that of the developed
world. In China, the men and women are
almost at per, so much so that they no
longer talk about women right. these i have
seen and i have helped to move African
women out of the cocoon. We have been
given the right to host the Council of of
African Political Parties which is slated for
January in Nigeria. It was suppose to be in
December but I pleaded with them to give
us some time because of the new
government which just took over power over
six months ago. This was done with the
hope that i would be able to attend the
event with the president, minister of women
affairs, minister of tourism and foreign
affairs so that we can host them in a big
way. so as to change their perception about
Nigeria which has infringed on the rights of
women over the years. Most of them believe
that this administration is not gender
friendly. To let them know that Nigerian
women enjoy political freedom using myself
as an example. i was the first vice chairman
of a political party in Nigeria, before i
became the national women leader. Nigeria
is quiet big with a highly competitive
political space.
So many questions also came out about the
Chibok girls that were kidnapped, the role of
Nigerian women and the government. As the
APC women national leader even though we
were not in government then, most of our
women were responsible for the
demonstrations and matching and quiet
movements of the bring back our girls now
and alive, so far so good, African women
have a lot coming on board, many African
countries signed a pact with the Chinese
government. when that kick starts, it would
lead to poverty alleviation and wealth would
be created and they would be a market for
every business.

SOURCE : https://www.naij.com/661591-exclusive-apc-kogi-state-reject-yahaya-bellos-deputy-apc-official.html

Who has time to go through all that write up should please break it down for us?

if i read this long story, make i no get ere*ction till i reach 60 years...............

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It's now a family affair