Shittu Mohammed is National Chairman of the newly registered Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA). In this interview with MUYIWA OYINLOLA, he spoke about the ideology of the party and why it has yet to constitute membership of some of  its sensitive organs.

Your political party, APDA, is one of the newly registered parties in the country. What does it have to offer that other parties already in existence are not offering?
Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) is a party of like minds. They have looked at the challenges facing the country and they see that the country has no problem, but leadership, impunity and lack of enduring institutions. We believe that as a people, we must be able to chat a course for this country and develop our democracy beyond it’s present level. We are of the view that we need to advance the course of democracy in the country in such a way that people will take centre stage of whatever is done.

[b]We want to advance the course of the electorate. As a party, we’re introducing e-payment so that our finance can be open to every Nigerian. We’re also introducing online registration so that you can register online. We’re also saying that you can’t just sit in your house in Abuja or Lagos and say you want to be president of Nigeria. You have to go to your ward. We’re also bringing in Electoral College whereby what you will need to be our presidential candidate will be just 37 votes. This will make us believe in ourselves, to see Nigerians as one. Not as Ibo man or Tiv woman, we must eliminate such tendencies. Only 37 votes give you our ticket to stand for presidential election. I know you’re trying to imagine how this makes sense. If I go to Oyo State and I get one million votes, and another person gets 29 votes, and another person gets 500 votes. Automatically, I have won there but that only gives me one vote. So, I must also struggle to win in other states, and we’re saying you must get this in 24 states and two third of 24 states[/b]

That means you have to go round all the states to see the bad roads that your maladministration may have caused. You’re also able to see the projects you promised to do but that you did not do. You have to go round, from one door to another, from one village to another, from one ward to another. And when you eventually get to the office you will realise that you will still need to travel round again and you won’t want to go through the rigour of the bad roads, the bad airports. These are some of the changes we intend to bring in. We want to advance the course of this democracy.

What is your party’s stand on restructuring?
Restructuring is embedded in our manifesto. We believe that Nigeria needs to be restructured. We believe in devolution of power, where you take a look at the concurrent list and the exclusive list, and you juggle them, in such a way that each state or each component can look at its mineral resources and agricultural products that are available within its domain and take a comparative advance of them for development.

For instance, if look at Borno State today, they have Gum arabic in abundance. And you won’t believe that Gum arabic is more expensive than crude oil. If you can put Gum arabic in the whole of Sambisa forest that cuts across Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, even up to Lake Chad. They can depend on that. They also have Lake Chad, which means they can feed us with any type of food. They have the best specie of beans from that area, they can grow and even export their beans.

Go to Bayelsa State, forget about the crude oil there; look at the rice plantation in that state, and imagine what it will be like if you take advantage of that and engage young people who are looking for jobs in it.

We have to maximize the opportunities in the states rather than encouraging a situation where everyone runs to Abuja for allocation. We also have to do away with this issue of indigeneship/settlers. We have to see ourselves as one. We should see ourselves as Nigerians. These are some of the course we intend to advance.

We’re also looking at a situation where we will put up a bill where electoral process will be devoid of distributing rice and such items to the electorate during campaigns instead of serving them judiciously and make life better for them. We’re going to put that bill, as a party, before the National Assembly. And you need a vehicle to put all these things in place, and that vehicle is APDA.

A lot of Nigerians are of the opinion that the number of political parties are too many. What is your take on that?
Party formation is about ideology. There are about 170 political parties in the United States as at today. But they are ideology based. Some are about Animal Rights protection. Some are about environmental protection. Some are about heritage preservation. There are some that you find only in counties and you can’t win elections in those counties except you collaborate with them. And you will recall that the other day when Obama was losing election, how Tea Party came up to support him. That is their own ideology.

There was a noticeable presence of PDP and Labour Party members during the flag off of your party. Are you falling back on these individuals for support?
As you’re aware, I was National Chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council and I have sympathy of many political parties. You may have seen faces of PDP chieftains, Labour Party chieftains, we had PPN stalwarts there, you had NNPP chieftains there, and many more. There were so many people that came to show solidarity with us. Our doors are open. It is a new course. We’re introducing an ideological political party. It is devoid of any menace you may have seen in other parties. It’s a new baby and we want every Nigerian to come on board. This is the first time they will have an ideological political party. It’s not that we’re friends, it’s about ideology. It’s not about driving a government away so that we can form a new one, no. We’re bringing in what will redefine the nation’s political landscape.

Does the party have a BoT now? If yes, who are those who constitute it?
For now, we only have functional National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC). We left the Board of Trustees (BoT), because people who should constitute this should be people that have meritoriously served this country. As a party that wants to change the political arena, we are not in a hurry to constitute it. We have also not constituted Council of Elders. You know, you have to look at the antecedents, the ideology and pedigree of the people you’re bringing on board. So, it will take us time; other committees and sub-committees of the party will wait.

What is the numerical strength of your party and in which part of the country do you have more members?
We have members all over the country. We’re on e-registration. We’re not a regional party. We don’t believe in regionalism. We believe in one Nigeria. We believe that as a Nigerian, the problem you have as an Ebira man is the same problem that a Kanuri man is facing. What are those basic problems? Food. Do you have food on your table? Will your tribe put food on your table? The answer is no. Will tribalism give you electricity? No. Will your region give you qualitative education? No. Therefore, we in APDA believe that the unity of the country is paramount. We believe there should be an electoral process in place to advance the course of the common man.

Shared on Palmchat

http://leadership.ng/2017/07/10/apda-advancing-course-nigerias-democracy-mohammed/

good

The Only Party that believe in restructuring.... APDA

The only party that adopts electoral college system in its voting... APDA

The only party that adopts electronic voting and Biometric membership.. APDA

The only party that set aside a minimum of 25% slot for youths (18-35)... APDA

The only party that set aside a minimum of 30% slots for women... APDA

The only party that has direct voting system where all members vote during ALL party elections, primaries and conventions... APDA

The only party that means business.... APDA



Lalasticlala, Seun, what are you waiting for?

taylor88:
good

Hope you have joined?

TonyeBarcanista:
Hope you have joined?

10000% in for anything to take buharism out of my life and generation

taylor88:


10000% in for anything to take buharism out of my life and generation

It's not enough to take out Buhari and APC, we must ensure that they are replaced with better leaders

I support such idea, can be campaigning online for this party but I have vowed never to vote until I see a new Nigeria

CROWNWEALTH019:
I support such idea, can be campaigning online for this party but I have vowed never to vote until I see a new Nigeria

Good but you also have to ensure you are part of the determinant of who flies the party flags also.


Who says you can't present yourself to serve in any capacity?

TonyeBarcanista:

It's not enough to take out Buhari and APC, we must ensure that they are replaced with better leaders

oga better leaders can emerge later



naija will be better not having a president at all than have buhari

taylor88:


oga better leaders can emerge later



naija will be better not having a president at all than have buhari

Buhari is a cancer to the nation

Mynd44 do the needful ima binu

At Virtual Accountant, our professional accounting services seeks to change the face of financial reporting and advisory for small businesses, start ups and project. You too have a right to quality records.

Bespoke services designed to suit your business needs. Guess what! Very affordable fees because we want you to meet your bottom line.

- Bookkeeping
- Accounting
- Tax compliance
- Other regulatory compliance

Don't patch those books, look no further and contact us today: 08029753761, 08086108687 www.virtualaccountant.ng

... together, we change the world!

Lol

My interest is increasing...... in case, how do i join?

Barcanista my friend, APDA won't happen. You better come back to the PDP. The Sheriff you see today, you will see no more because he will be out in weeks.

Tonye this is very sweet ooo, but are you telling me that your goal post has been shifted again.
It's nice tho, but I dont think the solution to Nigeria's problem lies in any political party

Dannyset:
Tonye this is very sweet ooo, but are you telling me that your goal post has been shifted again.
It's nice tho, but I dont think the solution in Nigeria's problem lies in any political party

Thank God you said it's very sweet....


Why should any sane human remain in the failed ships called APC and PDP?

TonyeBarcanista:
Thank God you said it's very sweet....

Why should any sane human remain in the failed ships called APC and PDP?

Yet you forget those who cause this ships too sink have sunk their anchor in this new ship call APDA.

No one ever expected you to smell your own sh1t.

unstable Tonye. apda will flop den u run bk to pdp lik a rat

TonyeBarcanista:
Thank God you said it's very sweet....


Why should any sane human remain in the failed ships called APC and PDP?

When this gained recognition and start winning, people like Saraki will jump ship and we would be back at square one. So what's the fuss about? Political party need money to survive in this country. Who will fund this successfully without being a corrupt minded fellow?

Dannyset:


When this gained recognition and start winning, people lie Saraki will jump ship and we would be back square one. So what's the fuss about? Political party need money to survive in this country. Who will fund this successfully without being a corrupt minded fellow?

APDA is self sponsored

TonyeBarcanista:

APDA is self sponsored

Money bags in other parties will kill it bro. Nigeria hasn't developed to the extent that money won't be a problem.

Na wa o!

Ok. Will they participate in the upcoming Anambra election?