₦airaland Forum

— 24th March 2018
Alhaji Dahiru Yusuf Yabo is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Sokoto State, and an avid supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari. He was the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) governorship candidate in the state in 2011. Yabo is also a member of a political frontier known as APC Adalci Buhari SAK, a group galvanizing support for President Buhari’s re-election in 2019. The politician in this interview conducted by TUNDE OMOLEHIN, spoke on the ultimatum given to Governor Aminu Tambuwal and APC leadership in the state, to declare their loyalty to President Buhari among other issues.


What informed your group’s decision to issue an ultimatum to Governor Aminu Tambuwal over President Buhari’s 2019 re-election?

What informed our decision was the fact that 2019 is around the corner, and we are part and parcel of the APC in Sokoto State, through one of the legacy parties that formed it. Secondly, the antecedents of the current governor of the stateAminu Waziri Tambuwal, his actions and inactions prompted us to have some apprehensions and his antics clearly show that we deserve some clarifications about his position toward 2019 presidential election. Also, some of his recent moves had added up to our fears. We felt as loyal party men and bonafide members of APC in the State, we need to voice out if things are not right, especially his relationship with Mr. President. All these things put together, we felt we are even helping him to clear the air on some public misconceptions about his personality and political moves toward 2019. In the last two years, we have been watching closely about his performance as a governor and we are not satisfied. We are also not comfortable with his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari. We are also not comfortable with the way he is treating some of our party members, especially those from the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state. As patriotic party members, we are also not comfortable with his relationship with former governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko. So, all these put together informed our decision to come together as like minds, within the party, who believe that something needed to be done in order to harmonise our moves toward galvanising more support for President Buhari in 2019, in the state and nationally.

In one of your group’s press conferences, you accused Governor Tambuwal of anti-party activities, what evidence have you to make such allegation?

The allegation is not only from our group, rather, we are only informing the governor that there are a lot of speculations going around and well reported by the media showing or indicating fears that his (Governor Tambuwal) moves and antics are not in consonance with the values of party system politics. We know him as a governor under the platform of APC but it has been reported widely that he is romancing some personalities from outside his party, particularly those in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). There are speculations that he (Tambuwal) was among the people who funded the new leadership of PDP and his frequent visit to Rivers State which is literally the PDP headquarters and where the party national chairman comes from. We are also aware about his deep and close relationship with the governor of Rivers State. Being old folks in politics, we can read along the lines and understand the movements of any politician, especially toward an election time. With what is happening now at the National Assembly, one can see clearly too that there are a lot of apprehensions. Even within the party at the national level, we have seen what is playing out there and that was the reason Mr. President himself is more concerned and a committee was set up, headed by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu to reconcile all aggrieved members.

Also, knowing the relationship of Governor Tambuwal with the Speaker of the House of Representatives who everybody knows he galvanised support for, to become the Speaker, we knew he must have an influence on the current happenings in the National Assembly. That is one aspect of it. The second aspect is that, the Senate President who is also a very close ally of Senator Aliyu Wamakko, who handed over to Governor Aminu Tambuwal, had both made a declaration that they have a political bond that cannot be broken, knowing the fact that Senator Wamakko is also an ally of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki. The fact that there was a recent move whereby the chairman of the Northern Senators Forum who was opposed to some of the lines and aspirations of the party was removed and replaced by Senator Wamakko, one can easily see that there are moves that are not really good enough for some of us who want to have a common front ahead of 2019 general elections.

Let me remind you that, three years into this administration, Mr. President has visited several states to commission projects but yet to be invited to Sokoto and we can see the kind of speed at which Governor Tambuwal invited Vice President‎ Osinbajo to Sokoto, not to commission any project when there were rumours that President Buhari was incapacitated while on medical treatment abroad. You can juxtapose this with Mr. President statement recently in Jos, where he said, when he was away, people were pursuing the Vice President to give them the position of Vice President when he, (Osinbajo) becomes President.

Your group’s agenda is to galvanise su‎pport for President Buhari come 2019 election evenwhen Buhari has not decided to run. In the event he declines to seek re-election, what becomes of your agenda?

We don’t have to wait until he publicly declares his intention to seek re-election, rather, we see it as our responsibility to encourage him to seek re-election because we are satisfied with his performance so far, looking at the rot he inherited from the immediate past administration.

Your former party, defunct CPC, was one of the legacy parties that collapsed into APC, how formidable is your new group, APC Adalci Buhari Sak?

We are indeed a formidable force to reckon with in Sokoto politics because our bond with the defunct CPC is still intact, except for one of us, who was lured away with a mere Special Adviser office, but a lot of new converts have also joined us.

To buttress our strength, in 2011when Senator Wamakko was the state governor and Tambuwal, as the House of Representatives Speaker under PDP, there was an election with President Buhari as the CPC presidential candidate. President Buhari in Sokoto clearly won the election with a margin of over 550,000 votes alone and in 2015, when both Wamakko and Tambuwal joined Buhari’s bandwagon, we only won with about 670,000 votes which show that PDP in addition only gave 120,000 votes. Another fact was that with former governor Aliyu Wamakko as an incumbent, we (CPC) beat him in his local government with a margin of about 20,000 votes.

Why does it take your group a long time before raising your voice on these issues?

As loyal party members, we decided to take our time to watch keenly and gave benefit of doubt to happenings around us, with the hope that things will change for better, but unfortunately things are degenerating as the leopard never changes his skin. We believe that there is no better time than now to expose the ineptitude surrounding the government of Aminu Tambuwal.

We can recall things were not good enough at the beginning of this administration both at the central and state levels, especially in terms of economy but we also know the efforts made by the Federal Government in terms of fund interventions. We also understood that the immediate past government causes most of the problems which, they (Tambuwal and Wamakko) were part of them. So, we thought Governor Tambuwal should be given time to plan his government and also execute projects. But with three years gone now, it is expected of him to start showing what he has done, instead, there is a lot of propaganda being disseminated and people in the state are now becoming apprehensive that this government is not doing anything.

We know that Tambuwal wouldn’t have won on his own merit but, he won on President Buhari’s popularity in 2015. We all know how Niger and Jigawa governorship candidates lost election because they failed to join Buhari’s mantra in the last general elections. We all know what would have happened if Wamakko and Tambuwal had not joined APC during the last election but after benefitting from Buhari’s mantra, Tambuwal is now trying to betray President Buhari. People are complaining and we are the leaders of these people. At least two of our members were gubernatorial aspirants in the last party primary and still have pending court cases, which anyone of them can even be declared the governor, all things being equal. I was also a governorship candidate on the platform of defunct CPC in 2011. So if we cannot talk, who will talk? It is our responsibility as responsible leaders and politicians who had the state at heart to come up and show off how things should be done. If we did not correct these things, we are all bound to find it difficult in the forthcoming general elections. The CPC group is much on the ground and more popular in the state.

It is in the open that all is not well within the APC, which necessitated the Bola Tinubu reconciliation committee. Taking into consideration the magnitude of issues bedeviling the party at state and national levels do you think the committee can deliver on its mandate before the party goes into election?

Time shall tell whether the Tinubu committee will deliver on its mandate because the problems in each state differs and in some states, the issues have been left to fester for long, that, individuals have suffered personal and material losses, as the case may be. In Sokoto, we have a gubernatorial aspirant who is seeking redress on the sudden emergence of Governor Tambuwal as APC candidate, whose farmland has been confiscated, same for another, whom a section of his school is under threat of demolition, for daring to speak out against the governor. We are aware of the magnitude of the problem in our party in Kano and Kaduna states.

Still on your question Tinubu has been given a herculean task by the President and I appreciate his ingenuity by reaching out to members who seem to be aggrieved. A good example was his visit to Sokoto, which was surprising to outsiders. But Tinubu’s visit to Sokoto however, buttresses our claim on who to watch closely on the radar as politicking approaches. Tinubu in his wisdom, has been to the National Assembly, the national headquarters of the party to resolve his differences with the national chairman, and his alleged proxy war with the Senate President. He should be commended for taking bold steps to reconcile with those he has grievances with, in the party.

We all know that issues arose between Tinubu and Tambuwal on the emergence of the Speaker of the current House of Representatives, where Tinubu was allegedly betrayed by Tambuwal, despite all he did in supporting him to become the Speaker then. Tinubu has shown his large heart and forgave Tambuwal by visiting Sokoto, towards achieving success in his assignment. Despite all these moves by Tinubu, his traducers are yet to come to term with him because their heart is not in APC and this is why we want people of like minds to join us in check-mating ‎those disloyal elements from destroying or causing collateral damages before jumping boat into their alternative party.

Linzo:
Why is chief Olusegun Obasanjo trying so hard to stop Atiku from being the next president of Nigeria? Whether anybody agrees with me or not Atiku has the higher percentage of been the next president, quickly that OBJ understands the game that he start working round the clock to stop Atiku.
First, he formed Coalition whatever but failed, now he has started pushing for SDP and wooing big wings in PDP to join the party in a bid to stop Atiku. Baba please stop because Atiku time don reach to lead Nigeria.
I'm No Nonsense linzo

kernel504:
Voting APC isn't a crime, but supporting them even after hurting and demystifying Nigerians is devilish.

Look at Ghana making mockery a one-time African giant.

A former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, on Saturday, accused the All Progressives Congress of being scared to hold its national convention.

Addressing journalists after the Peoples Democratic Party Niger East Senatorial District meeting at Paikoro in Niger State, Aliyu said despite its challenges, the PDP had been able to hold its national convention.

He challenged the APC to do the same.

The former governor said, “Two and a half years after they came into power, the APC is becoming scared of its shadow. They have become too afraid to hold a convention after the first convention they had that brought in the executives. Fear is the reason why the APC is unable to hold its convention.”

He said the PDP would take over in 2019, adding that “the people now understand the difference between both parties.”

Aliyu stated that it would be easy for the PDP to take over in Niger State as the people had seen that the government of the PDP was much better than any other government in the state.

“Twenty-nineteen will be the year of the PDP. We will not deceive the people; we will ensure that the people are given their right. We will ensure that no Nigerlite lacks food on his table. The PDP remains strong in Niger State,” he said.

The Niger State PDP Chairman, Tanko Beji, highlighted the importance of permanent voter cards and advised members that had not registered to do so before it was late.

Beji said, “It is with the PVC that we can think of outweighing the party in power. The PVC is very important. Please, go and register so that we can change the change.”

Chukazu:
Better go prepare a rope to hang yourself because your Atiku won't even win PDD's primaries

Chukazu:
You are a fool.sh slowpoke !
Did you see any resemblance of me supporting APC or PDP in my post?

Once you collect Enough money to smoke and drink Kai Kai ,you come online to spew your vomit

sweetgala:
PDP did not conduct a transparent convention. There are still many aggrieved members. Everyone knew of the list

Chukazu:
What I see is power play

Muize Banire...has been having a running battle with Tinubu power block in Lagos.

Akeredolu and Tinubu don't see eye to eye and they are the ones supporting the Chairman while the biggest opposition to Oyegun has always come from Lagos Axis -Tinubu stronghold

aolawale025:
Why don't they just hold their conventions once and for all

…IBB, Amuka rally Nigerians to unite against common challenges

By Monsor Olowoopejo & Gabriel Olawale

LAGOS—Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, dismissed insinuations that restructuring of the country would benefit the South to the disadvantage of the North, urging Northern opponents of the proposal not to kill themselves over the South’s vanishing oil. Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar Abubakar spoke at a book launch in Lagos where former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd), affirmed that Nigerians must come together, irrespective of political or ethnicities, to frontally confront the issues that challenge the unity of the country.

They spoke at the launch of a book, “In the belly of vultures,” written by veteran journalist and erstwhile Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, Tola Adeniyi. The book launch was witnessed by some of the country’s leading personalities, among whom were some former governors, including Aremo Segun Osoba (Ogun), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Gbenga Daniel (Ogun), Otunba Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti), among several other dignitaries which also included Vanguard publisher, Mr Sam Amuka, and former Concord Newspapers Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Doyin Abiola.

Affirming that restructuring was not a sectional agenda, Atiku, who was represented by Prof. Maxwell Gidado, said: “Restructuring is not a sectional thing or sectional demand. And it will not benefit only some sections of the country and hurt others. It will benefit the whole country. “Those who fear that it is designed to hurt them to the benefit of others or to benefit only them at the expense of others are grossly mistaken.

“A country, including its economy, is like an organism. Thus, what affects one part affects the other parts and the country as a whole. The existing structure impedes our progress as a nation irrespective of what specific sections think.

“Similarly, restructuring, if properly done, will benefit the whole nation, whatever the short term inconveniences a section or sections may feel.”


On oil resources

Noting current geopolitical squabble over oil resources, Atiku said: “Our current structure, which is based on oil rents, is vulnerable because oil has probably reached its peak as the chief energy source for the world economy. ‘’You probably know that the world’s major automobile manufacturers and oil consumers have announced dates between 2025 and 2040 to end the manufacture and sale of fossil fuel-only vehicles.

“This is important for all of us and especially for those in the oil-producing region, where some people sometimes talk about restructuring as though it is designed to punish the North. The good news for the North is that a restructured Nigeria is in the North’s long-term economic interest.

“We should not be fighting for a bigger share of what is a disappearing resource. It amounts to a fight for a bigger share of the past, and not the future. So both the oil-bearing sections and non-oil bearing sections of this country need to pay more attention to agriculture, fisheries, renewable energy, biotechnology, information technology, Nano-technology, artificial intelligence and so on.”


Babangida calls for unity

General Babangida in his remarks, urged Nigerians to unite to proffer solutions to the country’s challenges. Babangida added that a united Nigeria would afford everyone the opportunity to discuss challenges and possible solutions to the country’s problems.

The former Head of State, who was represented by ex-Minister of Communications, Major-General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (retd), said: “All Nigerians must not lose the ability to discuss national issues calmly and respectfully regardless of party affiliations and other differences. “We must come together as a unified entity to solve our collective problems. Therefore, we must not allow hate speeches and fake news destroy the fabrics of our national cohesion.”

Restructuring, key component to address challenges — Amuka

Mr. Amuka on his part, said restructuring was a key component of the solutions needed to address the challenges facing Nigeria.

He said: “Though I have been part of numerous meetings where it was suggested that without restructuring, Nigeria could not go on, pragmatically, how best can we effect it? “And some of the solutions proffered by Tola Adeniyi in his book are for us to embark on a National Government. Fine as it was suggested but how do we achieve it, considering the circumstances facing the country?”

Dr. Abiola, widow of the deceased business mogul, Bashorun Moshood Abiola, on her part, said she had paid the price by walking her talk. “Some of us paid the price for walking the talk. And for now, I am happy in the comfort of my grand-children. We are the vultures, and the sole advice I have for all is to pay adequate attention to your children and grand-children. That is where hope lies.’’

While explaining reasons for publishing the book, Adeniyi said journalistic materials, articles, and stories were historical materials written in a hurry which could be lost. “But once we have it in a book form, everyone, including unborn generations, can always make reference to it. In over 50 years of writing, I already wrote over 20,000 articles.”

Empiror:
Can you tell me the difference between Atiku and Buhari?

Lagbaja01:
I would rather vote #FelaDurotoye....enough of these power drunk old men

progress69:
To comment for NL this days dey tire me. Kids don too much. On going peace moves in the party, this are expected outcomes.....
They keep mentioning Tinubu in every post yet they claim he is so irrelevant....

CROWNWEALTH019:
TINUBU IS AS USELESS AS NIGERIA


NgeneUkwenu is watching how Tinubu is being fvcked up and the she/he is helpless