Davidson Akhimien is the presidential candidate of the Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria. A security expert, Akhimien, in this interview with AYO ESAN in Abuja, speaks on a range of issues as they affect his ambition to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari and the security situation in the country. Excerpts.
With your military background, what do you think is the solution to the security crisis in the country?
One of the problems we have as a nation is that we are not able to look at the fundamentals. You see our approach to security threat has always been a wrong approach. As a government, we need to be pro – active. When GDPN comes to power in 2019, our approach to security will always be proactive. We have been doing reactive security, after the fact. When thing happened after the facts, we then take decision . No, that’s wrong, we need to have proactive approach to security problems. Some of the foundations of security problems in Nigeria stem from what you called pervasive injustices in the land. Most of the insecurity that we are experiencing today would not have been on the table if not for these pervasive injustices. I am going to address the problem of insecurity using two approaches. The first approach is to ensure there is justice and equality in the land. We are going to look at the foundational problems. There is what you called structural conflict. What are the causes of cultural conflicts? We want to look at them from foundational stage. By the time we do this, security problems will die a natural death.
Recently, Nigeria was described as the world poverty capital . We have economic crisis for years. What is your blueprint for solving this problem?
Don’t you think it is a misnomer of sort that a country so highly endowed in natural resources, a country so highly endowed even in human resources to be refer to as world poverty capital. It is a misnomer, it is unacceptable. That goes to tell us that we have a problem and the problem is highly identifiable. It is the problem of harnessing and management of the quantum of resources that we have been blessed with as a nation. The lack of proper harnessing, proper management of our resources is the problem. And that is why you see the present government having as one of its policies, the fight against corruption . Corruption does not discriminate between Igbo and Hausa and even between Yoruba . Corruption does not discriminate between parties. We need to fight corruption holistically. We will continue to remain poor when we cannot manage the resources we have. Our fight against corruption is going to be holistic when we assume power next year.
Your party, GDPN is a new party. Why the choice of that party?
Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria . I just want you to listen to the name Grassroots. How does it sound to you? In those days, when you talk about grassroots, reference to the grassroots people is made of rural dwellers. When you want to refer to the people in your village, you say the grassroots people. But now, we use the economic parameters, you find out that grassroots people are not only the rural dwellers. Grassroots people, using economic parameters will refer to as many people as they are in the fringes of the society. They may be living in the urban areas but they don’t have the empowerment to maintain a worthy life style. What I’m saying in essence is that grassroots has transcended rural dwellings to lack of economic empowerment. And so for us at Grassroots Party, we represent these mass populi . And I can tell you on good authority that over 85 per cent of Nigerians will fall within this category. For us, we say there is a yearning gap and we have come to fill that gap.
You are a member of the Coalition of United Political Parties . What confidence do you have in that coalition and how hopeful are you that you are going to win the coalition’s ticket ?
We are a member of the coalition and like we used to say in GDPN, we are not in politics to compete with anybody. We are a movement. What you called a tender plant that is ushering in a new paradigm into the Nigeria political space. We are in the coalition, if we make it, this time around, to God be the glory. That means, we will start the work now, if we don’t make it this time around, there is another time. It is a journey, it is not a destination. My country will not remain the same. As long as the GDPN has been given birth to, we are not competing with anybody. The creator of heaven and earth will see this seed nurtured and bring forth fruits, if not today, then tomorrow.
How do you see the last voter registration exercise?
From my experience with the electoral body I am aware that INEC has done a lot to expand the number of voters that should vote in 2019 . To that extent, I think they have tried . Now talking about the records at the level of the INEC is another thing altogether. For me, I will like to see a more transparent INEC processes where information will continually be given to the public as to the number of registered voters as updated from every state. Then again, investigation into the allegations of underaged voters, especially in certain part of this country must be thoroughly investigated and the outcome of the investigation must be made public . That will be a show of transparency by the INEC. I say again for emphasis , allegations of underaged registration in certain part of the country should be thoroughly investigated, not only by INEC but by a third party, possibly international bodies and the outcome of the investigation made public. That is when we will be showing transparency about INEC and its processes .
How do you see the spate of defections by politicians?
Truth be told, a lot of political parties exist and more will still be thrown up but only God knows the motives for the establishment of political parties by the founders themselves . Some have said that political parties are set up for pecuniary reasons, you understand, so that they can be used as bargaining tips. Some have said patriotism has not been what has driven setting up of some political parties. Political associations will continue to exist. And in all associations where human beings interact, definitely, offenses will arise. There will be polarisation. Some people will be for while some people will be against. However, I think political parties should come up because of certain ideologies they hold close to their hearts. And if a political party has a sound ideology and adherents of that party are hooked to the party because of ideology, you will not find much of these defections as you have them today. An ideologically based or focussed party is the party that will go far. Our party, GDPN, is founded on the principle and ideology of the elevation of the living conditions of the grassroots people of Nigeria who are in the mass majority.
