Alhaji Yayanuwa Zainabari Ajiyan Shira is the Bauchi State spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party. In this interview with our Correspondent, SANI MUH’D SANI, he explains why his party is fielding former vice president Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate and the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammad, as Bauchi State governorship candidate in the 2019 elections. Excerpts.
There are allegations that your governorship candidate in Bauchi and the presidential flag bearer of your party have tendencies for corruption. Don’t you think that these allegations could hinder their chances in the 2019 elections?
That could be the campaign gimmick of the All Progressives Congress. They tend to smear our candidates with various allegations and since it is just an allegation, not proven, it would not in any way affect our chances in next year’s elections. Only a competent court of law can pronounce someone as corrupt or criminal for it to be true and there is no such declaration or pronouncements by any competent law in and outside Nigeria. So, labeling any of our candidates amounts to a disregard for set down legal proceedings and defamation of character. Nothing corrupt has been proven against any of our candidates.
He has not done anything tangible for the people. He has lived in Bauchi for long, no one suspected that he is not an indigene of Bauchi State, no one challenged him until he refused to heed our elders’ advice and refused to respect them
Unseating an incumbent governor or president in Africa is always considered an herculean task. What structure does the PDP have to achieve this task?
Almost everyone was a witness to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria when we were defeated by the opposition APC. You are aware of the tangible structures we had in place at that time, the transformations that were in place around this time in 2014. In the build up to the 2015 elections, Nigeria was much more stronger, much more dependable. But as God would have it, power was taken away from us, not because we did not perform better but because God ordained that it was time for us to leave and to allow us to reflect and correct our mistakes if there was any. It was because God wanted us to come out stronger and the PDP is now stronger, more united than ever. So,
taking power from the incumbent by the PDP this time could be very easier than when it was taken from us in 2015. So, APC is also leaving now. Nigerians know that all the progress the country can boast of today is the dividends of democracy extended by former PDP governments. They know that it is only a PDP government that can restore the lost glory of the country.
Elections are now taking another dimension with allegations of votes buying which is one of the major reasons that allegedly led to the defeat of your party in the last Bauchi South senatorial by- elections. What arrangement have you put in place to ensure that such is not repeated in the general elections next year?
We want to assure Nigerians that PDP will not tolerate such practices in the future. We were caught unawares because the APC knew they were going to be defeated, so they prepared money for vote buying while we were sure of winning; we only prepared for the people’s support. And the Independent National Electoral Commission should, as a matter of urgency, ensure that this is not repeated anywhere because PDP will not go alone with it, we’ll not allow it and we’ll fight it if INEC allows it to happen. By allowing it to happen, it means that voters will be disenfranchised. If voters are disenfranchised, then, what is the use of conducting an election?
Many people in Bauchi State believe that all the efforts by the PDP and some APC stalwarts to unseat the incumbent governor, Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar, are based on tribal sentiments and not in good faith. What is your take on this?
If it is so, then, it must be because he has not delivered the dividends of democracy to the people of the state. If he has, no one would raise a finger to challenge him and say you are not an indigene because if you do, it will amount to nothing. But he has not done anything tangible for the people. He has lived in Bauchi for long, no one suspected that he is not an indigene of Bauchi State, no one challenged him until he refused to heed our elders’ advice and refused to respect them and also refused to deliver the things that rightfully belong to the people. That is why the PDP nominated the former FCT minister Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed as its candidate for next year’s gubernatorial election. He is a true indigene of Bauchi State, whose grandparents, parents and elders are from the state. I am confident that PDP will wrest power from the APC in both Bauchi State and the country at large because we have fielded candidates of the people’s choice who have both held important positions in the
country.
Why is your party so determined to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019?
President Muhammad Buhari is the only honest person in the APC-led Federal Government in both the federal and states level. No one can deny that and it has been proven. No one has his capacity in terms of being a corrupt-free leader but he has a lot of problems, one of his biggest problems that we are experiencing now is that, his knowledge of govervance is outdated and rusty . What he knows is the governmental structure of the past, not the present. Everything has changed, including the people and he allows those close to him to get away with many corrupt practices, unacceptable leadership and some of them even have criminal tendencies. These have rendered him incapable of leading the country and the best way for Nigeria to move forward is to unseat him in next year’s presidential election. The PDP feels it is appropriate to field in a candidate that has an up-to-date knowledge of the structure of government and can steer the affairs of the country in good direction. President Buhari came on board the Presidency because people thought that he’ll do a lot to salvage the country. But where are we
now?
