48 INSIDEPOLITICS Sheriff, Makarfi rift has not affected PDP in Kaduna – Hyat
The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in Kaduna State, Felix Hassan Hyat, spoke with newsmen in Kaduna on the current crisis in the party among other issues. Excerpts:
Daily Trust We heard that the PDP in Kaduna State is divided with some on the side of Senator Ahmed Makarfi while others are for Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. How true is this?
Let me correct that impression. One of our party members was on the air waves saying that he supports Senator Sheriff because of the Court of Appeal judgment. But the leaderships of the party from the ward, local government and up to the state level are united. And as long as an appeal has been made to the Supreme Court, we remain solidly behind Makarfi.
The person who made that statement did so as his personal rights. He does not occupy any office in the hierarchy of the party, therefore cannot speak on behalf of the party. As an individual, he has the right to hold his views. We are all individuals with differences. That is his perception and I don’t think there is a problem with that but that does not mean that there is a division in the PDP in Kaduna State.
DT: Some are saying you have not been able to provide the needed strong opposition to the ruling APC. Why?
Yes, I have heard that. We have to face reality, the victory of APC in 2015 was not a victory based on any reasoning as to lack of performance by the PDP. But I can say without any fear of contradiction that it was a gang up. A gang up because the people in the North felt that it was their turn to rule and were denied. The civil servants felt that PDP had been in government for 16 years and they had not had what they wanted. The media became completely one-sided and anything about the PDP was not welcome. There are some media organizations that did not hide their hatred for the PDP.
Now you go and ask the same civil servants, the same press and the same people in the North if they have what they voted for. They don’t have it! Let us be sincere to ourselves. For the first time in this country, we have a democratic set up that ran for 16 years uninterrupted. Even military regimes cannot boast of that. How many times were there coups attempts to unseat General Ibrahim Babangida, to unseat the late General Sani Abacha? Within the military itself, they were not able to lead this country for this length of time.
For PDP to have accepted that it lost the elections even though there were so many lapses without going to court are enough indication that the party was more interested in the unity of the country than being in government. This was well captured by former President Goodluck Jonathan when he said that his political ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian and he went ahead to demonstrate that. Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma said he thanked former President Jonathan for accepting defeat in order for the country to remain united. Now I want to ask a question, you are aware that if Goodluck had not accepted defeat, there would have been problems.
So, if somebody in the future, realizes that he will not win election begins to look for areas to cause problems, will you allow him go free? This is so because we have already set precedence. In 2011, many people were killed, properties destroyed. And it was coming again in 2015. So, the single action of one individual saved this country from disintegration. And today people are not recognizing that, which is very unfortunate.
DT: But we understand that your party was not happy with Jonathan’s decision to accept defeat?
The party supported him. The fact remains that at our state level, we didn’t go to court to challenge the result of the election. What happened during the presidential election happened during the gubernatorial. We were affected but we supported Jonathan because we believe in the unity of this country.
DT: Are you now saying that the 2015 elections were rigged?
What does it mean when you said elections are rigged? When you saw it very clearly that the rules of the game were turned upside down.
It was the umpire, INEC! I have earlier made reference to it. I said I read that 80 per cent of elections under former INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega were fraudulent. I am not the one that said it.
DT: Local government elections may hold in Kaduna this year, how prepared are you for this?
All we are saying is that we want a level playing ground and nothing else. If elections are conducted in a free and fair atmosphere, on a level playing ground and we lose, we shall accept defeat. But if we don’t lose and somebody declares us the loser, we will not accept. The government is talking of electronic voting. We have asked one simple question and the answer has not been provided. The state electoral commission does not have the names of registered voters. They rely on INEC. What they are doing now is that they have collected the voters register and are transferring the names into their card recorder. The issue is that for any election to be credible there must be a voters’ register which you will display for checks. I asked them, can you display it from the card reader and their answer was ‘no.’ Now if you cannot display from the card reader what you fed in, how are we sure that it was what you collected from the INEC that you fed into the card reader? Therefore, we will not accept that. Certainly, we shall not accept it.
The state electoral commission has gone to China and were shown how it will work and it has stopped there. The state government has taken over through the office of the Secretary to the State Government. How the machine will be configured, the electoral commission is not aware and it is the electoral body that is going to conduct elections, not state government. Therefore, for the state government to be involved in the procurement of the materials that will be used, gives a question mark. It simply shows that it is the government that is conducting the elections and if the government is to conduct elections, we will not accept it.
DT: How would you assess the administration of Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i?
I don’t know if the living standards of all have improved. But I am sure that it is an abysmal performance. DT: Why did you say so?
Because I know that my living standard has not improved, it has only gone down. If we are to tell ourselves the truth, all of us know that what I am saying is the truth. Look, PDP meant well for this country because we never believed in the concept of winner takes all. That is why we had an office called ‘Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter-Party Affairs.’ This special adviser was liaising with the existing political parties. He was receiving the complaints and suggestions of all the political parties and forwarding same to the governor.
So also, when there was anything to be shared including contracts, the political parties were given their share through the office of the Special Adviser on inter-party affairs, government sponsored seats to Jerusalem and to Hajj were given to all the political parties in the state.
Also, whatever was shared to PDP members during Christmas or Sallah celebrations, all the political parties had their share. But today, the government is saying that even civil servants are members of the PDP so they should be dealt with. How can you run a government after election in favour of few? Meanwhile, you took the oath of office and in that oath there is a provision that says you shall treat all manner of people fairly without exception. So, when you wake up and say members of a particular political party are not going to benefit from your government, what does that mean? The resources of the state belong to everybody.
If somebody in the future, realizes that he will not win election begins to look for areas to cause problems, will you allow him go free? This is so because we have already set precedence