How we will displace APC in 2019 - APDA chair
Amidst speculation that the newly registered Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) is just PDP in disguise, Alhaji Mohammed Shittu, who is the Interim National Chairman of the party debunked the claim in this interview. He also denied that former mi
What are the big names behind the APDA?
The APDA is a party that was born by like-minds who sat and looked at the political system of Nigeria and said that we can’t continue operating a nascent democracy. 17 years down the line, we can’t be nascent again. We believe we should advance the cause of democracy; we should be able to bring in some technological innovations in order to curb abnormalities in our electoral system.
What makes APDA different from other political parties in Nigeria; what is the ideological framework?
The welfare of citizens is paramount in our minds, technological advancement is also paramount; we are also looking at it that this party must be taken to the people; it will be a people-funding party. We believe that with this party, we are equal; we don’t have god-fatherism in this party as other parties do. We believe that in this party, nobody will claim supremacy. It is a party for the masses. It is a party that wants to break the yoke of city-based politicians. our constitution and you can be sued if you violate such. We have bio-metric registration of members, you can’t register two times. It is done in such a way that even if you are coming out for presidential election, you must start from your ward. You must go to your ward to be elected, you come back to your local government then you go to the state congress and so on.
Which zone is the party’s presidential candidate likely to come from?
There is no doubt that we are bringing our presidential candidate from the north.
Why the north?
We feel that it is a national phenomenon, so you can’t disagree with it. The presidential ticket of the party will rotate among the six geopolitical zones. So we are picking our presidential candidate from the north in 2019 and we are very sure that we will win. When you talk of IBB, he is a mentor, he has mentored so many Nigerians but he has also retired from partisan politics. So it is not true.
What is your membership like so far?
For now, we have about 15 million members and we are still counting as I am talking to you.
How will your party slug it out with the ruling party, the APC in 2019?
You see, they say that the stores are not the market but the people are the market. You can build a beautiful store but if the people are not there, there is no market. So we are taking this party to the grassroots and we believe that people will be with us because we are executing programmes that will help the masses.
Some big parties have elected officers who help in funding them and wielding influence in ensuring their parties win but in the case of the APDA, it does not have any of such…
Our strength is that people over time collected money and voted wrongly and I believe we Nigerians have learnt our lessons because we can see what has happened to the country; we are down. If you had collected N1, 000 to vote for anybody, you are paying N1 million now to better your life. So Nigerians are going to choose between those who give money and those who mean well.
The APDA is not in crisis. You know to strengthen the party, there must be different views but we have already sworn that there will be no god-fatherism, no supremacy of any individual in this party and we must uphold that for Nigerians. So I don’t believe in hijacking the party. But I believe that we have different views with some individuals and I have expressed my view and I stand by it.
Was there an attempt by any individual to introduce godfatherism to the party?
You may see it in a different way. That is why you may think that we have crisis, but there is nothing like that.
Do you think the Republic of Biafra is realizable?
What do you make of the quit notice issued by the northern youths to the Igbos?
It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. We need this country together that is why the slogan of the APDA is ‘stronger together.’ It is together that we can be strong. As soon as we start breaking, we are off like other countries that are not there; we have nothing to gain. So instead of using the money to buy guns to kill our people, why can’t we unite and use that money to develop our economy?
Are you comfortable with the federal government’s approach to this issue?
The federal government must be able to bring every part together and adopt a position that will better the lots of Nigerians.