Atiku Didn’t Fight Third Term – Sen Dan Sadau
NRM’ll Beat APC in 2019
Why did you register the National Rescue Movement (NRM) at this time?
As you know, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was at the helm of this country for 16 years and there was nothing to show for it. We had hopes in the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari after the merger of some political parties. With the credibility of Buhari, which had been acknowledged by Nigerians, people had high expectations.
But unfortunately, after two years of the APC administration, the hope of the people got dashed. More worrisome is the inability of the present administration to address critical economic issues. The government has been campaigning for people to go back to agriculture. People have gone to agriculture, but there has not been a concrete policy and implementation in place to give value to what they are doing.
If this country continues to drift, only God knows what would become its fate. If we are not careful, we may end up being another Somalia. Look at the agitations going on. I have told myself that any Nigerian who has any iota of contribution to rescue Nigeria from its prevailing socioeconomic condition but fails to do so will account for that on the day of judgement.
That accounts for my decision to look nationwide for like-minds – those who believe and are committed to using political power to serve God and humanity. It became necessary to float a political party with ideology and principles, a party which leadership will strictly abide by its constitution and the nation’s constitution, a party which leadership has the fear of God.
We are optimistic that with the kind of political party we have floated, and how Nigerians have learnt in the hard way in the last 19 years, as well as the poor performance of the PDP and APC, God will be on our side. Nigerians will vote for a party that is committed and desirous to provide selfless service to gradually rescue the nation from its socio-economic and political doldrum.
Do you have the wherewithal to withstand the ruling APC and the leading opposition, the PDP?
We have enough financial and human resources to confront the ruling APC and the checkered PDP. Whoever has the support and blessing of God is more powerful than any other person. And how do you get the support and blessing of God? It is simply by doing the right thing, by committing yourself and the political party to the common good of the people. God is the giver of power and we are optimistic that he is behind us.
You don’t seem to be in the good books of some elites, if the role you played between 1999 and 2007 in the Senate is anything to go by. You stepped on many toes, including the fight against the
third term agenda of the then president. How do you think these people would support you?
We don’t even need the support of such people, we don’t need the support of oppressors. In Nigeria, people either call you controversial or complain that you are abusing or unnecessarily criticising them when you tell them the truth. When you counsel most Nigerian leaders to do the right thing, be fair, just and equitable in conducting their activities or responsibilities as public officers - they complain that you are treating them with disdain. Such leaders are probably the oppressors. They are only interested in amassing illicit wealth, draining the nation’s treasury and junketing in foreign countries at the expense of the common man.
You want to appeal to the masses to accept you, but there is this impression that they are still attached to President Buhari. Do you think you can outsmart him?
This is not a question of outsmarting. Truth is universal, as philosophers would say. Everyone knows the truth. You cannot continue to deceive people. As long as you try to portray yourself as honest, credible, committed and desirous of promoting the interest of ordinary Nigerians, but your heart is not aligned with what you are saying, sooner or later God will expose you.
With our antecedents, the policies we have put in place in this party, the kind of people we will field as candidates, Nigerians will not be left in doubt. Credible people with the fear of God, who are committed to promoting the welfare of Nigerians, are all over the country, and their commitments are known. But such people don’t have the kind of illicit money you find in the APC and the PDP to bribe Nigerians to vote for them. Even if they have the money, they would not want to bribe because they know they are seeking political power to serve.
Don’t you think it is too late to put your house in order and present candidates for various elections?
When you have a good product you may not even take it to the market; people will queue to buy it. But when you have a fake product, you will be moving from one market to another and people will not buy it.
You mean you will field candidates for all elective positions?
Yes, all the positions, by the Grace of God, including the Presidency. In fact, this party is formed to wrest power from the APC in 2019. I have severally told my friends who normally mock me, saying I am wasting my time because new parties don’t make impacts, that people who hold this view are those with weak faith in God.
Who are you going to field as your presidential candidate?
That is very interesting for Nigerians to know. We have said that we are set to change the approach, style and leadership recruitment process in Nigerian politics. We have set transparent and objective procedures and processes for nominating governorship and presidential candidates, such that money cannot be an influence as far the NRM is concerned. We don’t
The government has been campaigning for people to go back to agriculture. People have gone to agriculture, but there has not been a concrete policy and implementation in place to give value to what they are doing
know zoning.
We are going to provide opportunities for interested presidential aspirants from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Our process would afford us that opportunity - it is a three-tier process. First, members of the NRM would play the primary role, while professional groups, religious leaders, traditional rulers and trade unions would play the secondary role in our nomination process for presidential and governorship candidates. Members of the NRM would play the final and tertiary roles in the nomination process.
At the appropriate time we are going to release the details of how our nominations would be. In other words, we are putting God forward and seeking His face. From independence till date, politicians have been choosing their candidates, but the NRM is asking God to provide the candidate for us. We are not waiting for people to come and say they are interested because they were governors or ministers, and therefore, want to be president.
Who are the like-minds you are working with?
It is dangerous to unveil some of the people you are working with at this stage because of the kind of government we have in Third World countries. Because of their heavy investment they would not like to come out now, especially considering the impunity of government officials. Some of the like-minds are in government, but because they are not satisfied with the performance of the present administration, they are with us. They are committed to our cause because they believe in what we have put in place. They believe we will do better than the APC and the PDP administrations.
Nearly 10 years ago, you specifically commended former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for fighting the third term agenda of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. Are you still with him?
No, you must have forgotten that Atiku didn’t fight third term. That is the truth of the matter.
But he reportedly worked with many senators and secured court judgements.
Those judgements were secured on corruption allegations against him by Obasanjo. That was because Obasanjo didn’t want him to contest presidential elections. With all sense of humility, nobody knows the secret of third term better than the late Uche Chukwumerije and myself. All the meetings that were held on third term by our colleagues, apart from three, were in my house.
We wanted to rotate it, but some senators were afraid that anything could happen to anybody, so I volunteered and gave my house. We used to meet weekly. Sometimes we held emergency meetings. Some governors, notably the late Abdullahi Kure of Niger State; Bafarawa of Sokoto; Akume of Benue; Bola Tinubu of Lagos; Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano and Boni Haruna of Adamawa were the ones who assisted us financially. In fact, Kure and Bafarawa were leading other governors to support us.
Atiku didn’t give us kobo until we defeated third term. That was when the crisis between him and Obasanjo was at its peak, when Nasir el-Rufai and the then chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, were on his neck. One day, we were holding a meeting in my house after the death of third term and Atiku came, saying he wanted to congratulate us for our achievement. Secondly, he wanted to explain the allegations against him so we could know the true position of things.
That was the first time we saw Atiku concerning the third them battle. We assured him of justice and fair play on all issues between him and former President Obasanjo that would come to the National Assembly. When he was bidding us farewell, he donated N 10million to us. So, whenever I hear people say that Atiku laid the foundation against third term, I laugh. The former vice president was making misleading statements about the aborted third term agenda. Following such misleading statements, the late Chukwumerije said we should write a book about third term so that Nigerians would have the true picture of all that transpired.
Atiku was also making reference to el-Rufai’s book because he was providing us information on meetings that were held in the Villa with Obasanjo on third term. Nasir el-Rufai used to come to this house at 1am, 2am and sometimes 3am. After every meeting in the Villa about third term, he would come and meet me.
At that time he was the minister of the FCT and a member of the economic team. One day, he came and said, “We had a meeting and I am bothered.’’ When I asked what happened, he said, “During our meeting, Mantu assured President Olusegun Obasanjo that third term senators had gotten 80 per cent support for third term.’’
Later in the morning, I called Senator Chukwumerije and met him in his office, where I gave him the information. But till day, I didn’t tell anybody the source of my information from the Villa, not even Uche Chukwumerije.
I told Chukwumerije that there was no need to speak to the press concerning this; instead we should practically show Obasanjo that even if Mantu said so, it was not true. He asked how that would be achieved and I said we would impeach Mantu. We called for an emergency meeting that night and told anti-third term senators what happened. We allowed them to debate on what we should do; and the following morning, we made our plans and told the Senate president, Ken Nnamani, that we wanted to impeach his deputy that day. He asked why and we gave him the story. We started, but deliberately, Nnamani saved Mantu, otherwise he would have been impeached that day.
We ended up setting up a committee to investigate him. I was a member of the committee. In fact, I was the one who wrote the report of the Senate on the investigation. So Mantu was rattled, and we sent the message to the Villa. That was our intention. Truly, our intention was not to impeach him but to send a message to the Villa.
I have started writing my memoires. I am going to spell out the roles that everybody played.
Are you thinking of working with those like-minds who fought against the third term agenda with you?
Oh yes. In fact, remember that I have been in politics since 1978, and typical of my character, I have been keenly studying trends and challenges of Nigerian politics, challenges of governance and the economy. So I am in a position to know politicians who are truly God-fearing and committed to the promotion of the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.
We have been working underground, trying to fish out such people. I am not going to do that alone; I have already met with Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi. I told him that we were looking for Godfearing and credible people to give a platform that is free. You don’t need money to have a ticket in our party.
I have also met with the national president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). I went to Ibadan where I met with him and told him the same thing. I explained all the processes to him. In fact, when I finished, he thanked me. He said it was as if I were part of those who prepared the processes through which he emerged as Anglican leader in Nigeria because that was the processes the church used. He said 37 of them were interested in becoming the Anglican leader in Nigeria but there were several screenings in different ways, processes after processes until they became only three.
According to him, when they became three, they were called for the last lap of the processes but they didn’t know what was going to happen. They were all given laptops and asked to answer all the questions there. Their computer literacy was being tested. That was how he became the Anglican leader. In other words, he said the process we put in place as a party was objective. Money and god-fatherism cannot influence us. He said with that kind of process, there was hope for Nigeria, especially as there is no religious, ethnic or geographical undertone.
As I am talking to you now, we have already drafted letters to the national chairmen of all professional groups - the Economic Summit Group, Nigerian Society of Engineers, etc - informing them that we have been registered. We are going to send them our manifesto and ask them to read the section that relates to their profession and make their input because, as it is today, what we have is an interim manifesto.
When we get their input we are going to aggregate all the opinions and file an amendment at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and then have our manifesto. What we are trying to do is to give Nigerians a manifesto of a political party that has the input of all major stakeholders in the Nigerian economy. This is something that has never happened in the Nigerian polity.
You sound confident to defeat President Buhari in 2019 if he re-contests.
Oh yes, I am quite optimistic. I told you the basis of my optimism - faith in God. In fact, I am telling you that on May 29, 2019, the presidential candidate of the NRM will, Insha Allah, be sworn in as the president of this country. I have no doubt about that.
We have many presidential aspirants in the APC, PDP and other parties, would you cash on them in the event that they are not favoured in their current parties?
No; you see, we have a policy in our party. We are preparing a document we call The New Face of Nigeria - NRM Agenda for Good Governance. In that document, we have not less than 30 novel ideas that have never been in the constitution or manifesto of any political party in Nigeria, from independence till date. One of them is that if you attempted nomination in any other political party, you cannot come to us.
If you come to us, you cannot contest for our ticket - whether it is for councillorship or presidential position. Once you attempted nomination somewhere and lost, if you want to join us you can, but you have to wait for another four years to contest. There would be no room for desperadoes.
Sometime in 2008 you quit the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and announced that you had retired from partisan politics. Why are you sounding like someone who staged a comeback?
What you said is true. I said I had resigned from the ANPP and said bye-bye to partisan politics. God knows that I meant what I said, but with the emergence of security challenges in Zamfara, right in my village, I cannot sit back and watch. Remember, in my village of Unguwar Galadima, some 140 people were killed in one day in 2013.
And with the socio-economic challenges all over the country, if people of goodwill refuse to do anything to arrest this ugly trend, we may not have Nigeria at all.
Would you contest for any office?
I am not the kind of person who would give money to certain people to call on me to contest. We have set up a process, and if the process and people from my state feel that I am qualified to contest for a certain office, even if it is councillorship, I will contest if that is what they want. That is my position, it is not the issue of becoming president or whatever, service is service.