George Moghalu
He, from experience, has become a political force in the opposition camp and speaking to Abuja Metro recently, he delved into issues, concerning the coming elections, warning of an impending doom should there be any attempt to rig out APC.
He said it would not be out of place for the Southeast to produce the next Senate President should Gen. Buhari emerge President of Nigeria after the 2015 presidential election.
He also revealed APC’s antidote to the over N21 billion campaign war-chest of the PDP, noting that his party had enough campaign fund from the ordinary Nigerians on the streets, who will willingly support the Buhari/Osibanjo presidency with N1000.
INEC readiness
We are very ready. I want to comfortably and confidently say that APC is very ready for the general election. From the outcome of our primaries that produced the candidates, we didn’t have much issues.
However, we are not losing sight of the fact that we are dealing with people’s ambition and as such should not expect it to be totally smooth. It was a dynamic situation but in all these, so long as we were seen to be fair and credible in the conduct of the primaries, it is easier to get the loser and winner to understand the circumstance.
This is exactly what we are doing – making explanations where necessary, but following strictly the guideline we put in place before the primaries. I can conveniently tell you that we don’t have many problems.
Buhari, a big threat
It is wrong to compare oranges and apples because Gen Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan are two different persons. We are bringing a man whose selling point is credibility, integrity and if there is anything Nigeria needs now, it is such firm character with quality as his watchword.
Buhari is very experienced and confirmed even by his enemies to be corruption free. It is wrong to say that his age will count against him because we are not talking about bricklaying at Aso Rock or work in a quarry site. We are talking about intelligence, mental and physical capacity of a retired soldier.
As far as I am concerned, age is not an issue because Buhari is only 72 years. We have also complemented him with a vice president candidate who is under 60 years.
We were cautious and took our time in choosing his running mate because we want to follow the democratic process. We are not like others that just wake up and make an announcement. We embarked on wide consultations, involved everybody, made everybody accept and ensure that everybody’s interest is taken into account.
It is ridiculous to hear the argument that Oshibanjo, a professor of law, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), an author of many books on jurisprudence, a former attorney-General of a state, who turned around the justice system in Lagos State lacks the political clout to be the vice president. I wonder what other credentials he should have for us to accord him the respect he deserves.
Why not Chibuike Amechi
Yes, I agree with you that Governor Chibuike Amaechi credentials made him a super candidate for the position, but we must also agree that Prof. Osinbajo is equally a man with intimidating credentials. There is no doubt they are both qualified for the position just like other candidates in the South-South, South East and South West.
Governor Oshiomole and our national chairman are both qualified to be the vice president. The pendulum equally swung towards South East with names like Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Rochas Okorocha, Senator Chris Ngige and don’t also forget that I am qualified to occupy that position just like Senator Osita Izunazor.
We have to look at the political calculations and resolved that our fortunes will be better zoning the position to the South West. Osinbajo emerged after wide consultations through a democratic process.
PDP N21b campaigns fund
It is good for Nigerians to now make objective assessment. If PDP could raise that money, they could have channelled it to fix many of the challenging infrastructure problems. Our prayer is that they should bring out the money so that it could probably better the economy so that Nigerians can have some money in their pockets.
We encourage people to collect the money from PDP but should not sell their conscience. Our only fear is that it is monetising the polity. For your information, we don’t need to match the financial muscle of the PDP to win the election because it is about the people.
We are going to use the people to match them. They can raise all the money for campaign after all they are controlling the national resources. Let me tell you that the ordinary person on the streets of Nigeria fund APC political campaign. By the time millions of Nigerians contribute N1000 to APC campaign, we will have over N1 billion. I want to tell you that many Nigerians are willing because they desire change.
Nigerians clamouring for change have invested in the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket and I want assure you that you will soon see people’s reaction. We have been weighing comments by Nigerians, we have been consulting widely and we know the responses we getting.
The response Nigerians give to the ticket still surprises doubters. The money required for the election will certainly come out. People are willing to invest because it is our collective project. We are not going to monetise the polity.
Odds against Buhari
I don’t think anything will work against Buhari. I think his emergence came at the right time because this is the time Nigerians need him to change things. He will introduce a new vista and take Nigeria to the next level instead of the situation we are facing now where Nigeria is collapsing in our hands.
Challenges of PVC
We share the same worry with other Nigerians and we have been calling on INEC to ensure that people get their PVCs. On our part, we have started educating the people. As party policy, we send people to encourage people to go for their PVCs. We cannot fight INEC but we want to make them understand that it is their responsibility to ensure maximum participation by issuing the PVCs to people as the only way they can vote. We challenge INEC to do more in living up to its response.
The challenge of providing conducive environment rests on INEC and it cannot afford to disenfranchise anybody, destroy the morality process or seen to be partisan.
APC dead in Anambra
I don’t think so and it is a wrong assumption because a party with a sitting senator cannot be dead. A party where candidates are clamouring to buy nomination forms to contest for all the positions cannot be dead. The chances of the party winning some positions are very great.
Let me emphasis that Nigerians want change now because they want to try another since there was no improvement in the 16-year old business. Anambra is part of Nigeria that desires change. Let me say equivocally that APC is going to do well in the South East and I we will prove that after the election. We are going to do extremely well because we have a workable manifesto.
Okorocha and governorship ticket
Those faulting it were doing so because of lack of information. He is a performing governor who desired to be the president of Nigeria and subjected himself to the democratic protocols by running for the primaries.
He made a sacrifice for the South East by running for the presidency because we wanted it established that we don’t just have a stake but also major stakeholders in APC. He contested in full steam with our full support, endorsement and encouragement of the South East.
While it was going on, the time for Imo governorship primaries came up, somebody contested, returned but later changed his mind on running again which automatically created a vacuum and we impressed on Governor Okorocha to go back and pick the ticket.
South East fate in APC govt
There is a lot to compensate the South East because it is not about the presidency and his deputy. The senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives must come from somewhere apart from the ministers and chief of staff. In the spirit of equity in federal character, it will not be out of place to zone the senate president to the South East. There is nothing wrong with our getting that position or even the Speaker.
Fears for the election
My biggest fear is the ability of INEC and the security agencies to be honest with themselves and manage the election the way it should be. They must live up to their responsibilities. They must see Nigeria beyond their own personal interest. They should not do anything with the intention to muddle up the process because Nigerians are better informed now.
The only way they can avoid the hostile reactions of the people is by doing things right. My prayer is for INEC to avoid any problem by playing according to the rules and create a level playing field for credible, free and fair elections. The security agencies should not see themselves as greater than anybody.
Let me warn that the party has no apology over our stand that Nigeria will be on fire if APC loses in an undemocratic election. APC will be happy to lose in a free, fair and credible election process but we have also warned that we will resist any attempt to rig the election and we have no apologies for saying so.
Let the will of Nigerians be allowed to stand. If Nigerians say they don’t want APC, so be it but if they want APC, allow their decision to stand. We have common objective to give Nigerians alternative government.
A two-party state
There is actually nothing wrong about it because it is the trend in every strong democracy in the world. They always end up having two strong parties. However, it does not mean that there are only two parties in Nigeria. Others are there to either contest or endorse candidates for any of the major parties.
My appeal to Nigerians is that they should give us a chance because if they have tried a particular product for 16 years and it is not working, the only option is to try the alternative and APC is that alternative.
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