‘APC working towards democratic convention’

Salisu Tanko Wusono is the Assistant Publicity Secretary, Kaduna State All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE, he explains the reason behind the party’s postponement of its national convention, the effect it would have on the next general elections and other issues that will shape the party’s preparation for the contest

The APC national convention has just been shifted once again. What is responsible for this?

The little I know about this constant postponement is that we want to have a proper and acceptable convention and this requires a lot of time. In terms of leadership of the party at various levels, what we have in place at the moment is Caretaker Committees. So, we want to take the time to ensure that we have a very democratic convention that would be accepted by everybody. The postponement is in relation to the time factor and logistics because this convention needs money; it is something you will do from the ward, local government, state and it will culminate in the national convention. I hope this will be the last time the convention will be postponed; to postpone it once again will not be in the interest of the party.

In your view, how would this constant postponement affect your party in the next general elections?

No, it cannot affect the party in any way. It is better to have the convention late and have it perfectly done than to rush it and have it haphazardly done. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has had their own congress at the ward, local government and state levels, but I can assure you their state congresses ended in crisis. At the moment, if you go to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), I don’t think you have just one list of officials; there are maybe almost two sets of lists. So, there is nothing to gain in such congress. We want to organise congresses and a national convention where a fully democratic process is followed.

Coming back to the APC, the series of postponements will not affect us because a sound internal democracy is what we are after and that is an essential requirement for our success in all elections going forward, particularly the next general elections. Any party that fails to instil internal democracy into its workings would eventually lose at the general elections. As the ruling party, we could have even sat down in the office and write names and say these are our party officials, but the APC as a party does not believe in that; we want to abide by the provisions of our constitution that provide for congresses at ward, local government, state and the national levels. So, I don’t think it will affect us in any way. Besides, the performance of the APC government at state and national levels will speak for us.

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Does your party have the capacity to produce the next president, considering that President Muhammadu Buhari will not be contesting in 2023 and the so-called Buhari factor will be missing?

Yes, our party has the capacity and will produce the next president because the APC is a government of the people, which uphold the tenets of democracy. Today, people can differentiate between our party and the PDP; the way they conducted elections and the way APC has been conducting elections since it came to power. Owing to our respect for the Rule of Law, there have been cases where we lost elections to the opposition, which was not the case during the PDP era. So, with this, we believe President Muhammadu Buhari is leaving a legacy of respect for democracy and the Rule of Law. Though he will be leaving power, his party will carry on with his legacy and the manifesto of the party. So, despite the fact that President Buhari is leaving power, our manifesto which the president has been implementing is still there. The manifesto was drafted in response to the yearnings of the people and we are working strictly with it, unlike the PDP that will go and build culverts where it is not needed and sink boreholes where people already have multiple sources of potable water. That is not the style of the APC.

Northwest zone has just witnessed the defection of a sitting governor to your party. What efforts are you making to bring all aggrieved members back into the fold and how successful have these efforts been?

As leaders of the party, we are trying our best to see that we bring all aggrieved members back into the fold. But, you see, reconciliation can only take place if both the parties agree; I mean the aggrieved members and the party have to be on the same page, by agreeing on the party’s ideals. You see, the APC is a party that believes in the Rule of Law and the yearnings of the people. Quoting from our manifesto, it says that, ‘democracy must be anchored on the principle that government derives its power from the governed’; that is the ideal of the APC. In fact, what our manifesto means is that the public office holder should do all he can in the interest of the people; not in his own interest. So, whatever we set out to do, we always ensure that is in conformity with what the people need. So, in politics, you see a lot of people who claim to be in your party, but they don’t believe in the party’s ideology. You are aware that prior to 2015 general elections, we formed this party with so many people. But, many of them have left the fold because they could not abide by the party’s manifesto. On the other hand, we have witnessed a situation where people in the PDP found the APC manifesto to be interesting and have now quit the PDP and joined the APC. So, our reconciliation is focusing on people who believe in the ideology of the APC.

Does this mean we are not expecting to see any bigwig joining the party in Kaduna and the North-west states in general?

Of course yes. Let us take Kaduna as an example. I am not this saying because I am an APC chieftain, but to be fair to ourselves, you cannot compare the APC government under Governor Nasir El-Rufai since 2015 and the governments before it, which were controlled by the PDP. I am not saying the PDP did not do anything, but it cannot compete with the APC. Just look at the development so far achieved in Kaduna State. With these achievements, we need less effort to appeal to people to come and join the APC in Kaduna State; if your interest is the development of the state. You don’t need to wait for anybody to give you an invitation, in as much as the wellbeing of our people is your concern.