Lare Iguda is the National Women Leader, Young Democratic Party, YDP. Her foray into politics began when she was made the coordinator for Door to Door Campaign Initiative for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.
The initiative brought her into limelight on the political scene where she was spotted and made to join the campaign team of Jimi Agbaje in the last governorship election in Lagos State.Her party and other 46 political parties adopted Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the last presidential election. She worked closely with Atiku Abubakar before, during and after the election.
In this interview with Ayodele Olalere, Lare bared her mind on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, how Atiku lost the presidential election and the race for the 2023 election.
You are the National Women Leader, Young Democratic Party, YDP. How would you rate the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as regards the economy?
In the area of economy, he has done well in some parts while he has not done well in others. The flow of liquidity into the economy is not good. The interest rate is high, which has affected importation. Importers are having difficulties, importing goods into the country. If government can bring down the interest rates, things will get better. If you buy something in the market at a particular price, when next you go there, the price would have increased because of the exchange rate. It is the masses that are suffering the consequences of it. So, government needs to look at this issue so that people can show interest in importation and exportation. This government has also been unfair to women because we had thought more women would be given opportunity to occupy more positions in the government but, unfortunately, women are few in this government. There are political posts that were supposed to have been given to women but they were not allowed. The president has not given women more opportunities to be in his government.
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Nigerians are complaining there is no money, that things are hard. Would you say it was a mistake for Nigerians to have voted President Buhari into power?
To answer your question, take, for instance, the issue of employment. Our youths are suffering because there are no jobs. After graduating for many years, many of them do not have jobs. Even getting admission into the university is difficult. When seeking admission, a particular region is always being favoured above others. It is difficult for somebody from Lagos to get admission in the university in the North. The youths have nothing to do that is why we have many Yahoo Boys. The government is showing partiality in job creation because in most cases, the northerners are more favoured than other parts of the country when jobs are created. This should not be the case. If the North is getting 50 slots, same should be given to other regions, not a situation where a region gets 1000 slots and other regions get 100. It is unfair. We are all Nigerians; we should be given equal opportunity not government favouring one side above others. The youth must be given employment equally. If there are jobs in Customs, Army, NPA, Air Force or even Federal Civil Service, there should be equal employment slots or opportunities for every region, be it east, west, south or north. No region should be treated as second class citizen; we are all Nigerians. Our children should be given the opportunity to work in offices they are qualified for. This is their fatherland.
Your answer brings up the question on accusation that the present government has been favouring the North in terms of appointment more than other parts of the country. You are from Adamawa, what’s your view?
To be sincere, most of the appointments I have seen have been given to northerners. The northerners occupy more positions than other regions. In most government offices, the Managing Directors are from the North. But President Buhari should know that not only northerners voted for him. The easterners voted for him, the West voted for him, the North also voted for him and the South-south voted for him. All of them should have equal opportunity. Take, for instance, the removal of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS boss, (Tunde) Fowler. I had expected someone from the West should have been used to replace the man that was removed since he also came from the West, not replacing him with a northerner. Any position somebody from a region is removed from, that person should be replaced with another competent person from the same region as the person removed. That will give us equal opportunity. Not somebody from the West being removed and you now bring a northerner to replace the person. All of us contributed in building this nation, it’s not the efforts of only one region.
During the last election, your party, along with others endorsed Atiku Abubakar, as presidential candidate. There were hopes Atiku was going to win but he lost. What do you think really went wrong? Could it be that PDP did not do its homework well?
We saw hope in Atiku, which is the reason about 47 political parties, including our party chose him. Atiku is somebody that is productive; anything he does and put his hands on doubles. Nigerians wanted a person that could bring the nation back from the brink and that was the reason everywhere he went for campaign, people supported him. Where it went wrong started from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officials, who were not sincere. We are talking of integrity but INEC officials did not show integrity. If a candidate scores 1,000 votes, it is expected that that number of votes should be recorded for him, not manipulating the figure. Things should be done right for generations to come but when you are manipulating figures to favour another candidate, what legacy are you laying? It’s unfair to the nation and the other candidates. I urge INEC to put officials who have integrity in position to handle the 2023 elections. Also, the law enforcement agencies contributed to Atiku’s loss. They were favouring one candidate above another. As security personnel, they are not expected to be partisan by supporting a candidate. They are expected to be neutral but in the last election, they were not. A situation where security personnel favour a political party because the party is in power is not good for our political system. When people come out to vote, they should be allowed to exercise their rights not to be intimidated by security agencies. Security agencies need to be sincere and show integrity in future elections.
The electorate also need to wake up and be sincere in choosing who they want to be their leader. A situation where the electorate are given N500 to vote for a candidate and they collect it and vote for the person, they have their rights the way Esau sold his birth right for a mere pot of porridge. They should in future vote for the right person because of the future of their children.
But there are those who felt Atiku was deceived to contest the election, that some people knew he was not going to win and just wanted to collect his money?
Atiku is from my state. I know his family and I am close to them. He has dream and vision for this country and that is why he wanted to be president of Nigeria so as to rebuild and restore the glory of the country. If you go to any of his companies, you will see things are working well. From his university to Faro, another of his companies, everywhere he has his companies, the workers are paid well. The workers are working with their whole mind because he pays them well. His workforce keeps increasing. Anything he touches turns to gold. If he had been given the opportunity to become president, he would have turned this country around economically. True, there were people, who collected his money and later turned around to fight him. They pushed him, collected his money and did not help him during election. We know them. They were unfair to him. The Bible says the heart of men is wicked. Atiku thought they were helping him but he didn’t know they were against him. There were people like that in politics. They will pretend they are helping you whereas they are not. They will collect your money and disappear. It is true some collected his money and did not vote or work for him. We know them.
The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has been in the news of recent. She has been complaining about not having access to discuss with her husband and about the cabal, holding the president to ransom. Some people have castigated her for coming out to speak in the open. What advice would you give her?
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When we say democracy, it means freedom to speak and since she is the head, as First Lady, she has the right to speak out so the world would know what is happening. She is educated and since something is giving her concern, she cannot keep quiet. She has to say it to the world. As my mommy and auntie from my state, my advice is for her to sit her husband down and talk to him. I knew them well when they were in Kaduna. She should remind him of those days when they were together and ask him why those people, who were not with them when they were suffering are the ones who are in government with them now. She was suffering with her kids then but only her husband was with her; nobody supported them. However, some people took their time and money to support her husband for election but such ones are no longer allowed to be close to him by some cabal, who are now with him. She should tell him t remember that some people spent money to make him the president, but they have been sidelined while those that did not contribute anything to his success are the ones in government with him. Members of this cabal are the ones intimidating her and controlling her husband. She is the wife and we are looking up to her to speak the truth to her husband’s ears. She can push the cabal away and ensure the right people, who supported her husband and gave him vision and hope work with him. I knew when Buhari started politics. I worked in the Bank of the North for 20 years and my Managing Director then, Alhaji Mohammed Shettima Bulama, was among those that supported him financially. But now people like that are not allowed by the cabal to be with the president. The people that did not even share his visions and dreams are the ones there now. There is no way those ones can help him to achieve his vision for Nigeria because they were not part of it from the beginning. So, they will make sure that his government fails.
President Buhari can be a good person; he can have integrity but the people, surrounding him are not people that are sincere and they don’t have integrity. If he wants to succeed, he can’t continue working with people that have no integrity. He should push them away and bring people that share his vision. The masses feel disappointed by him because of the cabal.
Nigerians did not vote for the cabals and they are not happy the cabals have taken over his government so the First Lady should do something about it.
Do we see you contesting any political post in future?
I have a dream to be either in the House of Assembly, House of Representatives or Senate because we women are being intimidated. I want to go there to help women. There are women in the villages that need women in high position to help them achieve their dreams.
Do you see PDP taking over Lagos State in the nearest future?
It is possible. Lagosians are looking at one side but forgets the other side. I think they should give chance to PDP so that Lagos State can be restored. There are so many issues in Lagos State; there are so many youths in the state doing nothing and this is not good. Lagos is a big city so the PDP can empower the youths if given the chance.
