Ayodele Olalere
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). Recently, he had an interactive session with Nigerian Editors to intimate them of his plans for Nigeria if voted as president in 2023. He bared his mind on restructuring, 13 per cent derivation, and the speculations that he might likely step down for another candidate.
Excerpts:
Why NNPP?
I am happy to say my colleagues in the party and I can do so much across the country. We had a lot of goodwill to the extent that when we joined this party, we were able to register millions of people into the party. We were able to establish the party from local governments to states. Within the shortest possible time, we were able to get candidates across the country. Today, we believe that we have one of the largest numbers of candidates compared to other parties.
This is a great achievement. We believe in NNPP and that we are the fastest growing party today. We believe that the other parties have nothing again to tell Nigerians to change their opinion and there is nothing they can do. I am a founding member of PDP until 2013 when we realised the party has derailed. It was very much understandable because when we were forming the party, the idea was to keep out the military. There was no issue of ideology other than that. When we kicked the military out that is when we began to realise our political differences.
And these differences were part of the reasons I lost the election in 2003 because most of our members in PDP did not believe in what we were doing. When we were trying to improve our education system, we realised they just wanted to improve their children. We had to think of joining the progressive party. By the time we formed the APC all of us moved to join the new APC then but unfortunately, we realised the party itself had so many issues, all our expectations were dashed. We decided to register our own party, a party that will consist of people of like minds, the party that will move Nigeria to a higher level. When INEC refused to register the party, we looked around and picked the NNPP, which we believed after going through its manifesto, captured all our ideologies.
Since then a lot has happened and today we are happy we left the two parties and joined this party. When we joined the party, we realized we are not alone. We have had so many millions of Nigerians who are tired of the status quo, which refers to the PDP and APC. Their 16 years and eight years are the results of what we have today in terms of insecurity and bad economy, issue of infrastructure, issue of impunity. I believe all these have to do with bad leadership which NNPP is coming out to eradicate.
We are practical politicians; we have visited most of the states to talk to our people. We are the people on the ground not operating on social media. I am also happy to say wherever we visited, we see people who show lots of interest and commitment and believe that this country is not on the right path and requires quality change.
The chairman of our Board of Trustees is from Anambra State. Many people didn’t know NNPP has been on the ground for many years. He gave us the party free of charge when he heard about the manifesto of the party, believing that God told him that he should go and register a party and that one day, some people will come and when they come, he should them give them the party. He said the same God told him that these people would form a new government in this country. We are happy our party is on the right track to take over the leadership of this country in the best interest of Nigerians.
On 13 per cent derivation
This 13 per cent came through the 1999 Constitution. When I was in the National Assembly, the 13 per cent was highly debated because I was one of those who supported it. I believe this is our product and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it so I supported it.
Restructuring
Our position in the party has been very clear. There are so many things that must be done when we have this opportunity to form our government. Everybody is concerned about the issue of insecurity. So many people have lost their lives; some are in the IDP camps. The issue of insecurity affects everything, especially the issue of infrastructure. Some projects have been abandoned in many places. We believe that there must be security for us to make progress. That was why we believe that from the less than 250,000 military personnel we have, we believe that there is a need to increase it to about one million. So also the police. Today we have less than 230,000 policemen.
The money we are losing in this country today cannot be quantified. I am sure you are aware that today, we are only producing 1.2 million barrels of oil per day against the 2.2 million allocated by OPEC because we don’t have enough security to secure our assets. Criminals are taking most of these things away and this must stop. People are calling for the state police while some are suggesting we should go back to the parliamentary system of government. Most of these suggestions are based on frustrations. We believe when we start rolling out our agenda in May next year, most of these issues will be resolved and we are very much open to constructive criticisms that will move Nigeria forward. As democrats, we will put everything on the table.
People are free to air their differences. For example, if you say the whole government is full of people from the South-east, we will look at it, and if it is true, make sure we do the right thing;
Stepping down for any candidate
All these rumours are coming from detractors and evil people who believe in wishful thinking and concoct a story that suits their minds. Before the closure of submitting names of candidates, we made efforts. At that time, we were looking for a merger and we would have merged with some parties. But now, we have already submitted our names, we have all our candidates on the ground and for someone to think I will leave them to go to another party, I think something is wrong.
NNPP is all out to win the 2023 election. Today these other parties, in terms of support and popularity, there is nothing any one of them can do to change the fortune of Nigeria. When we started in March this year, even our friends were not giving us a chance, especially in the South. Nobody in northern Nigeria today will say there is any other party on the ground. People are not even talking about political parties; they are talking about the candidates. Nigeria has potential. I am ready for debates with all the candidates but I know they have nothing to say.
Every day, you need to assess yourself on a scale because time is key. Many of these politicians, we started together with them, they were our seniors at that particular time but time is very critical in all things. We have seen many things in this country, people who believe in this country. So many people are not realistic and honest and unless we learn to be honest, restructuring cannot take anybody anywhere if we don’t have good leaders. Restructuring and other things are open to us. There will be an election next year, and INEC is saying they are preparing for a rerun. We are happy because we are now part of the equation. We are happy that for the first time, there may not be a clear winner in the election. From now till next year, many things will happen.
When I was a governor, we sent over 3000 men and women to different countries on scholarship. We sponsored residents of Kano in all the states that did not benefit from that scholarship. After I left the government, I realised what I did in education was very critical in Nigeria. We were the first to give two sets of uniforms to every child in our primary schools. We built two universities; we did so much for education. I sold all my properties and sponsored 370 on scholarships. We have done what we believe is right and we are now reaping the benefits.
NNPC
I am happy the new Act has un-bundled the NNPC and we are ready to involve the private sector in the oil and gas industry. We will support it and do whatever it takes to ensure the oil and gas oil industry is made better for the interest of every one of us.
New Constitution
We are open to discussion. If Nigerians want a new Constitution, we will be happy to follow due process. The process is not mainly that of the Constitution but to make sure we have better people in government in 2023. Now, we will continue to make sure we do what it takes to have the right people in power.
Funding of education
This country is losing lots of resources every day. If you look at what Nigeria is losing in the area of oil, if we have somebody who can stop what is happening in the Niger Delta in terms of stealing of oil, you can imagine what we are going to get in the government treasury. It’s even difficult to quantify our losses in the field of agriculture. If all these losses are blocked, the government would have enough money to fund education and manage it well.
Poverty in the North
I believe there is poverty in the North. I agree it’s because of the elites. I believe the elites in the North did not do what they should do. We have some individuals who had opportunities to help their communities but did not. Many things went wrong. Large percentages of the population in Lagos are Muslims so I will not attribute the poverty in the North to religion. I believe that Islam and Christianity are two religions that teach people to do the right thing at the leadership level.
