2023, Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Alhaji Ado Doguwa in an interface with journalists after the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party on Wednesday.
He expresses confidence that with the new leadership in position, APC is overcoming all her problems and dismisses calls for postponement of the 2023 election. He insisted that nothing will stop the poll while he denies rumoured governorship ambition. Politics Editor, TUNDE JOSHUA brings excerpts.
What is the takeaway from this NEC meeting?
Basically what we have had this morning is perhaps what one can call statutory, not only statutory but one of the constitutional exercises to be carried out by the party. So it was quite unprecedented because this is one NEC meeting that we have had with the new set of the National Working Committee members on board.
If there is anything you can describe as take away, I want to believe is no more than the spirit of reconciliation which Mr President has anchored on his own remarks and presentation in the meeting and the new leader of the party, the head of the NWC, who is, of course, the chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has also taken the same direction.
And those of us in other institutions like the legislature, have the same way with the directives and the guidance of Mr President who is the leader of the party.
We cannot take away the fact that we have problems here and there within the party itself. In some states, we have issues to do with the elected executives of those states and these are issues we thoroughly discussed here and I believe the party is now willing to take it to the next step.
The next step will mean setting up a very strong polity that will reach out to the states within this shortest period to be able to resolve and address some of these problems.
What effort is the party making to resolve the crisis, particularly at the state level to avoid implosion?
The fact is that the APC cannot afford under what circumstances to allow any of our top rank members to get out of this party. In Kano for instance where I come from, people will be surprised by the way we come with this crisis. We are all APC members and we cannot allow any one of us to get out of this party because we are united.
The Governor of the state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is one person that is known for patience, is known for tolerance, he is known for accommodation and I want to believe even those who are making noise here and there grumbling will come to a stage where they will all understand that we are better off in the APC than elsewhere.
I want to believe that the APC has come out of its slumber, APC has come out of many basic problems we are facing before.
With this new national executive committee, I want to believe the national working committee has now been given the impetus, the necessary parameters for them to go into action and work for the success of this party and on our own end as the legislative arm of government, we will continue to of course not only to identify but also to be able to support the President, to be able to deliver on a lot of other promises that he promised people during the elections.
Some of the challenges we are facing are very much endemic, not only endemic, but they are also globally inclined and Mr President will definitely do the best he could with the support of the parliament to be able to have a safe and united Nigeria.
Some public analysts have scored the APC administration low based on security and socio-economic challenges facing the nation. What is the way out?
Insinuations from the opposition are baseless; baseless because they don’t even have the numbers and facts, baseless because some of the problems are not on ground, they are not pragmatic. These are artificial problems they are raising for the system. For instance, when someone said suspend general elections until we have security, we have enough and significant security, The trumpet gathered.
There is nothing that will stop the general election come 2023. The INEC is set and the security agencies are also set. We believe they can afford the minimum level of security to go for elections.
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No one should insinuate suspending elections because this is democracy, we have rules of the game and the rules of the game have also set aside how to go about it in terms of timeline and times frame. So this government cannot afford to make this mistake and we will not make it.
We will have our general elections conducted because all other institutions that are involved in the election procedures; nobody has raised alarms, Nigerians are set, the time has come and we will go ahead doing the best we can and by 2023 I want to beat my chest to tell you that the APC remains the party to beat and we will produce the next president to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari.
There is this rumour that you are warning up to contest the Kano State governorship election. Can you confirm this?
These reports are going on everywhere, they are very fine but for now, I cannot comment on this question. I believe everyone will want to progress but as far as I’m concerned, I want to tell you for the record that as of today, I have no intention whatsoever to run for the governorship of my state. But if God in his infinite mercy allows me and gives me the chance, I will ask you to clap for me and give me the chance.
Fine, I will join the race but for now, I want to run for the House of Representatives of my federal constituency back in the house and see what God will bless me with come 2023.
They call me a repeater in the House of Representatives and I accepted to be a repeater but in the course of repeating the same class, I’ve now become a class monitor and I hope if God gives me a chance I want to be a head boy when the time comes. There are no two ways about that.
