The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, stirred controversy recently when he said northerners with any presidential ambition should suspend it till 2031 to enable President Bola Tinubu to secure a second term in office.

But Umar Sani, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who worked as a presidential campaign spokesperson in 2019, said the APC National Chairman is too unpopular to speak for the entire North. He also spoke on the planned coalition of well-known political figures in the country, how the PDP is resolving its internal crisis, and what would likely play out in the 2027 presidential elections.

What do you make of the statement made by Ganduje that the North can only contest after the 2027 election because the South must complete its eight-year tenure?

The statement was made by the leader of the APC, not the leader of the North. He is not representing the north; he is representing his political party, and that statement only applies to people in the APC. It does not apply to people in other political parties. We are in a multi-party democracy; nobody can come and tell you that the North should wait or the South should wait. It is competitive. If we look at it, we will discover that the PDP ruled Nigeria for 16 years, and out of that, only two and a half years were done by the late Umar Yar’Adua, and the rest were done by Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. So, if you look at that, you will see that the South has done almost 14 years within the PDP. In the APC, Muhammad Buhari did eight years, and Tinubu is in his first tenure of four years, making it 12 years. So, the issue is not about the North and South any longer; it is about the political party and their aspirations.

When Buhari was contesting, some Northerners like Atiku and Rabiu Kwankwaso left the PDP to contest there because they felt that platform would give them an advantage. Tinubu is not Muhammadu Buhari; he does not have 12 million votes waiting for him somewhere. It is the survival of the fittest. If we are talking about the South, then let us talk about the South-East and let everyone relinquish for Peter Obi, because Obasanjo is a Yoruba man from the South-West, and he did eight years. If you add that to Tinubu’s eight years, that would make it 16 years for the Yoruba. Therefore, if we are talking about equity, we should let the South-East produce the president. If the intention is about the South, then let the South-East produce the president because the South-South and South-West have produced presidents. Ganduje’s argument falls flat on its head.

Political parties don’t exist in a vacuum; they exist within a context. In the case of Nigeria, people usually vote based on tribal or religious sentiments. Your argument that it is his party is valid, but do you not think that what he’s saying will resonate among Northerners?

Even as a Governor, Ganduje was not popular because we all know and saw that he relied on the support of Kwankwaso to win his first election, and when they fell out in the second election, we all saw what happened, how he was defeated, but the government manipulated and put him back. He then brought up someone he wanted to succeed him, and the man was defeated. So, you can see that even in his own home state, he does not command the followership for him to say something for the people to follow. How can he now be talking on behalf of the North? The North is a political entity that looks at what is best for it. When the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket came up, the sentiment in the North was purely religious, which is why Tinubu was able to succeed. However, in the current circumstance, Nigerians want good leadership, and that is what resonates with them. When MKO Abiola chose his running mate, Nigerians didn’t bother whether it was a Muslim-Muslim ticket because he was seen as an upright man and a billionaire who would even deploy his resources for the good of the country. So, there was no discussion around Muslim-Muslim. Even in the military, when Buhari came with Tunde Idiagbon, Nigerians didn’t even discuss the fact that his second in command was a Muslim. It was not a topic, even among the military.

Nigerians don’t focus on something until they are dissatisfied with it. Nigerians were not satisfied with the APC, so the APC decided to deploy a new tactic by bringing in a Muslim-Muslim ticket, knowing that the majority of votes come from the North and that the North is religiously sentimental. Out of the eight million votes that Tinubu got, 5.6 million came from the North, which tells you how sentimental the North is. However, nobody is enjoying the current economic situation, and you can’t use any sentiment to try to persuade the North to follow. The North is looking for an alternative, and they don’t mind which party the person comes from. The alternative can come from anybody, provided that the person is seen as having the capacity to deliver.

Going into 2027, how is it going to play out since the PDP and Labour Party are in crisis mode, and you can’t go into an election with a fractured party? What is the way out?

I’m sure you’re aware that there are undercurrents going on in the country. One such undercurrent is that high-profile politicians who are opposition leaders are working round the clock, making alignments to come out strongly for 2027. I’m sure you saw the parley that the likes of Atiku, Obi, El-Rufai, Fayemi, and the rest held. That parley is trying to form a coalition, and I’m sure you also heard El-Rufai say that he used to talk with Peter Obi. Opposition figures are moving fast, and you also know that Atiku recently met with Obasanjo. These are critical moves aimed at forming a coalition, and you can see that because the North is very angry with Tinubu, he has given his ministers marching orders to campaign for him in the North. This tells you that what is coming next will not be very palatable for him. There will be a very strong coalition that will bring in a new government through democratic means.

Is this coalition looking forward to forming an entirely new party?

Politicians are very smart people. When they want to form a coalition, they have options, so you can’t really pin them to one option. The PDP you are complaining about has very recently taken steps to resolve the crisis in its ranks. There is now a clear path that the issue of who the Secretary of the party is has been resolved, and he is Udeh-Okoye. This is the result of the actions of the PDP governors, the Board of Trustees, and critical stakeholders. The matter was resolved at the end of the National Working Committee meeting. A date has been fixed for the next meeting on March 13, showing that the PDP is moving fast towards resolving its internal squabbles and putting the party on a trajectory that could even lead the coalition. The issue we know was caused by specific interests. We have someone who claims to be a member of our party but goes around saying that he is standing on somebody’s mandate and that in 2027 he will support that person. You should know that this is the fifth columnist within our party, and his assignment is to ensure that our party disintegrates so that there will be no serious competition. However, our governors have risen to the occasion.

There is a perception that the PDP is too weak to confront those who are working against its interests. Do you agree with this assertion?

That is a very unfair thing to say. The point I’m trying to make is that those who are against the interests of the party were the ones who were allowed to believe that they had the interest of the party at the time of the last convention. Those same people have openly confessed that they put the National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman, and National Secretary in place. The National Chairman was put in for a specific purpose, and he didn’t serve that purpose, so they used the court to remove him. The same people are now using the Deputy National Chairman to cause chaos because he has aligned with them. But after some hard thinking, the Deputy National Chairman has come back to his senses and he is working with his governors, which is why he was able to take the step he took to bring up a memo for the purpose of removing Senator Anyanwu. You cannot expect someone who is loyal to an individual to expel that person. The Tom-Ikimi-led committee is working very hard to take steps and deal with recalcitrant members. Many people within the party are saying that almost everyone has committed anti-party activities, and they cited the instance of Atiku not supporting (David) Ombugadu (the 2023 PDP Governorship candidate in Nasarawa State), something that no one can prove. But what can be proven is those who came out openly to say that they committed anti-party activities and have no apologies.

When would your party have its national convention?

It should be in December. There is no zoning for the National Chairmanship yet, but everyone has an entitlement within our constitution. If you are an incumbent, the party says that you can do two terms of four years each. What we are trying to do now is for the acting chairman to revert to his position as Deputy National Chairman. He was not elected as a chairman, so he has to go back to his position, and because there is a vacancy that exists, section 46, subsection 6 of our constitution, has clearly spelled out how that vacancy would be filled. It is the North-Central that would replace Iyorchia Ayu. On March 13th, the North-Central should be able to bring three names, out of which the NEC would pick one and adopt as acting National Chairman, and during our election, he would now be made substantive National Chairman. A special convention must be held to adopt him as the substantive National Chairman even before our convention. (Daily Sun)