Sani Yabagi, national chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), in this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, assesses the state of the nation, the September 19 gubernatorial election in Edo State, among other issues. Excerpts:
What is your take on the spate of killings and general insecurity in Nigeria?
he killings are bad, and the death of a single person is a loss to humanity. The President is not doing enough; because the buck stops at his table, so he is the one we are looking up to. Whatever he is doing, if we don’t see the result, we would think he is not doing anything. Whatever the service chiefs are doing without result we would perceive they are not working.
Because the loss of lives should not happen in the manner it is happening now. So, if they do not have the ability, why still keep them in office? This is not the first time, second time, or third time; the killings are happening and no changes, its means they are not doing enough.
You want him to remove the service chiefs?
There is nobody that still supports him keeping them in office up till now. Everyone has constantly urged him to change them. Have you ever heard anyone supporting them? Nobody knows why he is still keeping them; I believe that Nigeria is bigger than all of us. They know what their responsibilities are and they have failed woefully.
The situation is not getting better; they should be able to stop these killings.
Nigeria is not a small country like Mali, we are a big country and we have the resources to take care of these things.
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Is your party still in the Edo gubernatorial election race?
Yes; ADP would win. It is not true that our candidate stepped down for anybody; they are looking for cheap publicity.
Are you concerned that the election may be marred by violence based on what we have seen in the campaign so far?
We would hold the two major parties responsible; they are the ones that hold the machinery and have been causing violence in Edo State. Rather than beat the drum of war they should tell the Edo people what they have done and would do. These two major parties have nothing to tell the people; they have run out of ideas; that is why they are resorting to violence.
Otherwise, you should sell your programmes and convince the people; that is why we are asking them to vote for ADP. You would convince people to vote for you and not kill them or harm then, why should you resort to violence?
Do you have confidence that the election would be free and fair?
Well, if you ask INEC they would say the election would be free and fair; that they are carrying out their mandate, but in reality that is not what we do see; they are often highly compromised.
But that can also be because of the way they are set up. They are helpless; they don’t have power to fight PDP or APC. The government sets them up and pays their salary.
Is your party thinking of going into alliance with any major party ahead of the Edo polls?
No; we cannot have a better candidate than what we have now; so, there is no need to collaborate with anybody. We have confident that he would do well in the election.
There are agitations that Nigeria should return back to a two- party system. What is your view?
Yes, I would support that, but I think the two major parties; the PDP and APC should give way because they have failed Nigerians. We should have thought about ADP and another party. The two parties are not supposed to exist again; they have become violence-prone because they don’t know what to tell the people again.
They should be deregistered; what they are doing is against the INEC law. INEC should be bold enough to deregister them so that we can have ADP and another party. So, the country can begin to follow democratic path.
Are you concerned about vote-buying in the Edo election?
The blame should go to PDP and APC, because they have failed and don’t have anything to tell the people. The only method they have resorted to is votebuying, bribing the people.
They killed people just because of votes; look at all the elections and the scenarios. They bribe, intimidate voters; the country cannot be in their hands forever.
What is your take on the Magu’s probe?
I am not surprised with what happened. That is to tell you that the country has lost its bearing, as long as governance is concerned. It is to say that the anti-graft war has not been fought the way it should be fought. Who would fight corruption when the people in power themselves are corrupt?
What is your take on the fuel price and electricity tariff increase?
I am not surprised because we have a lazy government in power; they have no solution to our problems. They can’t think; look at the issue of fuel, why don’t we have our refineries working? Why are we importing? Of course, if you import the prices would be high. The government needs to create an enabling environment so that citizens would not be exploited.
