It's Buhari,Not APC That Won 2015 Elections-Sen JKN Waku.

Joseph Kennedy Waku is a former senator who represented Benue North-West constituency on the platform of the PDP from 1999 to 2003. He is currently a chieftain of the APC who contested the 2015 Benue governorship ticket but lost to Samuel Ortom. In this interview, Waku criticises the national chairman of the party over recent pronouncements, insisting that the position of the party’s national spokesman must be retained by the North Central where it had been zoned to. Excerpts:



Recently the national chairman of the APC was reported as saying that the party may look elsewhere for a replacement for the position of national publicity secretary because the North Central where the position had been zoned to lacks a competent person to step into the shoes of Lai Mohammed. As a chieftain of the party from the zone what do you make of this statement?
I read that statement credited to the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun, and I have been watching out in the newspapers for him to retract that irresponsible, insulting and disgraceful comment from a national chairman of a governing political party. That comment has even proven that he was not even qualified to hold that position in the first place. Ninety per cent of the crisis we are witnessing in the APC today is as a result of the incompetence within the national secretariat of the party and the so-called leadership has brought us where we are today.
That statement coming from him is a strategy for him to bargain with the highest bidder who could pay more for that position but I can assure you that will not happen because that position was zoned to the North Central. That office was not zoned to Lai Mohammed. I was a member of that zoning committee and I knew what we went through to get that position zoned to the North Central. I knew what I personally went through because I was representing the North Central at the first national convention of the APC. So nobody can sit down in his office and begin to arrogate to himself the powers to shortchange and do whatever he chooses to do with that position.
Like I earlier said, I have been expecting that he would retract that statement and say he was misquoted but it has taken too long a time for him to retract and silence could mean admission. I therefore make bold to say that he is merely daydreaming; he has no powers to decide against that zoning. By the way it was based on the same zoning that the national chairmanship position which he is occupying was given to the South-South so he is a beneficiary of that zoning. He is not the best in that zone. There are much more senior practicing politicians with credible records in the South-South yet that office went to him because the arrangement favoured him and we did not have anything against it. So his office and others remain zoned to the respective areas until the national convention decides otherwise.


Can you give a specific instance where the action of the APC national chairman suggested incompetence?
If Senator Bukola Saraki and President Buhari were not mature enough the country would have broken into pieces today as a result of Oyegun’s irresponsible behavior that brought about this confusion. A chairman who cannot speak with one voice and anything he says he is looking at his immediate benefits. The president and commander-in-chief gave a constitutional directive to the Clerk of the National Assembly to go and inaugurate the 8th National Assembly. He gave date and time. Any serious member of the party who is committed would have first as a legislator or senator-elect shown good example of abiding by the constitution of the country. It was not Buhari that ordered for the proclamation of the national assembly; it was the president and commander in chief. But some commercial politicians decided to dishonor or disobey the constitutional directive from Mr. President by accepting irresponsible text messages to undermine the commander-in-chief’s directive to another meeting about the same time and the same day. But because God who has made this change possible is still with Buhari and the APC, he directed Senator Saraki and few other APC senators elect to go to that venue and honour the presidential directive and they went and waited patiently. Meanwhile the PDP which had about 47 senators was intact at the venue.
I can bet you that when the National Assembly was inaugurated it was the maturity and peace that God gave to this country that he did not direct or encourage the PDP by not coming out to run for the office of Senate president and deputy. They would all have been elected and nothing would have happened; they would have been both Senate president and deputy and nothing would have happened because the APC had no number to remove them; they do not have the two-third requirement. That is what Buhari would have had to work with but because God has brought him to show the difference. God was directing the affairs in Buhari’s favour. Therefore, for somebody to sit somewhere and begin to think that Senator Bukola Saraki has done party indiscipline is not true; it is the APC that has no discipline.


What are the stakeholders of the North Central doing to retain the position of national publicity secretary?
We are retaining the position, not minding the irresponsible comments made by the national chairman that we are not qualified. Has he taken people for exams and they failed? Let him bring out the exam sheets and exam results so that we can see the marks. With due respect to my friend, Lai Mohammed, he is not a trained journalist but a lawyer by training. He became the spokesman of the party by circumstance and the demand at that particular time and he hid his job pretty well even without professionalism attached. What if we now bring a professional journalist? He would be more challenged and come out more solid. Is he telling me that if Lai Mohammed is removed as minister of Information the ministry would be abolished because of lack of competent Nigerians to replace him? That is even an indictment to the APC national chairman himself! But we in the North Central have thousands of Nigerians that can occupy that office and perform creditably well. I don’t want to name them but they are quite many; at the convention you will see them.
Politics is about negotiation and not about coercion. APC is not a personal property and we will resist and tell whoever claims to be the owner of the party to his face and say no! We were saddled with the burial of our beloved minister which was why we were not making noise over this matter. That loss alone has touched our hearts, not only the family but the entire zone. So we were mourning rather than thinking about who would replace who with regards to the APC spokesman. By the way, there is a deputy and since the substantive had moved out of the office the deputy should carry on until the convention takes place.


But there seems to be disagreements between the national chairman and the deputy national publicity secretary over this?
Procedurally, and in line with the constitutional provision, where the occupant of an office is not there the deputy automatically takes over in acting capacity until otherwise. So the office of the national publicity secretary is not an exclusive preserve of one person.


Given the picture of incompetence you have painted of the national chairman do you think he can lead the party towards 2019 or would you want him to resign?
I will not call on him to resign. At the next convention a decision would be made for the way forward. But definitely he is not going to be reelected; if he is a man of honor and integrity he need not be advised to resign. He created crises in various segments of the party. The issue in Kano he is involved. In Benue we refused to allow him because it is our state; otherwise the APC in the state would also have been in deep crisis today. But we handled the matter with a sense of maturity which is why we were able to resolve our issues ourselves not through the national chairman who was bent on making sure that the APC did not win in Benue. And I want to make this point very clear that the APC did not win the 2015 elections.


How do you mean?
Buhari won election and I maintain that APC did not win but Buhari won that election. And any mistake that Buhari makes not to give Nigerians what they deserve we stand the risk of losing the 2019 elections. The party had gotten the victory that it did not fight for and the management of victory is lacking.


Talking about Buhari are you not satisfied with the way he is running the affairs of the country?
I am absolutely satisfied! There is no head of government that had done what his is doing. The current exposure of corruption even if it takes four years to achieve this Nigeria would rightly regain its rightful position among the comity of nations. Nigerians have to be patient and give him the opportunity to effect the necessary change. My advice to Buhari, however, is to set up a presidential advisory committee on economy and another one on political. The war on corruption is succeeding because Buhari has a credible presidential advisory committee on corruption. So if he also sets up a similar committee on political matters, he will then concentrate on governance.
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