When the great leader of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Malam Aminu Kano, died in April 1983, just before that year’s presidential election, Khalifa Hassan Yusuf succeeded him as party leader and presidential candidate. In this interview, he discussed how the transition was made, as well as many other political issues.
When did you start participating in politics?
I started politics in Biu in 1958. I first became a youth leader. I was in the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Action Group (AG), People’s Redemption Party (PRP). I have never been a member of the party in government.
Do you still hold to your political ideology?
Yes. Why not?
The PRP was a party with a stronghold in Kano and the North-West. How were you able to join it from the North-East and contest to be president on its platform?
After leaving the civil service I became the first chairman of Damaturu Local Government. But because of politics, my local government was dissolved. Then the political parties had been proscribed and there was the go-ahead to form new political parties.
I formed the National Progressive Front (NPF) and launched it in Maiduguri, Bauchi and Jos. Later on, we decided to fuse with the PRP. We called Malam Aminu Kano and his people to Maiduguri where we merged the parties. We opened a branch in Borno and I contested for the governorship of Borno State against Kam Salem and Mohammed Goni who won the election on the platform of the Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP).
I continued in the PRP and became its national vice president and deputy national president respectively. When Malam Aminu Kano died, I took over from him and became the national president and presidential candidate of the party at the same time.
It will take a lot of time to explain to you the hurdles I crossed to emerge as the vice president of the party. This is because, if you were to count the member of contestants, I may be the 100th. But with my own closeness to Malam Aminu Kano and with my ideology, I became the deputy national chairman. Malam Aminu Kano used to call me from Maiduguri to hand over the party to me whenever he was travelling. I would stay in Kano until he came back.
He used to say, “If I don’t hand over the party to Hassan Yusuf they will sell it before I come back.”
Malam handed over the party to me one day and confided in me that he was going to die. I was the only person he told that he was going to die. He introduced me to people, saying that I would take over from him. When he died, I took over the party. That was how I got the name, “Khalifan Malam” (Malam’s successor).
A lot of people wanted to contest with me, but they could not because of the popularity I had in the party.
When we went to Kaduna for the election of the national president of the party, because we wanted to confirm the seat, I stepped down from the chair and said, “Malam Aminu Kano has died, get somebody to fill his seat.” Somebody came out and said he was nominating me to be the national president, but another person said it was a democracy, so election must hold. Somebody said he nominated Hassan Yusuf. I was confirmed the national president of the party.
How close were you to Malam Aminu Kano?
We were very close; Malam loved me very well. If he started narrating certain things to me, he would shed tears. He told me many things I cannot even disclose.
Can you share some of the best moments you had with him?
He used to invite me, especially when he was travelling. I would spend the night with him and he would lecture me and tell me what to do. He encouraged me in politics. There was a time we went to Dawakin Tofa and he mounted a podium and cried. He said, “Out of the 19 candidates that contested the gubernatorial election under the PRP, only Hassan Yusuf is behind me.” You know, the party was factionalised. Abubakar Rimi and Balarabe Musa were elected as governors of Kano and Kaduna respectively on the platform of the PRP and they left us. Most of the people followed Rimi. That was when we called them Yan Santsi. Later, we took over from them. That was when Rimi contested election on the platform of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) and lost against the candidate I fielded, Sabo Bakin Zuwo. Shagari was about losing in Kano at that time and they decided not to announce the result because he did not get the required percentage. When I noticed that they had refused to declare Sabo Bakin Zuwo winner of the gubernatorial seat, I gave Shagari the percentage and Sabo was declared winner.
How did you give him the percentage?
I was at the counting centre and I told them to give Shagari from my votes and declare my candidate winner. The PRP was the household party in Kano; hence the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) could not rig elections in the state because Malam Aminu Kano had created voter awareness.
What about Balarabe Musa?
We suspended them from the party, so they could not contest election. It was only Rimi that changed party and contested against Sabo Bakin Zuwo and lost. Balarabe was impeached even before his second term attempt. He was impeached in Kaduna, and he had no power then. But we welcomed him back into the party and made him the deputy president of the PRP in the North. They had a fight with Musa Musawa, who lost the gubernatorial contest in Kaduna.
Why did you suspend them from the party?
When Shagari won presidential election we were offered five ministerial positions by the federal government and we refused. Malam Aminu Kano said we were not going to take part in the government and we would not move to any other political party.
Later on, five governors held a meeting to cut away from the main opposition, but we stood our ground and disciplinary action was taken.
What do you miss about Malam Aminu Kano?
Malam was a good leader. He was trustworthy and very popular. He didn’t give money to people. When he died, the PRP was proscribed. People came to me saying we should revive the party. But I told them that we could not revive it because when he was alive, he only sent letters to people that a conference would hold, either in Kano or Kaduna and they would all converge.
People raised money on their own and transported themselves to the venue. We didn’t give them a kobo. Some people only went to see his face and return home. With a popular leader like Aminu Kano we didn’t need to spend a dime. He would look into your face and tell you the plain truth; those who wanted to follow him followed him. That was Malam for you.
Did Malam Aminu Kano endure difficult times during your political struggle?
Malam always said, “I will never win election to become a president, but I will succeed in making people resist being oppressed.” That is the reason why people resisted paying jangali (cattle tax). The tax collectors were maltreating people.
I think President Muhammadu Buhari is fulfilling some of Malam Aminu Kano`s ambitions. He once told me that if given the opportunity to become the president of Nigeria, he would need 16 years to perform. This is because he would use the first four years to identify the problems of Nigeria, find cure in the second four years, apply the medicine in the third four years before people would start enjoying the government in another four years.
What is your take on the persistent calls for President Buhari to implement the report of the 2014 Political Reform Conference?
There are ways of implementing the position of the conference, but it cannot be possible without amending the constitution. That is where the problem lies. And constitutionally, who are the people to amend the constitution?
It must be proposed by the National Assembly, and even if the amendment is to take place, two third of the lawmakers and simple majority in the 24 state assemblies must support it. So, amending the constitution is very difficult. You cannot implement the Political Reform Conference report without amending the constitution.
We have a lot of recommendations which were uploaded by the conference, but how could the government implement them? The conference was not even constitutional. There was no constitutional backing to establish the conference by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
There is a growing call by some people for the restructuring of Nigeria. How do you think it should be approached?
I think Nigeria has come to stay. We call ourselves Nigerians and we are operating under the constitution. All these people in power come under the constitution. Without amending the constitution, how could it be possible to restructure Nigeria?
We sat down and fashioned the constitution and took the presidential system of government because of our diversity. The president, Senate president and other leaders were elected under the present constitution. If we are calling for another constitution, does it mean that all these people will not be there again? To have a new Nigeria means that everybody, including the president, will go. We are in a dilemma. Do we have the power to restructure Nigeria without following the constitutional provisions?
What do you think are the reasons for this agitation?
Resource control dominated the conference because that was the reason for establishing it. Should the wealthy states control their resources and give something to the Nigerian government, that means Nigeria would have nothing. The constitution states that 13per cent should go to where the resources come from, but they wanted to take it completely. And that is the reason they are not comfortable with the constitution.
In 1983, you contested to be president against five other candidates. What was the election like at that time?
The problem now is that Nigerian politics has been corrupted. I became the presidential candidate without spending a dime. After the election, Alhaji Shehu Shagari won, Chief Obafemi Awolowo came second, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe came third, I came fourth, Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim came fifth and Tunji Braithwaite came sixth.
Nigerian politics has been monetised; people have become so wise that you have to give them money before they vote. But during our time, people voted without collecting a kobo. I didn’t spend one kobo for votes. But now, you can imagine how much the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) spent during the elections.
Did you contest any political position after your last presidential outing on the platform of the PRP?
Our political party was proscribed after my presidential contest and I did not contest any election after that, not even the local government election. That’s because politics has been monetised and I didn’t have money to do that. You must spend millions even if you want to contest a councillorship position.
In Nigerian politics nowadays, you must steal money before you contest an election. Do you think those who contested elections used their money for the exercise? They usually steal the money from their lucrative positions and win the election. Can a poor man win an election now? That is why we now talk of incumbency. A governor will spend eight years in power, after leaving he will contest a senatorial position, using government money to campaign. Even at primary elections, delegates are given thousands of naira. In our time, you wouldn’t give a kobo for primaries. People would vote for you because you were going to work for them. But it is not so nowadays.
When Buhari wanted to contest, people contributed to fund his election, knowing it was not easy to win without financial support. They sympathised with him. More so, a lot of PDP members crossed over to the APC to support Buhari. Most of the members of the National Assembly were members of the PDP.
What is your take on senators’ impeachment threat against President Buhari?
Buhari is not doing what they want. They are expecting more from him but they are not getting it.
It is very difficult to change Nigeria. You must change people – their habit, character and culture before you can change Nigeria. And the people don’t want to change.
There are a lot of people who voted for Buhari in 2015, but they may not vote for him again if he seeks for second a term because they did not get what they were expecting from him. But for us who are doing ideological politics, we know he is doing his best and the change would come. We just have to be patient. People see change when Buhari came, and he is saying that the difficulty people are facing is from what he inherited.
With your experience as a former leader and presidential candidate of an opposition party, what do you think the threat portends?
Well, the APC is a combination of political parties, so every political party has a different idea and ideology. They merged for the purpose of winning elections and to manage convenience. Most of the senators are aggrieved PDP members who cross-carpeted to the APC. And you cannot rule out the material politics being played in the house. That is why the APC is having problems now.
In fact, I could see wonders now that some people in the PDP and members of the National Assembly are crossing over to the APC. What do they want? What do you call them? You will see a whole governor changing political party. If you campaigned on the platform of a political party and won an election, why should you leave it? What does he want? When I was in the opposition PRP in Borno State, the GNPP was in government, the NPN had the government at the centre, but I didn’t leave my party to either of the two ruling parties. I was given the post of a commissioner by the GNPP government in Borno State, which I refused because I was not a member of that political party. It’s not possible now. I told them to give it to Aminu Kano so that he would give it to me. Also, when the NPN won election, Shagari wanted the PRP to join them, but we refused.
What do you think caused the sudden political change in Nigeria?
You are here in Yobe but you cannot win an election without government patronage. You will not even have the money to win the election because nobody will sponsor you. Government will take people’s money and sponsor their favourite candidate.
At the constitutional conference we supported a four-year term for the president, governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives because four years are quite sufficient for you to work for your people. If you don’t work for them they will change you. This change only happens in civilised areas like Kano and Bauchi, but we cannot change government here in Yobe or Borno. That is why people can rule here forever because the people are not politically aware.
With your experience, how do you assess the type of opposition politics playing out now?
That depends on how the opposition parties are being treated. When you are in government, how do you treat them? Do you give them mandates? If you don’t, the opposition will revolt against you. The collection of political parties that merged to form the APC were in opposition. The PDP was the party in power, but when it continued to make mistakes, disappointing its own people, many of its card-carrying members revolted. Most of these people cross-carpeted to the APC and defeated the PDP. So, if you have government and you are not managing it well, certainly, you will lose it.
What is your assessment of the President Buhari administration?
I don’t have much to say about the Buhari administration. He is just, honest, and he doesn’t steal, but if you steal in your own state, are you following his policy? That is the reason why I said we wanted more Buharis in the country. One Buhari cannot change Nigeria.
