Alhaji Falalu Bello is the National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). In this interview he said the party has been restructured and is ready to produce the next president of Nigeria.
PRP has not been presenting presidential candidates in previous elections but you recently said that is now a settled case, what has changed?
PRP, if you will recall very well, is a 1978 political party, all the parties that came with PRP have gone: UPN, NPN, GMPP. So, it is a very old party and for quite some time. Frankly, there hasn’t been much growth in the party. We came in about three years ago and since coming into the leadership of the PRP, we tried to make sure we participate in elections, essentially to register the fact that the party is back. In the 2019 elections, for example, we fielded 385 candidates in 22 states of the 36 states of the federation, so certainly, it is a showing.
What we’re trying to do is when you have a candidate who is going to campaign, he would go round. He will fly our flag. He will put up his posters and our logo. The whole idea is to bring the party into reckoning.
We have just finished our congresses. We have done congresses in 30 of the 36 states of the federation. We have elected state executive committee members in six states including the seventh, FCT. So today in Nigeria we are present in 733 local governments either by congress or appointment. So practically, what this means is that the party has come back alive.
Do you think as a party you can make the desired impact or win the election or you are relying on the proposed merger?
We don’t mind going into mergers and alliances and we are in discussions. The way PDP and APC have turned Nigeria and elections they have monetized, made it purely a money affair, to face them you need these mergers and alliances and we shall do that. But honestly speaking, if we can repeat what we have in terms of membership in Kebbi, in all the states of the federation, we can go it alone and win.
It’s not an impossible thing. If we have 30,000 members in all the 36 states of the federation and FCT we can win comfortably. These rascal ideas or practices will not continue; so we can even go it alone.
So which one is on the table now, the merger or do you want to go it alone?
Take, for example, PRP is a natural ally to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); we believed in the same thing that they believe in. However, if we can come into some kind of relationship with the NLC and TUC and they call their entire members and tell them to vote for the PRP, would that not help us? So we shouldn’t run away from alliances and mergers. We are in discussion with them. In fact, at one point I chaired the merger alliances committee of the NCFront so we have not abandoned that.
What is your party’s stand on zoning?
Zoning is a PDP business; I can give you a copy of our constitution. There’s nowhere where we have said we’re going to zone our offices. Of course, the constitution says in dividing offices, for example, the national executive committee, you should spread, that we will do. Let us say the president should come from Kogi and the vice president should come from Niger? No, I don’t think we will do that. I don’t think we’ll do that, we’ll spread them.
One wonders why recently a faction emerged in the party. What are the issues in contention?
This is the Nigerian factor that is all, otherwise, why are they doing this. As the chairman of PRP today nobody has written to me from their side and said this is what I’ve done wrong or written to us on any issues as a leadership.
Why are they up against your leadership?
Whoever has the registration certificate, whoever INEC recognizes will be the one to field candidates for election, but they can continue to make noise. I have the original certificate of registration and INEC recognizes us as the real leaders of the party.
Are you saying the crisis is a sign of growth in the party?
Unfortunately, it is so. Three years ago, who was hearing of PRP, did you hear of PRP four years ago? So, it was just there practically nobody cared about the party. But people now care because we are succeeding in a way. If we had failed, they would not care.
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