Barrister Ibrahim El-Sudi is the Chairman of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State. In this interview, he speaks about his party’s preparedness to take over power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023, saying zoning is not on APC’s agenda for now. Excerpts:
The APC in Taraba under your leadership has been vowing to take over power from the PDP that has been ruling the state over the years? How prepared are you for this?
We are fully prepared to take over the mantle of leadership as far as Taraba State is concerned. This is premised upon the fact that the PDP administration has done nothing to improve the lives of the Taraba people since the coming of the current governor. In fact, the people of Taraba can attest to this, which is why they are yearning for a change that can only be gotten in the APC.
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With what happened regarding our recent primary elections where a political veteran emerged as the governorship candidate of the APC in the person of Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, we are fully set for a change. He knows Taraba inside out, and with him as our candidate, we are ready to take over the mantle of leadership in Taraba come 2023.
But the process that produced Senator Bwacha has raised dust, especially among the other APC governorship aspirants. How exactly did he emerge as your party’s standard bearer?
In politics, obviously there are bound to be controversies. Since 1999, we have been having such controversies regarding the emergence of candidates. In 2003, 2007, 2015 and 2019, we had similar controversies. Coming to your question, the National Working Committee (NWC) appointed members that would go and conduct primary elections in Taraba State and they went there and approached the state executives. The list of returning officers was then given to them and they selected those they felt they would work with. As controversies were going on about whether to go on direct or indirect primary, we got word from the national secretariat that even though omitted from the list of states that were to go for direct primary, Taraba was asked to go for direct primary. This was borne out of the fact that there were issues with certain executives, and even delegates that were to partake in the primary election, particularly in the Southern part of the state where there were two lists of executives and delegates. This was the same in some parts of the Central and Northern zones. So, in order to avoid such controversies, we requested to have direct primary and the NWC, based on the powers conferred on them by the NEC, endorsed and approved direct primary for Taraba.
Some people cornered members of the committee and did not allow them to go anywhere, but the returning officers were given materials and they went ahead and conducted the primary elections and the results were brought to the members appointed by the national secretariat. At the end of the day, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha emerged as our governorship standard bearer. In all the 16 LGAs, INEC testified and even gave reports that elections were conducted throughout the wards in the LGAs. We applied for the certified true copies of these results and INEC issued the same to us. In their report, they stated that they had witnessed the primary elections in Taraba which was direct. This was how Senator Bwacha emerged as the winner of the APC governorship primary in Taraba.
But after that exercise, six of the aspirants in your party protested, saying election did not take place and that INEC didn’t monitor any…?
The six aspirants have the right to protest, but that is not the proper way to do so. They should have protested in writing or followed what the Electoral Act says. Some of them did what the act says; that at the end of a primary election if you are not satisfied you can approach a federal high court for redress. They have done that, so they should stop making noise that there was no election. If they say there was no INEC supervision, the electoral umpire confirmed that it supervised the exercise and we have the CTC of the results of each of the 16 electoral officers in the state. So, what are they talking about? You cannot alter, vary or modify a written report by word of mouth. If all the APC members in Taraba would come and say there was no election and the electoral body says there was and shows clips to that effect, how can you then claim there was no primary election in Taraba? It is just their wishful thinking.
From the foregoing, it appears there is a division in your party ahead of next year’s general elections. Some of these aggrieved aspirants have even gone to court. How can you resolve all this?
I am appealing to them to understand that the issue of governance is by the grace of God. Whether it is through the window or through the door or even through the roof, it is God that gives power. Even Bwacha himself, if God does not endorse him as the next governor, he will never be. Therefore, I want them to be patient and accept what has happened and let us reconcile with one another.
The act of governance is not a one-man show. We need all of them because they are all important in their constituencies. Without them, we cannot succeed. I am therefore appealing to them to be patient, come back to the drawing board and let us sit and see how we can win all the elections in 2023.
Your party has given the governorship ticket to someone from the Southern zone where power is currently residing. Don’t you think this is against power shift and that it may affect your party’s chances?
As far as the APC is concerned there is no zoning. We are just beginning and trying to grab power. Therefore, whether from the North, Central or South, if we know you have the capacity to govern, we don’t care to bring you aboard. The issue of zoning is situated with the PDP; that is their own cup of tea. For the APC, it is after we have taken the mantle of leadership that we will begin to talk of either zoning or no zoning.
But people are generally disenchanted with the performance of the APC to the extent that it has failed in almost all the promises it made. How would you be convincing the electorate in Taraba to support your bid to take over from the PDP?
On the issue of people getting disenchanted with the APC, I want to tell you that it would have been worst if PDP were still in power. We have tried our best but it is the rot that the APC met on ground that has militated against meaningful progress. We have tried our best as far as tackling corruption is concerned. As for insecurity, it has become global, with the proliferation of arms as a result of the disintegration of Libya and other security issues in West Africa. This has tremendously affected Nigeria to the extent that even if PDP was still in power, they would face the same problem.
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