In this interview with Trust TV’s Mannir Dan-Ali, the presidential candidate and leader of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, spoke on his party’s plans for Nigerians if it wins the 2023 general elections as well as why people should vote him as the next president. Excerpts:
I have just been going through your manifesto which you recently launched and I didn’t see anything revolutionary, what I saw is reform. You are trying to reform the existing system and many Nigerians are saying that the system needs more than just reformation?
Let me start by thanking all Nigerians, especially members of the NNPP, who came to Abuja from across the country to be part of the history of unveiling our blueprint, which we have done successfully.
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Well, I am surprised that you said you read it but from what you said, it is like you read other parties’ blueprints. Ours is a complete departure from what you have seen from the other parties in this country.
I can give you a specific example of electricity. You are saying that you want to raise production to 25,000 megawatts. Other countries are talking of gigawatts not megawatts, so that is why I said that you are just trying to fix…
If you read it, in how many years?
In a number of years.
That is why I said you didn’t read it. Listen to me, I am the author, I am the chairman of the committee, Dr Bakpa is the secretary and many other professionals worked on that issue.
But you have now presented it to the public and the public understands it’s importance…
That is why I wanted to ask, if you say you read it, in how years. You see, what I am telling you is that there are even more important issues now than even electricity; electricity is very important.
What do you consider to be more important?
Now the most important now is security, without security nothing can happen positively in this country; everybody, all of us here are concerned.
That is why as a former defence minister, you did raise the issue of raising both the police and the army, from their current strengths. How is it going to happen and where are you going to get the money to do it?
I think you need to listen to me first, you are here to interview me, you should listen to me. I am the author I should tell you all those figures and I think that is what Nigerians want to hear probably from me rather than from you.
You see as a former minister of defence and of course the chief security officer when I was governor for eight years in Kano; as somebody who has been to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Darfur and so on, we have seen a lot over the years and we read a lot over the years and we sat down and we looked at the entire security architecture in the country and came up with a position which we believe is the best.
What about the numbers?
Let me say that you are absolutely right there, the population or the number of the military is less than 250,000; of course the number of the police was also about 230,000 but you see, we looked the world over and looked at our situation and we realised that the number is much lower than the expected number under our circumstances. The Nigerian military actually needs to increase the number and going by the best international practice, we thought and we believe that about one million police, one million military will do the job.
One area that your manifesto was silent on and it is instructive, is local government. A lot of people are saying that part of the Nigerian problem is the way governors have treated or almost extinguished local governments in the country…
That is why I said you do not have the patience to read it. It is there in black and white. We are going to give the local governments, the independence, the financial independence and so on, it is there, it is written clearly.
You said there are so many taxes; the existing company tax is 30 per cent and then in addition, there are other taxes. And you are saying that you will cut it down. Why will you do that when you need money to finance your expansion in the military, the police and other areas?
You see, you create problem of so many people running away from the country because of the double taxation. Because of the level of that taxation. So many of them are going to our neighbouring countries to do business. And even those who are staying here, they are trying to avoid it because it is too much. If it is not realistic, it is not realistic, so people will not be in a hurry to pay.
And that was why comparing what is happening elsewhere, that is the international best practices to go for that percentage. It is not like we don’t want money, we believe that we will get more money when we have 25 per cent more than when we have 33.5 per cent and it is not collected.
One of the interesting things in your manifesto is that you want to invest so as to increase our oil production capabilities. How are you going to succeed in that when the major oil companies are divesting from Nigeria and oil is now seen as not sustainable?
Now you see, the first thing any responsible government should do in a situation like this is to bring peace. Nobody would want to go and commit avoidable suicide.
People would want to invest but in a manner that people are safe in those areas and that is the first thing we will provide, not only in oil producing states but across the country because as it stands today, we have more issues with security even in other parts of the country especially in North West and even in North East.
And that is why we are increasing the number of the military and that is why we are going to provide special training, special equipment in relevant technology and so on, to fight the insecurity.
We will do whatever it takes to encourage investors locally; we will also do whatever it takes to invite investors from outside the country so that we can work together with them in the area of oil and gas.
What is the magic of Kwankwasiyya movement because some people say it is like a cult, others say it is a very well-organised system of patronage that ensures you get good results?
You see the difference between Kano people and other people even in the North West is because Kano people know me better; the difference between North West and other zones in the North is because those ones know me better and the difference between North and South is that the North knows me better. And what we are trying to do now is just to let the people in the South also know me as much as the people of the North know me.
But how will you succeed in that?
Not everybody knows that I sponsor over 3,000 people in just four years to study outside the country; not everybody knows that I built two universities, not everybody knows that I did all these sponsorship, hundreds of thousands of people in private universities. Not everybody knows that all the children of Kano are going to school.
So we have done so much in terms of empowerment of young men and women. We have done so much in terms of empowerment of everybody in Kano and whatever we are doing is not just restricted to indigenes. In Kano we don’t talk about indigenes, we are talking of residents.
Yes but still, Nigeria is big and you are just in one state which happens to be one of the most populous but Nigeria is much bigger and some are saying that you do not have the structures outside Kano, outside of North West, to get the big prize of the president?
This question people have asked me eight, nine months ago. You see, now I am telling you that the candidates that we have, the number and quality is much more than that of PDP and APC, that is the structure.
We have structure in every ward in this country, in every local government, in every state, in every zone and at national level; so it is not like we don’t have structure, our structure is solid and those who are supposed to know are aware of it and I want to assure you that there will be surprises.
For now till election we are the only growing party, all other parties that have peaked, there is nothing they can do. PDP will do nothing; APC will do nothing to impress Nigerians today. Even the other parties they are talking about, they just got up, they cannot do anything.
So what you are saying is that you are ruling out going into alliance or understanding with any party?
I am not talking of that, what I am telling you now is that now nobody is sure whether anybody will be outright winner, that is the issue now. But what I am telling you is that NNPP….
But as a practical politician do you believe that?
Yes, I don’t mind people talking about me because we are the party of 2023 because we are the only ones growing, every day we receive people at all levels, including at national level. Even now we had to delay you because we have important people coming from Zamfara State and some other states in the South.
So you see, we are the party to beat, there is no question about it now. No need to do fake and rigged opinion polls to suit them, absolute rubbish. There are people on the ground….
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