Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was in Lagos on Friday evening where he met with members of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
In an interview with journalists after the meeting, Atiku speaks about his 2015 ambition, the issue of consensus candidacy in the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, and the lingering Boko Haram crisis.
Below are excerpts of the interview:
Will the reported entry of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal into the presidential race not alter the political calculation of the APC?
You must realise there is a conflicting report. There’s a report that says some people have bought form for Tambuwal and another report that says he has issued a statement that he is not interested in being a president but interested in being a governor.
We will wait and see, but whatever is the case, if he decides that he wants to contest as president, I think it is a welcome development. The more the merrier. We are in a democratic party.
What is the place of consensus among the aspirants for presidency in the APC?
Consensus should be based on the willingness of all the parties that are involved. You cannot force consensus on the throat of people who are not willing. Again, it depends on how the party handles the issue. For now, I think it has handled it in a very responsible and mature manner. It has asked that aspirants explore the option of consensus. If they find that it is something that is workable, fine. If not, then they are subjected to primaries.
The Boko Haram insurgents have been having a field day in some states in northern Nigeria including Adamawa where you come from. How would you describe the way President Jonathan has handled the insurgency?
I think about a week or two ago, I addressed a world press conference drawing the attention of the Federal Government to the fact that they have consistently lost ground on the Boko Haram issue and that they have been able to recover not even an inch of the lost territory since the crisis started.
The Boko Haram crisis is now more than five years. I think the government has not done well as far as I am concerned. But as far as Adamawa State is concerned, we have started fighting back, we have recovered two local governments from them through our local vigilantes and hunters.
The sect is not an invisible group, but unfortunately, the Armed Forces has failed to curtail it. So we have to defend ourselves.
Let’s have your overview of INEC regarding the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards.
Obviously I will not rate INEC positively because I have always believed that the INEC is not an independent body.
Everybody in INEC, from top to bottom, is appointed by the ruling party. So how can it be independent? I think for us to have an independent INEC, we must also have an independent body to appoint officials.
Today, INEC cannot be independent and my brother, Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) has described it as having merged with the PDP. So I don’t believe the PVC exercise is being conducted efficiently and in an independent manner because there are so many lapses that have trailed the issuance of the PVC.
Loyalists of President Jonathan think he has done well while other Nigerians say he has not performed. What will you be doing differently if you eventually become the candidate of the APC and possibly the President in 2015?
Can’t you see what the APC states are doing differently from the PDP states? Take the case of Lagos, Kano, Sokoto, Imo, go and see what is taking place there.
Go to Ogun and see what is happening there. So, you definitely know that when you vote for an APC candidate, you stand for change, that change that I have always said you can feel, touch and see.
Not a change by way of propaganda on the television, in the radio and the newspapers, taking front pages and saying the best has happened to us. That’s not the change we will see in 2015 when APC gets to government.
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