Former minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, shares his thoughts with Laraba MUREY on consequences of the crisis bedeviling the All Progressives Congress, APC, 2023 presidential zoning including his political ambition ahead of the election year. Excerpts:
Your party APC has been postponing its national convention, what do you think is responsible for this and are you optimistic it will hold on march 26?
When you have a problem, we Marxist scholars will always go to the root of the problem and will be able to predict what the consequences will be. So the dissolution of the national working committee which I have maintained that it is unlawful to me.
APC proceeded to constitute a caretaker committee with three sitting governors which is an affront on the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended and also the constitution of the APC.
I kept raising my voice that it should be cured because you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. So this caretaker committee cannot produce a legal national working committee. As to whether it will lead us somewhere, I sincerely believe it will not. What will happen on March 26? If it happens, it is for the group of those people that have hijacked the party to gather and roll out a unity list. They will sit down in their various hotel rooms, and it will be announced. They will only need a caricature crowd. A unity list must be the consensus of the entire delegates college which is the representation of the members of the party.
Are you saying that the attempted takeover of the party leadership by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello and supported by Governor El-Rufai and few others was an illegality that should be punished?
The Supreme Court has defined a coup as an uncontemplated act by the constitution. If such an act is deployed to take over power, it is called a coup.
The act of those party leaders who by extension are also executives of the state to use force to remove a sitting chairman is a wrongdoing punishable under the penal code is referred to as treason. But, I think why it is not heard much about it now is because of the insulation immunity but I believe if this country will get it right that particular act, when they leave office should be investigated.
A lot of people are optimistic that the national convention will hold, but have fears that the convention could lead to an implosion. Do you belong to this group?
A convention, in the strict sense of political tradition, will not take place. Rather a mock convention is going to be invented by these political actors who have projected their 2023 ambitions over the national interest. They will birth anything as leadership of the party and should that happen, I’m not a prophet but should that happen the party will be rocked by a plethora of crises. These crises are already evident on the walls of the political party. Because there are multiple state executives of the party produced by the last congresses. Inaugurations have been taking place depending on who finds themselves in the national secretariat.
The substantive chairman, Governor Mai Bala of Yobe state has inaugurated some, Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello, has also inaugurated some, all these multiple inaugurations lead us positively to confusion and anarchy.
Nonetheless, what would have been very important would be the spirit of commitment of the political actors to democracy but their impunity is so exaggerated that the only thing that they understand is their political interest and ambition.
Can you give clarity to what you mean by the country will soon move to anarchy?
The confusion in the party, in government is serious that every Nigerian should be concerned. Because the Electoral Act has been signed into law and it requires the parties to present candidates before April and June, so it means if the party cannot address its internal issues, it is threat to democracy, it will affect the country and if they are unable to produce a candidate because of this confusion, then certainly the president cannot preside over an election where his party is not participating.
The National Assembly which they have a majority and of course the attitude of elected representatives is partisan politics and not national interest. If their party has violated the constitution, what they would like to do is to activate emergency provisions which will allow the president to stay in office for 6 months thereafter to enable them to prepare.
This is happening because APC has not had a Board of Trustees for the past 7 years or 8 years. So, it has no elders and that is why you see all manner of acts that are inconsistent with democratic tradition.
Mai Bala, in all the extension of his tenure, there has not been any known instruments from the president except this one that he has written because all Mai Bala needs to do, is to go to the State House, nobody is privy to the discussion, he himself will come out to tell people that his tenure has been extended for another 6 months. All these shameful acts should have not been mentioned in a country like Nigeria, and nobody has been challenging it.
What advice do you have for your party ahead of the general election and do you have any political ambition?
Crisis like this are common in party politics everywhere in the world but the mechanism of resolving determines the integrity of the party. All these crises arising from congresses and leading to factions, the best way to solve them is for the party leaders to set up a committee of reputable persons to go to the states and to say faction A and B, if there are three factions, let’s divide the exco into 30-30-40. The dominant force will produce 40 and the rest will produce 30, 30 you move on depending on the strength of the major actors.
If APC wants to make progress, preserve themselves and win elections they must honestly come back and address the problem of ward congresses, local government congresses and state congresses. These are very germane to the jamboree called the National Convention.
If these crises are neglected they will rapture like a dynamite and you will look for the soul of APC and may not find it. Let us not be overwhelmed by the euphoria of power now, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was doing the same, until they had this tsunami that sent them packing. We cannot be different.
My political ambition for 2023. My highest ambition is to rescue democracy and the first thing on my mind is that the president should be able to restore national security to the affected crisis areas in the country. Especially in the northern part of the country. I would have achieved my political ambition.
Number Two is to ensure that Justice, equity and fairness become the pillars of political activities IN 2023, which means I stand with the zoning of political power to the south.
No political party should try to introduce political hypocrisy. Since I was born and I became conscious of myself, I have never seen Nigeria as divided as it is right now. as of today even during the war we were not as divided as this. It is important that we zone power to the south to preserve our national security.
