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What SEGUN SHOWUNMI Told City People In His Explosive Interview
For many years, PDP chieftain, Otunba Segun Showunmi was a close associate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Not too long ago, he was Atiku’s Spokesperson. He believed so much in Atiku that he took it personal when in 2019, Atiku lost the presidential elections. He was pained. He was angry. But Atiku wasn’t. Atiku took it in his strides.
But Showunmi wasn’t happy with the laid back attitude of his mentor, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Segun Showunmi told City People this last week during an interview.
“I was so angry that I literally wanted to burn the Quran. Anything I looked at or talked about, I wanted it burnt. Why? Because I had gotten to a point at that time where I was saying to myself, “But God, what else could I have done to show him? Could you not have just allowed him to see what I was trying to show him? How long are you going to make us suffer?”
“That was how I was thinking. Until I went to Atiku one day. The same Atiku. I was trying to tell him, “Look, I’ve told you what I said. If you want to run, let us know. If you are not running, let us know.” Then while we were saying that, they did the Call to prayer, and then he got up to go and pray”.
As he was walking, I said, “Alhaji you mean you are still going to pray? Despite all over losses? He didn’t answer me. He went and finished his prayer. Then he came back he said, “Segun, if we don’t pray, what are we going to do?” He shattered my heart. He said, “We still pray, we pray.” When I got back to my house, I cried. I cried out of pity for him. This guy still believes in God with all the frustration and disappointment. That’s him for you.
But I asked him, “Sir, you have done it your way so many times. We have seen that it did not work. If you want to run again, we have to do it our own way now. We can’t keep insisting that we’re doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result.”
But what do you want me to do? He likes the company of average men. He doesn’t like the company of visionaries. I could not have been going around with them in ADC knowing fully well that they are going to be disgraced?
Because you need to build from the ground up. You can’t fly and go and pay money to take the leadership of another existing party, and you even look at their constitution that says if you are to remove the chairman, you must replace him with a chairman from the same zone. They have a situation where some people are in court claiming that they are the party. You are in court; what kind of nonsense is this? And suddenly now, you have amalgamated only people that are angry. They are only angry, angry. One of them is angry he didn’t get a ministerial position. The other one is angry he didn’t make it in the primaries. Do you know what it means to fall and stand and fall and stand and fall and stand? Atiku Abubakar is the man in the arena of democracy. Look at what he’s doing to himself. Can you see what he’s doing to himself? Atiku is now going to sit at the primaries and be struggling with the likes of Rotimi Amaechi? Atiku will be trying to do the primary in ADC, and Obidients will be bullying him? You can’t force him to step down. It is his right to contest. He’s going to plan as you are planning. You can’t bully him. You shouldn’t bully him. But hey, how can I be convinced that PDP gave you the ticket for president twice? Presidential candidate 2019. Do you know what it took Raymond Dokpesi of blessed memory to do that? Do you know how many times I begged him just to take that responsibility? That I know contributed to his death? Yes. And then after doing it two times, you have not seen the need to reform that party, to manage their issues, to beg where you have to beg, to be their rallying point even if it means stepping out of the game and being their godfather. And now you’ll be running around looking for delegates with boys when the baton ought to have passed to me from you. If he wins, I hope it’s the responsibility of society.
But do you see him winning?
How? Listen, I don’t do guesswork. I go around. Do you know how much money it even costs to administer a questionnaire? Go and do the benchmark for me in Katsina. Do you know what I tell you? You will be shocked. Katsina will give more votes, and even if you say with your mouth that you don’t come out and vote, I have an office there with my money paid. The alternative office. I am in Jigawa. Am I running for president yet? See, look at the Southeast. Are you going to compare the class of governors of 2023? And these were average men without great color. Are you going to compare them with Soludo? Are you a dreamer? You will compare them with Alex Oti? You are going to compare them with Mba? Tell me now. Or are you going to compare them with Hope Uzodimma? Can’t you see how many cultural events they are doing to sensitize themselves? Everybody’s on alert. Every election has to be reworked. Every election has to be recalibrated. The research is heavy, it’s costly. It’s time, it’s painstaking. You can’t win only by numbers. Forget that nonsense. You have to win by a combination of numbers, science, and money. Which of them do you people have more than him? In terms of science, you know, I can tell you where in science, infrastructure, there are two guys, they’re the French boys. They schooled in Cambridge and Oxford. I know them; they know me. They are the best when it comes to analysis. I’m the only person that is their oga. They are here, already doing a benchmark at a granular level for him (Tinubu).
Let me ask you, maybe you will fear him. When you people are just talking, you don’t see him because he’s your citizen; you don’t take him for granted. Do you know what it takes to convert the anger of the presidency of Donald Trump into partnership without screaming? Without screaming. When they said they were going to bomb the country, most of these jokers that are saying they want to be president would have been pissing in their pants. They would have been saying the wrong things. They would have been applying the wrong strategy. They would have been running here and there. I went there four times. I sat through the conversation with Riley and Co. I knew how serious the matter was. When we finished the engagement, I could not sleep. There are things I’ve done in this country that I should have gotten a national award for. I’ve worked very hard for this country.
