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Barr. ADEBAYO SHITTU Insists
Talking about your party, the APC, how do you always feel when you read in the media all the criticisms of how the APC has run the country at both the federal level and in all the states?
Regarding the national level, I have an answer, but not for the states where I don’t live and where the APC is ruling. It would be difficult for me to know the facts. If you are talking about the national level, the greatest problem which people criticized in Tinubu’s government reform is the fact that they removed oil subsidy, which has its own consequences. But remember that before the elections, the three foremost presidential aspirants at the time—Tinubu, Atiku, and Peter Obi—all said in agreement that when they get to power, they would remove oil subsidy. This means that was the only sensible thing to be done.
When you inherit a dilapidated structure, you won’t say, ‘Because some people are living there and they won’t be happy if you try to resettle them, you will leave the structure as it is.’ At some stage, the thing will collapse and fall on them, and they will be affected negatively. So, you must have the courage to do the needful. I’m happy that Tinubu had the courage to remove oil subsidy, just like other co-contestants agreed they were going to do.
Having removed the oil subsidy, now look at the extent of monies (or funds) through federal allocations that come to the various states. Governance is not a one-way thing. Our federation is a federating system; it’s not a unitary government. So, monies that accumulate as a result of the removal of oil subsidy are being shared with all states, the federal government itself, and local governments. And all those who receive these monies are supposed to utilize them to reduce the consequences of oil subsidy removal, to build roads, to build schools, and to implement all policies that can reduce poverty in the country.
If the federal government is using its own funds to do important structures, and states (because when they talk about people suffering, they are in the states) refuse to do the needful and instead pocket these humongous monies coming into their pockets, you don’t blame the federal government. For the federal government, we know what it’s using its money for, and I can say with pride that for the first time in this country, we have a government building a 750km road from Lagos, called Coastal Road, to Calabar.
It has never happened. Calabar is one end of the country. Lagos is the other end. 750km of fantastic road—we have never seen it. From Badagry, another end of the country, to Sokoto, 1,050km of fantastic express roads. You know what that means for national integration and what it means for economic development for the whole country. Again, we have the NELFUND. Billions of naira are being spent to ensure that people have access to funding for education. It has never happened. There are so many economic programs which the federal government is undertaking now. And we have evidence that the situation in the country has improved. The economy is being reset. Over the years, nobody could—maybe out of fear of the public, maybe people would criticize them—they kept postponing the evil day. Now the President says no, enough of postponing the evil day. Let us do the needful. If we have to sacrifice, we sacrifice up to a certain stage, but at the end of the sacrifice, we’ll all laugh. That is what is happening.
You are one of the contenders for the governorship in the state, but the incumbent governor keeps insisting that he is going to put in place a successor?
He is just gassing. You know what it means? What you don’t have power to do, but you blow your trumpet that you will do it. Number one, he’s not INEC. Number two, he is a member of one political party, not a member of all parties. Within his party, he will have his candidate. He can only manipulate for his chosen candidate to come up. But we are ready for them. As APC, we are taking over. You see, Governor Seyi Makinde is one person who cannot be your friend from morning till night. I mean, he is as bad as that. Half of his party members in PDP have already left, joined APC willingly. So what they have in PDP today is a ghost of the former PDP we used to have. Which magic is he now going to use to have a governor of his choice in 2027? I can’t see it. We are praying that in our party, we have the right candidate.
The biggest topic right now is the controversy surrounding the transmission of election results, and that has also led to demonstrations recently. What is your view?
My view is that there must be immediate transmission of results. We are democrats, and we don’t want anything which will tarnish the image of our party or be seen in any bad way. The law is clear, and fortunately, the House of Representatives agreed to that. So that must be reinstated into the electoral bill. I support those who are demonstrating. Their demonstration is on behalf of the whole of Nigerians. That what is good is good, and we must not leave room for suspicion. As a party, we are all democrats, and we want the best for our President; then we want the best for Nigeria.
You are a member of the ruling party APC, and there are lots of alignments and re-alignments among the opposition. How do you see all these?
Everybody is free to aspire. But aspiration is not a conclusive thing. And if you look at the political trend in Nigeria, you will just laugh at the so-called opposition. Laugh because when we came onboard, how many states did we have? We had maybe 22 or thereabouts. Today, we have 29 and still counting. People are moving from the opposition to our party because they know that our party remains in a state of perpetual consolidation. And I don’t blame people who are coming to our party. When a governor comes into APC, he knows he has the advantage of APC not fielding any original party candidate in his state. That is one, but more importantly, if they remain in their old party, these are parties which are in disarray. They are not likely to even have national executives to submit their names to INEC. These are factual things, which unfortunately, they are not able to gather themselves and do things tightly. Democracy is about competition, and we are prepared for the competition.
Some of the opposition parties are alleging that the crisis facing the other parties is being generated by APC?
They may allege, but there must be evidence. And if there is any evidence which is sufficiently structured, then they can go to court. People just talk without evidence. Was any governor bullied? In what ways? These are the impossible things they allege. But you know, when somebody is failing, he must create an alibi for himself. He must try to give a justification.
Seasoned politicians like you have also come out to say that the governors moving to your party doesn’t mean it will lead to victory?
Well, it doesn’t mean? When governors are moving, when their legislators are moving, you say it doesn’t mean? Let it continue to not mean. So they don’t have cause to fear them. We are preparing for the next election.
Are you also not worried that out of all the parties, only APC appears to be organized?
It’s not the fault of APC. Now we have ADC. If they can muster some mobilization, we are proud to confront them.
Is it not worrisome also that just 12 months to the election, a party like ADC doesn’t have a presidential candidate?
We too don’t have a presidential candidate yet. Of course, we have Mr. President who will be re-contesting. That is the system. It is not our fault. If your enemy is unable to gather himself together, is it your fault?
