…Says he’s not missing anything not being principal officer in House of Reps
Immediate past Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, has actually become a household name in Nigeria’s parliament, having spent the greater part of his political career at the National Assembly.
The Kano-born sagacious legislator spoke to Sunday Sun in Abuja on a wide range of political issues, especially the future of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under the watch of a new leadership of the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
He also spoke on the controversial leadership of the same Muslim-Muslim faith for chairman and secretary of the party, the calibre of ministerial nominees and the quality of screening the upper chambers are subjecting them to.
He equally commented on why Abdullahi Adamu, the immediate past national chairman of APC, cannot complain of unfair treatment in resigning from the party.
How do describe the intrigues that trailed the APC NEC meeting?
What transpired was what can be described as democracy in action. We are dealing with party politics and politicking. When you have an issue of concern for the administration of the party, especially the ruling party and the biggest political party in the sub-Saharan Africa region, definitely the intrigue playing out now is expected and bound to happen. The NEC meeting is always a special session to provide for a legitimate transition of governance within party politics or within the party system of our ruling APC. As for the intrigues for Ganduje’s emergence, I can tell you that nothing is surprising in Nigerian politics. Whatever might have happened, the fact is that there is a vacancy for the position of national chairman. Regardless of whatever anybody feels about it, that vacancy must be filled. For the leader of the party, President Bola Tinubu to repose confidence in our own person, Ganduje, who has the necessary requisite needed to stir the activities of a great party like the APC is not surprising to me. It is about competence, capacity, and acceptability that he has been able to secure on the part of the leader of the party. When you have a presidential system of government, the power revolves around the democratically elected president. And when the president believes that he can work with him, it is fine and beautiful. In the president himself resides the legitimacy of the Nigerian electorate, the confidence of the people and the party members and the Nigerians that overwhelmingly elected him. Whatever decision he is taking on behalf of the people, it is assumed that he is doing it for the good of the party. I have implicit belief and conviction that the man we have chosen, the one in charge of the party, will deliver. He has been a party administrator and many people did not even know that he started as a party officer, ward secretary of a party as far back as 35 years ago. He was also a state youth leader during the NPN political dispensation, he has been in governance and he is not only somebody who has what it takes to lead, but also has quality curriculum vitae of party administration.
What is your impression about the capacity of the ministerial nominees and the quality of the screening they are going through in the Senate?
With due respect to the upper legislative chambers and the Nigerian people, what is happening in the Senate in the name of the screening exercise is an institutional exercise. I will say so far so good. The screening is meeting up with the expectations of the people. And if you look at the quality of the nominees being presented, you will believe that the Tinubu-led government means business. He means change for the Nigerian people. He has assembled a creed of people that are not only professionally competent, but also blessed with young generational people. With the calibre of persons he brought on board to work with him in the would-be cabinet, I can conclude that Mr. President means business. He has assembled people who can help him turn around the economy and governance for the good of the people.
You should understand that the beginning of everything is bound to experience turbulence. I am looking at this as an administrative turbulence, but we will survive it. What is certain is that you cannot stop Nigerians from asking questions. You cannot also stop them from being curious to understand things that are strange, but the good thing is that when a government believes in its programmes and policies when a government knows that it will deliver, the initial hitches, complaints and bickering by the people don’t matter. This is because we are confident that in the long run, people will begin to smile over these fundamental challenges we must go through to deliver. The president has said that he also feels the pain, but he has no other option. I want to join him in this one to say that these are the pains we must go through with the conviction that we will get out of it.
Will it be right to say that the Green Chambers can never be the same for you as a non-principal officer?
There is no iota of truth in it. Yes, I am no longer a principal officer, but such is life. As long as you believe in God, you must accept the reality that what goes around will always come around. Look at the immediate past Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who is now a floor member of the Senate. He has accepted that such is life. Before I became the leader of the House of Representatives, I was something else. As far as the legislative institution is concerned, there is nothing strange. Any legislator can be here or there at a point in time. You can be on the floor of the chambers or on the high table. It does not matter where you are; it all depends on what you are ready to contribute to the development of the legislative institution for the progress of our nation. I am always ready to serve regardless of the position I am given. To answer your question, I can tell you that I am not missing anything. What I would have missed would probably be if my constituency had decided not to bring me back to the House of Representatives. I have achieved the best of success as a parliamentarian which is to continue to sustain and secure the confidence of the electorate. I have done that time without number. So, I am a very proud person.
What do you tell Nigerians that said that APC leaders are very unfair to Abdullahi Adamu by forcing him to resign?
As I said earlier, when you are dealing with party politics, especially in a democratic setting, you cannot definitely avoid some of these things. You can never avoid them because they are part of politics. Politics is dynamic and it is all about changes. Good enough that the logo of our party is even changed for progress. It is not something that you can claim that it is strange or new. It has happened before now, it is happening now and it will continue to happen. It is never going to stop because it is about transition and as far as I am concerned, Abdullahi Adamu as an elder statesman has not made any noise to complain about what happened to him. At least, I have not heard him complaining officially. So, why should anybody cry more than the bereaved? Abdullahi Adamu said that the time has come for him to step out just like when time brought him in. When it was time for him to exit, he did so by way of resignation. Nobody compelled him out of office. It was out of his own volition. I don’t want to see it as if there is any problem or somebody was fair or unfair to him. He was fair to himself and it was done in the name of progress for the party and the country.
What should the party members expect from your former governor, Ganduje, as he takes over the mantle of the party’s leadership?
As I said earlier, Ganduje is not only an administrator par excellence, but also a reliable hand that really delivered as governor of Kano State. I want to tell you that he is also a team player. Incidentally, that is something people don’t really know about him. Once you have a leader who works with a team, somebody endowed with the spirit of working together, you should definitely expect success. My former governor will deliver APC to greater success. APC will definitely record more successes under Ganduje as the administrator of the ruling party.
What is your take on the rumblings in the party over appointing a Muslim chairman and secretary?
I will not want to comment so much on a sensitive issue like religious inclination, especially as it concerns the Nigerian political system. But, I think that it is high time Nigeria outgrew that mundane religious affiliation controversy. Look at the success story of the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket that we have now, it has been very successful, and it has been a clean deal. Nobody considered religious affiliation in voting for the APC. I think we should begin to graduate and gravitate above those mundane and sentimental issues. Nigerians have experimented and shown that leadership is about someone who is competent with the capacity to deliver regardless of his religious affiliations. After surmounting this, we will also tackle another challenge of cultural and tribal sentiment. Having seen that religion is a factor anyone can overlook, very soon, Nigerians will also overcome the issue of culture, ethnic and tribal inclinations. It does not happen elsewhere, it is only in Nigeria that we are very sensitive about where a citizen comes from and somebody will be comfortable to introduce himself as an Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba person. We must begin to look at the person from the contest of his capabilities and what they can deliver like Dora Akunyili of blessed memory. Nobody cared whether she was an Igbo because you cannot take away from her that ability, commitment, determination, zeal and nationalistic tendencies as a woman out to serve her country. It is the same thing from some of our leaders from the northern part of the country. The country must begin to graduate beyond those sentiments for us to have a better Nigeria. It does not matter whether a Muslim is the national chairman and national secretary of the ruling party. If we have a situation where we now have a Christian-Christian joint ticket, we should also allow it to fly.
What can President Tinubu do that will be so disappointing to you?
I am not afraid of Tinubu making any serious mistake because I know the calibre of the man that I voted in as president. The man is on ground. He has the concept of governance in his palms. I am not even contemplating that he is going to disappoint me or fail Nigerians. What I always think about Tinubu is success and the determination for renewed hope for Nigeria.
The sun
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