Chief Bisi Akande is the pioneer National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). After spending the last few months outside the country on health-related matters, the former Osun State governor, speaking exclusively to The Editor of The New Diplomat, KAMAL TAYO OROPO, he painted a dismal picture of the party, especially its National Working Committee (NWC) arm, which he believed has not been doing well enough in addressing efficiently matters in the APC.
You must now be sad about over a number of things in the country and your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). But without people like you, this government wouldn’t have been in place, against the backdrop of the merger, which you spearheaded as the then national chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). I am talking about your party alliance with APC. Are we witnessing a case of birds of different feathers flocking together?
Thank you for the flattering. I would rather think that major efforts for the merger can be credited to Bola Tinubu. It is true that I have been very adamant that we should deal with other political parties. I always felt we should do alliances. But it was Bola’s strong feelings that alliances cannot always succeed, that a merger is the best. A situation where you surrender all and convince others to surrender all.
Apart from believing so strongly, he also put a lot of money into it. But he did a lot of these things in deep conversation and agreement with me. I was in a position to implement as the National Chairman of the ACN then. That is why, it looks as if a lot might not happen and without me; a lot better might have happened as well.
I don’t regret that it happened. Not because I feel we have been doing any magic in government. But because I know that if there was no break in the altitude of the People Democratic Party (PDP) to governance; Nigeria would have collapse into chaos. Only God knows where we would have been. May be, we would have been in one IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp and perhaps a lot of criminal activities would have been predominant. Chaos is not a good thing in human organisation,
If PDP had continue to run this country; it would have led to a serious chaos. I thank God, I was part of the merger history that led to a break from PDP’s impunity; the impunity was too much.
Looking at the people’s expectation from this party and the situation on ground today, where people seem to be getting disappointed, will you say Nigerians are unduly too much in a hurry?
Many of these people you refer would have ended in hell, but are now in purgatory. And they should just pray to return to earth instead of hell. In hell, it might be too hot and that it is the picture of what was in the offing. We would have been in total chaos like they are in South Sudan; which will not be acceptable. And that is what we were heading for and to stop it; it would put a lot of stress on all the people. President Muhammadu Buhari is just trying to apply break slide, turning us from going to hell and later we would smile soon. All the sweat we are having now is necessary, because Nigerians will soon smile. He applied the break in a screeching way, bringing us into sanity. We will soon come into some peace. People will now say; it was very bad last year.
What Buhari is doing now, as a matter of priority, is to prevent Nigerians from running into hunger riot. By the time it gets to a situation whereby nobody gets something to eat anymore; chaos is the next stage.
Nigerians will soon experience peace during the next harvest season. But the rich will still be in one kind of trouble because they spend dollars. While many of us who spend naira will smile soon, the rich who spend dollars might stay longer before they find their way into peace.
The problems bedevilling the APC in both the Senate and House of representatives are yet unresolved. For how long can the system endure this type of distraction to governance?
Honestly, I know there would be an explosion very shortly. It now depends on how the leadership of the government and leadership of the party are preparing themselves for the explosion that would come. It might be political, it might be corruption or whatever. The House of Reps’ problem is not the same as the Senate’s problem. The House of Reps’ problem is more of attitude; it is a matter of attitude. They were friendly and very well together, when they were sharing together. Now, maybe they do not have enough to share again, that relationship seems to have hit the rock. That of the Senate is a case of the minority ruling the majority. And there is no way you correct it without running the country into an explosion; one way or the other. But it will come and solution would be found. The moment that is solved, Nigeria will begin to run in peace.
Specifically, how could the problem be solved?
It has yet to expose itself. It is not hot yet; for now, it is just warm. By the time it gets to it, the hot level, we will all sit down and handle it.
For now, do you see the current president of the Senate serving out his term?
Senator Saraki is my associate. He is also my friend. I want him to live well. I didn’t like him; the way he kicked against his party for his personal political ambition, but i have said enough about that particular subject matter and i do not want to go back to it. Now, moving forward, all i can do is he had done that –Saraki has torn the paper, how do we go about gumming it back together? That is the duty of the party. If we have a very efficient and well to do National working Committee, they would having been thinking about the solution and find a solution to it.
But you are one of the elders and leaders of the party. What effort are people like you doing to making the NWC of the party more effectual?
I have no official position in the party and can only whisper to them from the behind. And you can only whisper to individuals. For example, if i meet the national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, i can only say, ‘Mr. Chairman, cant we do this and that a little bit better?’ and if i meet the secretary, I can only do the whispering. I am no longer part of the running of the party.
But you are the pioneer national chairman of the party…
How constitution never gives any pioneer national chairman any power to deal with the existing chairman.
Don’t you play any role in the daily affairs of the party?
Honestly, I play no role, other than friendly advice. And of course, I have not been in the country for the past four months. I came back to see the situation the way it is.
But from your vintage position, what is amiss in the APC?
I think the APC National Working Committee (NWC) is a little bit lackadaisical. They don’t know how to take firm position on a serious issue. That is what is happening and that was what we had during the senate leadership issue. The party was never firm, forthcoming, and was not taking decision. For example, the party has been foot-dragging on what to do in Ondo State. They don’t know when to say ‘no’ or ‘yes’. I think it is the party’s National Working Committee that is creating the problem that we are having.
Another thing is that Nigerian Constitution is very bad. The Constitution that gives power to anybody in Abuja to be supervising roads in Offa is terrible. If you have not been to Offa (in Kwara State) for a long-time, you won’t know that from Ilorin, you can’t reach Offa easily. The Southwest geo-political zone cannot link up with the Northcentral; going through Offa. The zone also cannot reach Kogi State easily because of bad road. It has been so for 15 years because the supervisor is in Abuja. The supervisor cannot know because he has been flying across all the bad roads.
So, it is a bad constitution that gives power to the Federal Government to do all these things without delegation to some people who are really on the ground.
Each arm of the government should be making its money and spend it. But we have a leadership problem, we are just 60 years and we just started. I believe that if we had addressed ourselves properly and reasonably we should be doing well. Maybe, too many people think they only go to government to make money and they have no opportunity no time to sit down, study to know why they are in government; what they should do and their visions.
Once we don’t have the same vision going into governance; we won’t have the same vision. I think those at the centre with President Buhari should be able to give us a focus that will turn us onto the right path.
Talking about the need to restructure the country, what exactly are we restructuring?
Well, it is a complicate mater. Even federalism is a complicated form of government even in most countries practising it. It is mostly because they could not come up with a better way of solving the problem of multi-national committee or polity. When you don’t have any other way of solving the problem a multi-national polity, you resort to federalism. And federalism means do it together with a lot of delegation. Live together, think together, have common vision, but work together at the federating units. But in this country, the federating units see themselves as very inferior and they look up to the central government even for donations to run their own affairs. It is not supposed to be so.
Each arm of the government should be making its own money and spending it. But we have a leadership problem in this country. We are just beginning; just 60 years old. But i believe if we had addressed ourselves very properly and more reasonably, we should have been doing well by now.
Essentially, you are talking about the need to change; speaking of which: where does change really starts from? The led or leaders?
The change starts with me and with all of us. What change are we talking about? Nigeria was not good before and we all think we need to change it. We all think we should not be disciplined and we all think selfishly. And to be altruistic is a bit difficult. To think about others as much as you do to yourself is very difficult, but that is the first law in all religion. In this country, we rarely think about others and we only think about oneself.
Before now, you can think about others the same way you can think about yourself; Change must begin with you the same way it must begin with me and everyone. The moment you are thinking about others as you are thinking about yourself, change is beginning with you.
But do you think the president has the moral standing to really lead this change campaign?
He has not been found to be a thief; I think he is best qualified for it. Those who goes to power with an intention to steal are thieves.
You have been out of active politics for a while, what are you doing in retirement?
Nobody retires from politics. As a young man, I was trained as an accountant and I got employed by an Oil company for 23 years before I was commandeered into politics.
In politics, I have done my best and I still want to do more but not in public office. I am still a politician and I am still very active. I will continue to be active and I will continue to contribute to politics as long as I am active. I don’t have anything personal to do. I have trained all my children. They are all professionals in their own ride and they are settled in their different lives. The rest of my life is devoted to how Nigeria will be better than I met it and I think through politics.
You are not into farming or related vocation?
I am too old to go into farming when I am already running into 80’s . The only thing I can delve into is to be in politics without any rewards. I have been doing that since 15 years ago. I have been a national chairman for a political party for almost 11 years without any reward. Even when I run errand for the political party, I don’t make claims. I paid from the little I have. When I occupied a public office; I buy in the public market with the cheapest price and quality for my people. I have done my best.
