2019: Atiku PDP’s only hope – Showunmi

The PDP’s only chance of defeating the APC’s presidential candidate in next year’s presidential race is by fielding the versatile and most popular candidate- former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Segun Showunmi, the Director Media and Publicity of Atiku Campaign Organization, in this interview with Patrick Andrew, reveals why none of the other aspirants can match Atiku.

The siege of the National Assembly complex by heavily armed DSS men and the face-off between the PDP and the APC arising there from, must be a setback for democracy?

We must be very vigilant about what we allow, what can be acceptable, is tolerable and what is condemned in its entirety in a democracy.  Investigation should take place by the appropriate authority on how such brigand, lawlessness, embarrassingly difficult to explain position came about.  Suffice to say in a democracy, moderate conduct, independence of other organs, respect for the rule of law and separation of powers are what people look out for to say how your democracy is faring. What happened around the National Assembly complex is sad, unfortunate regrettable, unacceptable and condemned in its entirety.  Every explanation that the managers and handlers of the Federal Government have in this matter only makes them incapable, unworthy, dictatorial and immature in handling democracy.

Without taking sides, how do you imagine other nations of the world would react to the commentary of every blessed day they wake up to read about Nigeria in newspapers and internet?

They read about all manner of things that suggest that we are almost turning our country into a Banana Republic.  The rule of engagement on who controls what, gives what instructions, has what right to give what instructions, are clearly spelt out in the schedule of duty of the Federal Government; the operational manual of government.  It would be difficult to accept that the top echelon of the Directorate of the State Security can be manipulated and moved about without some permission.

The kind of gears that you saw them wear, the military fatigue that they put on and how timely at which they moved, the coordination of the vehicles and the instrument of coercion and the guns they were holding all of these suggests that somebody must be responsible.

The APC seems to suggest that the incident (siege) was staged managed by the senate president?

We must be careful when we listen to rumors or react to rumors.  Rumors are just as they are called rumors: unsubstantiated, unverified, unproven and sometimes out right falsehood that shifts out in this new information management opportunity that social media and the internet avail us.  What you would expect a decent and responsible government, President Muhammadu Buhari to do is to investigate and determine what has happened.  But you see, when a set of activities take place that is not good for democracy and it is ignored like what you saw in Benue State and what was happening around Ekiti State after the loss of the election, what you are going get, is that people get emboldened to continue in the direction that leads nowhere honorably. And had those who had the responsibility of managing the agencies of security been up and alive to their responsibility they would have sent a clear signal that that level of meddlesomeness and unprofessional conduct is not acceptable in a democracy.  So, it is a regrettable, unfortunate needless set of activities that our country has been bedeviled with.  And that is one of the reasons why we say to Nigerians that our democracy has a lot to learn from a democratic leader.

Atiku is a democratic leader who knows how to build consensus, listens to people, whose approach to problems is not the barrel, the stick and the guns, allows democracy to thrive through solution based discussions to resolve knotty issues.

The relationship between the Legislature and the Executive is always a topsy-turvy one all over the world.  You see it in America, in Europe and sometimes when you are watching the Prime Minister of Britain address her colleagues in parliament and you see the level shouting you understand that truly in a democracy everybody must be given opportunity to have their way and separation of powers must be respected.

When you see how much time, effort and persuasion it takes the most democratic leader in the world- the American President- to get his way even with his own congress, you know that the principle of managing executive power in a democracy fits better with someone that has democratic credentials.
 

And I dare say that Nigerians would quickly yield the leadership of the country to my Principal the former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency the Wazirin Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar to be president now.  Then all persons would learn and see that it is possible to be president, be democratic and still wield power in a way that institutions become bigger and better managed than converting it into a cult followership of just one man and his tendencies.

 
With the entry into the Presidential race of the Governors of Gombe and Sokoto States respectively, do you feel threatened?

 
A democratic party or a democratic process imagines that once it is time for people to present themselves in an aspiration for any office, the presidency none-the-less, people that are qualified and not exempted by law, it is within their right to push, market, and present themselves.  What we will be looking for is to see that the processes are free, fair, transparent and credible and once you are presented to the processes that fit those minimum requirements then we would say, “may the best man win.”

 
What do we need to do to signpost who the best man is?

 
We will have to look at the situation in the nation at that point in time. The person that will lead must look in totality at where the life of that nation is. Based on the situation it is determined which man is best prepared to handle the nation.

 
Now give me the opportunity to say where Nigeria is today.  Every Nigerian knows that right now our country is divided for some needless reasons: brothers are no longer smiling with their brothers, farmers and herders that have cooperated for thousands of years are no longer able to see themselves as friends and relatives or as neighbors or even contemporaries.

 
If you are a farmer and you hate a herdsman, what about asking yourself, is there no symbiotic relationship with manure and yourself? If you are a herdsman and kill a farmer are you not worried that you are at the base of the pyramid where all of you are trying to egg out a living and that you are just killing yourselves for nothing? People are divided across tribes. When you see a nation that is divided you need to ask which of the aspirants has the capability to unite them from previous earned-experience.  I make bold to say that Atiku is.  He is at home with the South West, he has businesses located there, he is at home in South East by marriage and some of his children are half Igbo, South-South through long-time relationships that has never created any problem, and he is very much at peace with the middle Belt as one of the highest non-indigene title holder in Benue State.

 
He is Fulani by tribe so nobody can come and wipe up any sentiment about and against Fulani. He is royalty being the Wazirin of Adamawa – Prime Minister of a large community, and connects with traditional communities.

 
He is a big consummate businessman that the business communities are at home with him, an employer of labor so that those in the business of creating employment are able to connect with him.  That is Atiku for you.

 
Why is Atiku most qualified?

 
Look at the past, Atiku is someone with vision and great ideas, who effects or establishes them.  Let’s look at some of them: the Pension Fund, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Privatization, Bureau of Public Procurement and the latter was interesting.  Atiku had found out that there was a report by the World Bank sometime in 1999 that procurement in Nigeria was the most expensive in the world.

 
It means that if a Nigerian government agency wanted to buy biro or paper they found out that the price the agency was paying for the biro was more expensive than any other procurement in the world.  That was dangerous, so Atiku came up with the idea of Bureau of Public Procurement as a policy to say that public procurement must fit into a particular template and it cannot be above it just to be sure that from managerial framework Nigeria’s procurement does not become the most expensive in the world.

 
If the PDP must go into the 2019 presidential contest it must go into the race with a strong brand. I believe that Atiku is that person.