"APC Will Win Majority Seats In 2015Elections"

The interim national publicity secretary of the All Progressive
Congress (APC), Alh. Lai Mohammed, in this interview with newsmen,
declares that the recently registered APC will not only field
candidates for all elective offices in the 2015 general elections, but
will win majority of the seats in the elections.
What are the chances of APC in the 2015 elections?
APC has a date with history and our leaders must bend backwards. I
have been quite impressed with the level ofachievements so far,
because nobody gave this thing a chance. They thought it will unravel
at the level of finding a common name. They thought the logo was going
to divide it. I believe a lot ofsacrifices have gone into this by all
themerging parties. That is why it amuses me when people tag us as an
Islamist party.
The 2015 elections will not be about one party replacing the other or
about one president being replaced with another. 2015 elections will
be whether Nigeria will continue to stay as one country. It will be
where about how do we avert imminent civil war again. That is why the
leaders of the APC must be able to make the ultimatesacrifice to
rescue Nigeria.
But I can assure you that the APC will not only field candidates for
all elective offices in the 2015 elections but will win the majority
of seats in the elections.
What do you think is the solution tothe insurgency in some parts of thecountry?
In Nigeria today, there is a low burningwar. The entire North-east is
like it is not part of Nigeria. The insecurity in the North-West is
palpable. Why the ACN has restrained itself from making further
comments on the Boko Haram insurgency is because of the PDP and
others' mischief to label us an Islamist party. That is completely
untrue. But aslong as we are unable to address the root causes of Boko
Haram, for so long will the solution elude us.
We are not saying that there might notbe religious overtones in the
issue of Boko Haram, bad governance, corruption and hardship have
created a fertile market for Boko Haram. The time bomb that is waiting
to explode is youth unemployment and this mightbe more dangerous than
any other form of ailment that we have seen so far. If we don't tackle
this, nobody will be secure in Nigeria. Therefore, the goal of any
government is to ensure that they are able to calm the restiveness of
our youths.
There are insinuations that Gen. Babangida and former Vice President,
Atiku Abubakar, are jostling for APC Board of Trustees chair. What is
your take on this?
The Nigerian rumour mill is the most active in the world and it amuses
me when some stories make page one or headlines of newspapers. A party
which is yet to be given its certificate of registration; a party
which is yet to have permanent offices; a party yet to have its
convention at which ward, local and state officials would be elected,
a party that has not even got the guidelines for primaries election
within and outside the party, how can that party all of a sudden now
start talking about board of trustees (BoT).
I think the alleged jostling by General Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar
Atiku andothers for the BoT chair of the APC is a figment of the
rumour peddlers' imagination. The people you have mentioned so far, am
not aware that they have indicated to join the APC. Where will the
issue of fighting for the chairmanship of the BoT come from?
What is the position of your party on the Rivers State crisis?
What is happening in Rivers state should be seen as not a local
matter. Even in a war, war starts on a very insignificant
misunderstanding. But what is happening in Rivers state is worrisome
in many respects, because it is clearly not manufactured in Rivers.It
is manufactured in Abuja. It is a proxywar between the president on
one hand and the governor of Rivers on theother. And it has much to do
with the perceived impression of the president that Amaechi would be a
stumbling block not just to the PDP, but his own ambition to run a
second term.
Now what is the genesis of the Rivers state problem? It started with
the perceived role of Ameachi in his position as chairman of the
Governors Forum as being too confrontational and as if he is behaving
as a unionist, but Amaechi's defense was that he wasspeaking on behalf
of his colleagues asgovernors. Issues such as the Sovereign Wealth
Fund or the excess crude account or issue that border on federalism,
Amaechi became the mouthpiece of the governors to advance their
position against what they saw as the overbearing influence of the
centre. But the presidency and the PDP saw that as being
confrontational, so that earned him a bad name in their book.The
unending internal crisis in the PDPwhich has pitched the governors
against the chairman of the party is again a sore point in the
presidency because the governors as a block wereunhappy when former
governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola was removed as the secretary of the PDP;
they were unhappy also with the treatment Governor Muritala Nyako of
Adamawa state was getting. So they asked Amaechi to speak out their
minds which he did. That again, in was counted against him.
The disputed oil wells between Bayelsa and Rivers states, when Amaechi
suddenly discovered that the funds accruing from this disputed well
which was put in suspense account, had now been credited to the
Bayelsa state government. Of course, he naturally got upset it and he
led the delegation of the elite in the state to go and complain to the
president. Again, didn't endear him to the president. Overall, there
is the issue of no love-lost between Amaechi and thepresident's wife,
who also happens to be from Rivers state.
On many occasions, there have been reports of his being snubbed by the
first Lady. Matters came to a head during the Governors Forum
elections. The presidency was very unhappy and uncomfortable and
mounted a campaign against Amaechi's second coming. Despite the shared
numbers of the PDP controlling 23 governors, when elections were held,
Amaechi came top and the president did not behave statesmanly.
If the president had immediately issued a letter of congratulations to
Amaechi, that would have probably given the image of a statesman, but
hewent the other way by recognizing theJang's faction; that means he
does believe in majority rule, he does not believe in the rule of law.
I think the humiliation that the president suffered from the governors
forum that is now spiraling into what ishappening in Rivers. We must
be honest the role the police has played in this matter is
condemnable. When you have a police commissioner who says the problem
in my state is the governor, then you know that he must have had some
assurances from somewhere else. When we in the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) said put all the problems on the doorsteps on the
president, this is what we were saying.