Yuguda Dibal: Tinubu will Win a Free, Fair Presidential Primary Election

The former deputy governor of Borno State, Yuguda Shettima Dibal was the chairman of the electoral committee from the All Progressives Congress’ headquarters in Abuja that conducted the recent governorship primary election in Lagos State. In this interview with THISDAY, Dibal described the election won by Babajide Sanwo-Olu as free and fair. He also said given a level playing ground, Bola Ahmed Tinubu would win the APC presidential ticket

How did your electoral committee fare in the conduct of the Lagos State governorship primary?

This was a process which started somewhere before culminating in the primary contest. Of course, you know that there are processes the aspirants would have undergone before eventually being eligible to contest for the main primaries. The arrangement was excellent. Lagos, like Borno, where I come from is always one party, one people. The five-man panel was headed by me. The process, as you all can see, was excellent and at the end of the day, the governor was declared the winner.

It was alleged that your panel was bought over which was why the two other contestants were barred from the election

I am aware that three people purchased the forms from Lagos and they went through the screening process, including the sitting governor. The screening committee has the power, as backed by NEC, including the presidential committee, to screen all aspirants and you then go to the Appeal Committee if you have any issue with the whole process. After this, you are given a clean bill of health, meaning, you are issued a certificate which is a norm in all the parties, APC inclusive. I know that three aspirants appeared before the screening committee, one was cleared and the two others were not cleared. If one is cleared and the other weren’t, it means that there are issues regarding the aspirants not being cleared. 

There are rules and guidelines, unfortunately, they didn’t meet the guidelines. Midway into the voting during the governorship tussle, somebody flashed me a piece of online news where it was alleged that the panel was backing certain individuals. Somebody that was not cleared wouldn’t be at the venue. If you are not cleared, you present your matter before the Appeal Committee and then to the National Working Committee and if that was not done, you indeed have an issue. It’s even against the law for you to have gone to the voting centre.

The two gentlemen claimed that they were in Abuja, asking questions about their candidature from the screening committee but nothing was said to them, not even a text message explaining why they were not cleared

Maybe they are Nigerians in Diaspora. Most probably they don’t know the rules and regulations. One of them didn’t have a voters’ card. He said he attempted to register online, but there are a lot of issues. Some may be insinuating, maybe because they don’t know but the aspirants themselves can’t claim ignorance, because they know they have issues. When you met the screening committee, and after a day or two they didn’t call you to come and collect your certificate then, something is wrong. I thought the ideal thing for one to do was to find out and make clarifications about your candidature. 

If for whatever reason you are cleared as an aspirant, making you a candidate and it turned out that the matter is dragged before the court, and the court finds irregularities in the whole process and the election is annulled, the screening committee and political party should be blamed. So, if you were not cleared, you had no business going to the venue of the exercise. Those going to the voting venue, apart from the security, officials, accredited journalists, and election observers are the delegates. Since the law that would allow you to be a statutory delegate hasn’t been signed, not even Mr President or Mr Governor can vote now. I am aware that the governor couldn’t even vote. We are strictly adhering to the rules and regulations of the party and law of the land.

With what you have seen so far, can APC, your party, win Lagos State in next year’s elections?

Lagos is a one-party state and it’s been consistent. That consistency is what is driving Lagos development, making it the third-largest economy in West Africa, courtesy of the Progressives here in the state as led by Ashiwaju himself, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am happy and proud to be associated with a party that has consistently produced the governor of Lagos state. Not different from Borno which has also been consistently a one-party state. The two states have a lot in common in terms of politics.

 The cost of the APC nomination form has been heavily criticised, with many saying the party encourages corruption and it’s an avenue to loot the treasury when aspirants get into office. What is your position on this? 

Unfortunately, in this case, it’s different. Different in the sense that the forms were bought for these gentlemen, they didn’t buy it themselves and the implication of this is that they would be answerable to their people. There is wisdom in raising the nomination forms. I think the idea is to see how popular you are in terms of how many people would be willing to support purchasing the forms for you. The USA we all copy, no single person buys forms there, even if you have the money, fans and supporters would still come out to donate to your campaign.

You talked about being answerable to the people, you and I know that the APC led-federal government isn’t answerable to anybody which is why the insecurity is on the rise since 2015

I think you should be fair in your assessment. I think we found ourselves suddenly in a very precarious situation. The issues or challenges affecting us have a global dimension. The insecurity started from Maiduguri, it went beyond Maiduguri, Borno, North-east, Nigeria and even West Africa. Even in the US, there is insecurity. Haven’t you heard of the shooting in Texas where several people were gunned down?

Are you saying it is an isolated case?

It is not. There are issues all over the world. It’s not peculiar to Nigeria. No country is immune to insecurity at the moment. Insecurity has been an issue before Buhari came in. It’s not just happening. Nigeria is a large but rich country surrounded by poor African countries. We have porous borders. What we are seeing now in terms of insecurity is the neglect we accumulated over the years. It cannot be nipped in the bud within just a short period.

Are you justifying the problems now?

I am not justifying it. All I am saying is that I know that security comes before development. I know security is very important to the stability, prosperous economy and country. 

Some have said the INEC extension of the deadline for submission of form was because of APC, while the party appears to be reneging on its gentleman agreement on power rotation. Four Northerners have purchased forms defeating the essence of that agreement.

I am a party man. I can’t speak on it since I don’t have the mandate to do so. I am aware that the party has put in a lot of measures to make sure that the convention takes place as scheduled. I read that INEC had extended the deadline by one week. I don’t think that should be an issue. Everybody is being careful so that we won’t repeat the mistakes we had in some parts of the country. To allow internal democracy requires planning and resources. I also know that a lot of parties had approached INEC in the past to see how the date can be extended but insisted no waiver. I guessed INEC must have considered the level of preparation of all the political parties and decided to shift grounds. Regarding the gentleman agreement, I am a Tinubu man through and through. I don’t have apologies for that. It might interest you to note that I am the state coordinator for Borno state. I have been with him since he was a governor. He is a builder. 

He single-handedly got the highest in terms of human capital development. If we have a reward system, what happened to governor Zulum and Honorable Muktar Batera should have happened to Tinubu. We know his contribution to the merger called APC. If there is a reward system to say thank you, it would be to beg him to come and take over the ticket of the party, unopposed. But Asiwaju that I know is a democratic and party man. He would rather go into the contest. That’s how democratic he is. You mentioned names from the North who bought forms, those are names that cannot match Tinubu, even in their bedrooms, and he would win them there. All we want is a free and fair election, which is our concern in the camp of Asiwaju. There is nobody among all the current seekers of the office of the president that can match Tinubu. That is a fact. He has contributed more to the development of democracy than anybody contesting the primaries with him. He fought and stood for democracy. Tell me one that has done as much as Tinubu for democracy, none. 

There is nobody Tinubu hasn’t assisted in one way or another. Is it Mr president that contested for the presidency many times until the merger happened? It was God Almighty that made it possible for Buhari to be president but with human contribution of the likes of Tinubu.

There was a time I went to receive my then deputy governor at the airport, in Lagos, I wasn’t in government then. I was into private business. My deputy governor introduced me to him and thereafter, he said to my deputy governor that when you are done, you hand over to him. Do you know that four years later, the deputy governor handed over to us because his governor wasn’t available for the swearing-in ceremony? I tapped him and reminded him what Asiwaju told him at the Lagos airport. I told him that he wasn’t only handing over to me but I was chasing him out of the office. We all laughed over it. That is the kind of visionary leader Tinubu is.

We have a forum of former deputy governors where we meet, interact and share ideas; some of the testimonies of my colleagues across the board are baffling. There was one of us who described Tinubu in tears. The man is a Christian. Tinubu is a Muslim. I have been with a man once and suddenly his phone rang, who was it, it was Tinubu, calling to wish him and congratulate him on his birthday. For those of us passionate about Tinubu, it is because of these qualities I just highlighted and many more that the public do not know. I have learnt politically from him. A colleague was telling me that if it were another governor he had issues with; he probably wouldn’t have forgiven him as Tinubu did. Tinubu has a forgiven heart. If we have many of Tinubu, Nigeria would have developed better and faster than it is at present.