Arise: Tinubu More Qualified than Other Presidential Candidates

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayo Arise, in this interview with Adedayo Akinwale, speaks on salient national issues including the fact that the party’s presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is the candidate to beat in the February 25 election.

The February 10 deadline for the currency swap has come and gone and I know that a lot of stakeholders have expressed concern over the policy which they said is well intended and was poorly implemented. What’s your take on this?

 I think it’s a very welcome development, the Supreme Court has intervened because it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that there is peace and order. The welfare of the people, the security of workers in the bank and security of individuals on the street. A lot of people are walking about with a lot of anger. 

A little thing can trigger unexpected consequences. And this currency thing has festered for almost two weeks now. We’ve seen the effect, we’ve the consequences of lack of good planning, and ordinarily should not have required the Supreme Court to intervene for this policy to have been  changed. 

Having said that,  it is the prerogative of the CBN to change currencies, but it’s not part of the Act, everything has a procedure. It is always good for us to learn from other climes. I have lived in America now for over 40 years. They have changed their currency about twice but it’s within the space of about 25 years and you will never know that any currency is being changed. 

It is when you take your old currency to the bank, they will take it, the Bank will give you back the new currencies. There have never been a time when the Federal Reserve Bank in America would actually say they are banning a legal tender.  

To change the currency is not a problem, but for you to now simultaneously say that you are banning the old currency within 30 days without making adequate provision for you to give people money as they bring their monies into the bank. 

This claim that the policy was ab initio intended to frustrate the ambition of a particular candidate,  in this case, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he has alleged that himself, governors of the party have done same  and the federal government, though  they have attempted to deny that, have not succeed in convincing Nigerians. Do you also share that view?

Well, let me say it the way I see it. Even if that was not the intention of the policy. It is not rocket science for us to see who will be affected most by this policy. We were  here in 2018/2019 when we were  campaigning for the second term of our president, what was going on was people like (Yemi) Osinbajo going into markets, going  into every state doing market money (trader-moni) to relieve the burden and the pains  on the people, to show that this government cares. 

So if the same government now says we have about two weeks to our election and they now say they want to visit hardship on the people, do you think that the average man on the street would like APC as a party when you have such a keen competition? 

So, it might not be the original intention or their purpose, but that is what we’re seeing on the streets. People are angry. Why do you want to go to an election, you don’t  create an atmosphere that will bring so much anger to people on the street. The everyday person who’s going to vote, they have forgotten all the good things that APC did in the past. They’re only going to remain with this knowledge of what have been visited upon them. So if Asiwaju says it is targeted at him, he’s speaking correctly.

There was a report in a national daily that the APC started scheming to seek election postponement by four weeks and the person leading the pack allegedly is Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, what’s is your response to this, is that the plan of the party?

Well, let me put it this way. I believe we read today that INEC has gone to meet (Godwin) Emefiele that if he doesn’t have money to prosecute this election, What do you think would be the result? The result would certainly lead to   postponement. Invariably, some people have already foreseen where this thing is headed to. And when you look at it, on the day of the election, the drivers  that will carry the ballot papers and all that, that will drive to the respective locations and distribute in all the polling units are cash-and-carry people. And you don’t have cash to pay them. So, what would then happen, it would be a colossal disaster because some people will be ready for election and there would be no materials to vote. 

At the moment I saw that this is the outcome of this problem. We have to thank the likes of El-Rufai who could come out. Because you like him or hate him, you know he’s somebody that speaks truth to anybody. He will come out and talk and it took his intervention for people to understand there is a  problem. 

With all of these challenges, APC is becoming increasingly unpopular with anti-people policies. Does your party and your candidate stand a chance of winning this election?

 Yes, I believe, Asiwaju will win this election for many reasons. And I’ll tell you my thoughts. There are three candidates. Asiwaju seems to be the frontrunner. First because, he’s a member of the ruling party and second, the sentiments of the country is for a southern  president. 

The other major party which is PDP has an existing structure and they have some governors that will certainly work with their states to seal victory for their candidates. Their candidate is  from the north and it is the general consensus that this thing – either written or unwritten – should be a rotation between the north and the south. So now that President Buhari is from the north and he’s leaving, the logical thing to do to strengthen the trust among ourselves in this country, to create a sense of belonging that sometimes this thing is coming to our side is to vote for a southern candidate. That is on the one side. 

The second side is that all these things that  is happening, the only place that I doubt 80 per cent win in the South-west is probably Lagos. 

Not because of the factor of the PDP but because of the factor of (Peter) Obi. There are many Igbo people in Lagos. 

There is a possibility that this election too, we will have a taint of tribal sentiment. So just like the Yorubas will massively vote for Asiwaju, the Igbos will massively vote for Obi. But now remember that the northern governors came together to say this thing has to move to the south. 

So they’re already convinced that the work they want to do for the stability of this country is to work for a southern presidential candidate. 

And of the states in the north, APC controls the majority. The northern governors, who are incumbent governors, who are coming back,  running for second time, all of them in the APC, they will want to make sure they win their elections. There is no amount of deceit that will sway the Northern APC Governors from understanding the fact that if they play games with the presidential election, it will have a backlash on the governorship election.

 So, I’m convinced, like many other APC members, that Asiwaju not only has worked harder than everyone of them, but he’s a lot more organised without being sentimental. And he has surrounded himself with people that can actually  challenge his thoughts and give him advice. 

So, you don’t see the election going into a second ballot?

What I see is that if it were a two-way win election, the possibility of a second ballot is very possible.