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Dealing with politicians with controversial images

Anti-corruption fight is just one
out of several things I have done in my life. But I have done more than
that in my life. However, getting the chance to fight corruption, to
set up EFCC, I take it as one of the things I derive pride in. But
before that I was a lawyer, a prosecutor and member of an economic
management team. I did my job then, to the best of my ability. I left
it like that and I am a different person now. I am trying to get into
public service through elections. There is no other way to do it other
than to belong to a political party. I don’t want to belong to the PDP
because I know they are the problem of this country. My mission in
Action Congress of Nigeria is that I want to participate to re-build my
country. I am honest about it. We should never judge people on the
basis of what really happened before and say because we don’t trust you
or because of your character, you are excluded from Nigeria. We should
know that every one person would have something to contribute. At the
same time, it does not necessary mean that I am looking to work with
any bad person.

Nothing against Tinubu

I never prosecuted Tinubu, George
Akume, and all the other chieftains of my party. Ahmed Tinubu did not
do anything wrong at the time when I was there as EFCC boss, for me to
charge him to court. But because he fought PDP so badly, they want to
crucify him. In politics, you do not chose those who you can be with.
It has never happened anywhere in the world. There are politicians
today in Nigeria that I respect. Take, for example, Buhari. His own
campaign manager, Haruna, he put him in jail for three years. I worked
as an anti-corruption person in Nigeria. I know those who are corrupt.
I know those who stole money in our country. Secondly politics is about
people and should be all-inclusive. I don’t have the arrogance to feel
that any other person is less than me. I respect people and I recognize
people generally. It is their constitutional right to belong to a
political party. I cannot say just because I am a member of a political
party, I would therefore determine every single member of that
political party. It is humanly impossible. It is unconstitutional and
it is not right. If we continue to talk about others and all these
people you mentioned who are in my party, Ahmed Tinubu, Jolly Nyame,
George Akume, I think it is a little unfair to me. They have hammered
me on this man (Ahmed Tinubu0 and they could not get evidence and they
continue to shift the goalpost. I don’t know who they are going to
bring again very soon. Those impugning my political association with
some chieftains of the party, are carrying out a disservice to this
country because, for the first time, a chance will come to release
Nigerians from PDP’s bad governance, mismanagement and incompetence.

His apprehension about the elections

I’m worried about the behaviour
and attitude of PDP and they are bringing government agencies and
institutions to misuse them. The military should not allow it and
neither should the police allow themselves to be misused by the PDP
because they have no benefits out of it. PDP is desperate, we know that
INEC is resisting them. INEC for the first time is saying no, we are
not going to be used. I’m calling on the military to also say no, we
are not going to be used.

I am calling on the police to
stand on the side of Nigerians. Everybody including the military and
police must stand tall. Let Nigerians be the winners.

Financing his campaign

Campaign is about people. I don’t
go about throwing money like the PDP that spends over a billion every
day. These are monies supposedly meant for Nigerians, it is our own
money. Buhari has been running his campaign since 2002. Buhari is never
a rich person, but he has been funding his campaign. I’m not a rich
person and I am also doing the same thing. The same thing with Shagari
and the late Sardauna, Ahmed Bello. We have honest people who do not
have money but have been running their campaigns. And they have been
successful. Nuhu Ribadu has just entered in the continuation of that
tradition. Those who are using money to do what they like, go and ask
them.

His election plan

We would change our country and we
will relieve the country from the burden of mismanagement and
maladministration the PDP has lead us into. We will address the issue
of poverty, diversify the economy and convert it from oil dependence to
non-oil dependent economy that would create jobs for everyone who wants
to work.

My administration would reverse
this wastage that has taking place, where 75 percent of our money goes
into running of the government. We will cut that and put a lot of those
resources into growth and development, instead of just servicing the
government.

We will stop this nonsense that PDP brought to the country,
kidnapping, bombing, Boko Haram. They are all product of PDP, because
we did not know all that before. We will make Nigeria safe and secure.
Fortunately, It’s an area that I am fairly well grounded. I know
security and law enforcement. We will provide safety for our country
and we will never rest until we do those things. We are going to make
sure that we run a government that is transparent and accountable.