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The governor of
Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, recently visited Akure, the Ondo State
capital. He spoke on his ambition to become president of Nigeria and
his reservation against the zoning arrangement in the Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP). Excerpts:

On the zoning arrangement of the PDP

You know that I am
not a PDP man. That is a PDP affair, and you can ask them what led to
that decision in 1999. Who goes first, who goes second, and who goes
third, and how would they want the rotation. As far as I and my party
are concerned, the issue of leadership is a matter of identifying the
right people with credibility. I have said a number of times that what
ordinary Nigerians look forward to is social justice. Whoever will come
and be fair to all, whoever will come and give Nigerians a sense of
belonging, for goodness sake, let it be, even if it is from the womb.
This has been my attitude.

This craze of ‘it
must be my man’, ‘it must be my village man’ is due to lack of mutual
trust among us. I always ask, even those who agitate, I challenge
anyone, count all the Heads of State and the presidents we’ve had in
this country, either military or civilians, go to their states or their
villages and ask their village man, how does his being the president
helped your village? Please, we must not allow the elites to lead us to
continuous mistrust. The more you overclaim it, the more you are
sending the message of mistrust. I am not denying the historical fact
of the way Nigeria evolved. All these are accident of history, we must
live above these. Since our constitution does not treat all of these,
we must strive to preach to Nigerians to look forward to credible
leadership.

Chances of the ANPP winning the presidential election next year

You see, even
though politics is a game of number, we know how they got these
numbers. They are not genuine numbers and, that apart, Nigerians have
discovered all these. The ordinary man on the street is watching, and
when you preach the correct thing to his ear, after all, we all believe
that it is only God that has the power of the mind of every other
person. It is he who decides what you accept and what you don’t accept,
what you believe in and what you do not believe.

Let me tell you the
Kano experience. When I came as the contestant under ANPP in Kano, the
same argument was on the ground. From 1999 to 2003, Kano was totally
PDP. Out of 40 legislators in the State Assembly, only five members
were ANPP. Out of 44 local government areas, ANPP had only six. In
fact, before the election, three defected to PDP. Of the five State
Assembly members, three defected to PDP. When I picked the ticket, the
then governor was dancing that there was no contest at all. He was
saying a frustrated teacher going to a non-existing party. People were
saying we were crazy, we had no money.

God answered my
prayers. We had nothing to show the people except our background. I was
a school principal for 13 years in six different premier secondary
schools in Kano. Our students, their parents knew what I did. When the
election came, people voted for what they thought was right and I
believe it was largely guided by Almighty God.

The only time I was
a bit shaken was the time I went to Abuja with a friend. In fact, we
had to get a loan of N50,000 for transport and accommodation. As I was
coming back, I saw a convoy of a Kaduna gubernatorial candidate going
with hundreds of vehicles. We had to leave the road to allow them go. I
told my friend, this is a gubernatorial candidate. This is your own
candidate under the tree, and it was few days to the election. I had
only one car. No house of my own. Yet, when the result came out, that
man was number four in the election of the state. I was number one. So,
do you think the same God that did it that time for Kano cannot do it
for the country?

Power of the electorate to change politics

The challenge is
you and I. We must change. I am not desperate at all. And I kept
reminding Nigerians, president is not only our problem. Look at the
legislature, 80% of the Senate and House of Representatives are PDP.
What are we gaining from them?

I have been telling
the cleric, the imams, the pastors, and so on, you allow people to
steal, and then they call you to pray for them. You are wasting your
time, because God is clean and takes nothing but the clean.

The earlier we
understand all these things the better for us. So as far as we are
concerned, it is not about how big or small your party is, but how
committed, honest, and credible you are. And as we are going about this
contest, we are convinced at the back of our minds that ultimately, it
is God that does it.

If we don’t have
money to be shared out, I will advise people not to be part of the
clique. My party cannot do it alone, we are already partnering with
others. We are discussing with all the other parties, all the
opposition parties are talking to themselves, liaising, forming a
coalition. Our hope is that we will get somewhere somehow, when the
opposition parties will now converge and fight the monster called PDP.
Interestingly, in PDP, not all of them are bad. Look at the new reform
forum that is fighting for fairness in PDP. I salute them, even though
I wouldn’t want PDP to win any elections again.

Views on Electoral Reform

The issue of
electoral reform, I am totally for it. In fact, I have been telling
people that my party was largely responsible for this reform, because
when the late president wrote to some parties to partner with him to
move Nigeria forward, we answered him positively and we gave six
conditions. One of them was, you must revisit the operation of INEC,
and you must revisit the process of election in Nigeria. It is on
record that one of the demands of ANPP as a condition to participate in
Umar Yar’Adua’s government was there must be a review of electoral
process. I can claim proudly that my party, ANPP, was part of the
ingredients that gave birth to Justice Uwais Panel on electoral reform
in Nigeria. What the Federal Government and National Assembly do with
it is a different matter. The nation is watching them, and we are
asking them to be fair and just. Mr. President is the President of
Nigeria, not President of the PDP.

The status of his campaign for president

My attitude to the
contest, people have been agitating, calling on me to present myself as
president and said I accept the call, but I cannot jump the gun. As I
told you, I am a loyal party man and until my party presents me, I will
not be a candidate.

So when the whistle is blown by my party and they bring out the
condition, I want to let you know that I will place myself in that
process. And once the party decides to give me the chance, I will fly
the flag of ANPP and I will ask all others to join us. I pray to God to
help and grant us success to be able to serve Nigeria better.