…says ‘Nigerian democracy is worst I’ve seen’
Until few months ago, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed was the presidential political adviser but currently, he is the national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). In this interview with OLAOLU OLADIPO, he spoke on recent activities within his party, specifically on efforts to field candidates during the forthcoming general elections. He also spoke on recent attempts by the duo of Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to join the party. Excerpts:
Your party, the PRP, has been in the news in recent times. A lot of activities around your party, with many people saying one presidential aspirant was coming over, another one is going. There is also this talk that your party is doing an alliance with other political parties. As the chairman of the party, what is your party really up to?
We are preparing to be a part of the move to kick the current government out of office, I don’t know if it’s possible to be part of an alliance but we have a lot of options that we are looking at. A lot of people are showing interest in us and a lot of people are asking us for direction, both Nigerians and politicians.
We have a lot of candidates that are going to contest the forthcoming elections. To achieve this objective, we are trying to move from the periphery of political activities to the centre of the Nigerian political process.
We are going to play a very pivotal role in the process in which we reverse the current negative trend in the country. So it’s like, in our work, we want to be important and it looks like all the signs indicate that there will be an upset in the election.
You expressed the optimism that your party will move from the periphery of politics into the mainstream. What gives you confidence? Do you think you have the calibre of membership? Or is there any kind of grand plan on the part of your party towards that?
(Cuts in) Truth is that we have an excellent quality of people aspiring to be president in our party. In many states across the country, we have many candidates that have excellent records that are aspiring to be governors and contest other offices. We have a few people aspiring to be senators.
We have a large number of people that I am proud to say are aspiring to be members of the various state houses of assembly, and the truth about it is, politics is about moving from the bottom up. We are focusing on mobilisation, sensitisation and explaining to Nigerians why they need to reject the past. That’s why we are pushing things through the PRP or through collaboration with other parties, or political groups. So, on our own, we can push this country to its limits.
As we speak, we have an excellent presidential candidate but I’m not going to disclose his name to you for political reasons. But you’ve got it. We are looking at geopolitics from the Great North to the South but we are concentrating on quality. We don’t want to impose like APC. We don’t want to reverse the role of the president.
We want to reverse the democratic process. We want to make it look like democracy is not only for leaders. And we don’t want a situation that would make the people feel that trash is dumped on them by the president and the government. That is the worst example of democracy that I have ever seen and I can say that I have never seen anything as insulting as this.
You talked about fielding quality candidates. It’s just a few weeks to the end of nomination activities according to the INEC timetable. Would you say people have been coming over to express interest and buy nomination forms?
In the spirit of activities around those areas, I mean, people seeking nomination towards various elective offices. We have attracted a huge number of people from all over the country aspiring for all positions.
From the presidential to the National Assembly, we’ve had a huge number of people. We have attracted the right kind of candidates. We have attracted a bunch of people who have the competence, the quality to function in public space positively.
We’ve attracted the kind of people who we would be proud of. They are presenting competence. They are presenting talents. They are presenting success. We have a huge number of candidates including the presidential hopeful but I can’t give you the name (of the presidential candidate), we have 103 candidates who are going to run.
A few months ago, your party generated some buzz in the media space with people speculating that some presidential gladiators from other parties, I mean bigwigs, were actually trying to make their way into your party. Specifically, people mentioned the names of Mr. Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. What actually happened? Was there a kind of move by these gladiators to come to your party? And if there was, why didn’t it succeed?
Yes, it is true. We spent days talking with each other. They tried to join the PRP. Our plan was genuine and sincere. We had no problem with them but they were impatient to wait so that we could overcome the problem caused by INEC which at that time refused to upload my name as chairman and that of Mr. Kanu Sunday Uchenna as the party’s secretary and also, they complained about the fact that the PRP was going in one way. So people are saying they are also PRP, they are attached to the PRP.
They are engaged in six things, I think. They have six capsules and they are good citizens. And I’ll be honest with you, we were not very happy to see them go, but we wish them well. When they eventually decided to move, they were decent enough to tell us and to give us their reasons and we are respectful to them. We wish them the best of luck.
You talked about your party having a very strong presidential candidate whom you don’t want to mention now. How viable do you think he is in terms of reach, in terms of popularity, in terms of name recognition, in terms of grassroots appeal to be able to dislodge the ruling APC?
He comes from, he has an excellent political life, he has had an excellent political career. Today, we have not had a slightest whimper of corruption or abuse of power. He’s a thoroughbred Nigerian. He knows what PRP is and he knows that if he is going to fly our flag, we have to present something completely new, away from the violence that dots politics in Nigeria and he will also raise hopes.
He’s not just running because he wants power. Probably because he believes that the elections of 2027 must bring an end to the APC government and begin the process of healing and rebuilding Nigeria. We think that he will come and will excite Nigerians. I think Nigeria will vote for him because of his pedigree, because he will fly our flag and because we will campaign for him.
In every corner of Nigeria, he’s not an ethnic candidate, he’s not a recycled candidate, he’s not desperate for power but he’s competent. Every Nigerian will feel comfortable with him. Again, I’m sorry, at this stage, I’m not going to tell you his name. He chose our party to be its flag bearer.
Will the PRP be making, or has your party been making, contact with former President Goodluck Jonathan to join it?
He will come over. Our tradition is to wait for candidates to come. That’s the president’s job. However, on the side, everything below that, we were the ones that went out and begged, begged good Nigerians to come and contest positions in our party and we’ve been very successful.
We focused on looking for good people, people who had records of personal integrity, the kind of people that people can trust and then when it happened to come and contest, some came on their own, but many were persuaded by the party. We have the best quality people who we can put forward to contest for elections.
Jonathan has not contacted us and we have not contacted him. So, you know, I guess with all these people here, all these important qualities that are made in President Jonathan, I will make it easy for him to say, no, he’s not the one I’m talking about.
Do you think your party still has time on its side to be able to swing things in its favour during the poll?
We have the same time. We have the same time that everybody has but more importantly, we have no crisis. APC has a major crisis in its hands. There is a big rebellion within the party. Many people who thought they would get tickets to contest elections are not getting them.
They were not expecting it and because nobody thought some people would sit somewhere and decide the fate of thousands of party members who would lead and make policies for them in four years. We know that APC will implode. It is even imploding. They have destroyed PDP. They have destroyed ADC and PRP is one of the very few parties still standing.
It will take time for it to implode but it will only grow stronger. So, we have a bright chance, either on our own or in collaboration with other parties. I mean other parties that share our vision for a new Nigeria. So, I hope a new Nigeria will eventually come under the PRP government.
Have disgruntled elements in APC started reaching out to you?
We have a very big task and are building a large number of former APC people who were told that the party doesn’t hold any obligations to submit their desire to popular vote because that’s what APC needs. APC is telling its own people, politicians, telling them, you have no right to make demands.
You are ordinary members to decide whether you are the best or not. We will decide for you. The two leaders in APC are saying to all their members, you don’t have a right to decide who to represent you, who is to become your next president, the next governor, the next president of Nigeria.
We will decide. A handful of them have come but a lot of them are coming to our party, and in our party, we will go by the spirit of our party to go up in the competition and allow our members to choose who they want to represent them.
