Hurdles Jonathan must cross to win 2015 election – Col. Shuaibu

Retired Colonel Habibu Shuaibu, former military administrator of Plateau and later Niger states, has been a recurring feature in the politics of Kano State since the inception of the present republic.

He emerged as the runner-up in the 2011 PDP governorship primaries in Kano. Though he has kept a low profile since then, he seems to be back to reckoning as the political tempo picks up in and around the state again.


In this interview with DESMOND MGBOH, he spoke on the need for unity in the PDP, its chances as a party and what President Jonathan must do, if he must make the needed impact in Kano state in the 2015 general elections.
The political tempo is picking up. How would you assess the atmosphere in and around you?
Well, I came on holiday with my family; to enjoy the holiday at home but as you can see, because of the rising political tempo, a lot of people are coming to visit primar­ily to discuss politics. Some of them, who want to aspire to different offices, come in with different groups, seeking for support, seeking for recognition and so on. So, we can see that it is building up both at the national level and at the state level and our prayer is that we do not overheat the system to the extent that it would cause a system failure even before the time comes. This is because when people begin to talk negatively, when they begin to insinuate a lot of things, it creates much instability in the whole system. That is what we should avoid. Because as politicians, we should go by the books and follow the rules, follow the guidelines of INEC and the guidelines of our various political parties. That way, I think we can have a very peaceful polity.
The PDP has passed through a couple of changes in Kano State. How do you see these changes with regard to the 2015 elections?
Well, I am a little bit concerned because we have other people who have joined the party and they were our former opponents. Their coming, to me, is a good omen. It rein­forces our position in the state, but the most important thing right now is our ability to unite as members of one party. The moment you start talking about this group or that group, it creates a lot of divisions. That is what we don’t like and that is why we are emphasizing that the party should as much as possible maintain unity among all its members irrespec­tive of whoever. We should not be seen as belonging to this camp or that camp. It is one PDP and one PDP only. If we do that, we stand a very good chance of producing a very formidable candidate that will be able to stand any other candidate the other party would be bringing out.
Let us look at the impact of PDP losing the Government House. Do you think that you have been able to overcome that huge loss as a party?
We would be able to overcome the loss with time. Yes, we have not been able to overcome the loss because he, the governor, is still in control of the state resources. He has the power, he has the machinery of government, he has the resources. The party (PDP in Kano) has to struggle for it to survive. The party has to struggle, go outside the state, because within the state we cannot get any support so we have to seek the support of our friends, maybe the national headquarters of the party, maybe the Federal Government to come to our aid. Of course, you know that as an incum­bent governor of Kano State, he has a lot of resources; he has a lot of wealth. It is not something that we are sleeping without realising the enormity of the contest ahead.
But do you have the desired support from the PDP headquarters, from the other PDP states and from the Federal Government to stop Gover­nor Kwankwaso and his party in 2015?
Well, we hope to have the support. And that is why I was telling you about the unity. What is most important is the unity of purpose. We need to unite as one party, not belong­ing to Shekarau, not belonging to Aminu Wali, but belong­ing to one PDP family in Kano. Once we are able to unite, I am sure we would get the required support from all angles to be able to meet the challenges.
Is this aspiration possible given that histor­ically, the politics of Kano has always been the politics of camps, politics built around different icons? Is it really possible your PDP can escape the prospect of having a Shekarau camp when he has an enormous size of die-hard followers and disciples in the party?
Well, that is what we should try and avoid. Without any fear of contradiction, politics in Kano is changing and changing for the better. Now if you think about the old PDP, you will always think about the tripod, the different tenden­cies. Now that tendency is dying and now we have created another one, which you called the Shekarau factor. But what me, what I have been advocating to all those who care to listen, especially the leaders of our party, is that we should think about the unity of our party and if necessary, the leaders of our party, the stakeholders should come to a harmonious understanding to field candidates by consensus. But if we say we are going to face each other one on one; because they are different and we are different, then we are going to have problems. The most important thing is unity.
How much communication is going on at the level of the leadership of the party? Do you have enough commu­nication among these people that should inspire this unity you are talking about?
Yes, communication is never enough, but I can assure you that we are doing everything possible to understand ourselves, to communi­cate among ourselves and to make sure that we agree on various issues especially when we have a formidable opponent in the state like the APC.
I have noticed an enormous number of aspirants want­ing to become the governor under your party’s ticket, un­like the APC where the governorship atmosphere is near frozen. Wouldn’t the sheer number of aspirants in the PDP become an under­mining factor at the end of the day?
No! No! It is always good to allow people to express their wish, to express their aspiration but at the end of the day, you will see they would line up, some will drop by the side, some will align with others and some would see the futility in what they are doing and they would give it up. And at the end of the day, we would have fewer people going in for primaries. That is what is go­ing to happen.
In 2011, you were the runner-up in the governorship primaries in Kano State PDP, coming next to Kwankwaso. One would have expected that you are treated with a preference by your party this time round. Do you see the party extending such recognition to you?
Well, to be honest with you. Unofficially, I know that many stakeholders of the party have expressed this same wish. They want me to be the candidate of the party. But you know that things are not like that in any party, not only the PDP. One, you have to consider my own inter­est. Do I want to contest or not? If I want to con­test, am I ready to go through the whole hog of contesting? These are the issues and of course, I also have to come to terms with what is going on in the state and accept either to run or not to run. So, it is not necessary for any party to say that because you came second the last time, it is automatic for you to be their candidate. But the truth is that a lot of elders in this state and in the PDP have expressed the wish that I should be given the chance to contest the governorship election.
If I may ask you now, are you likely to contest the primaries of your party given that it is coming up in a matter of weeks?
It doesn’t matter. Two, three weeks’ time is a hell of a time to make a decision. I have not. As I said, I came on a holiday but you can see the pressure and it is really enormous. You can see the pressure from different groups from various local government areas coming to pressurize me to show interest and so on. And even this Sal­lah, a supporter went and printed the Bar’ka da Sallah poster and pasted it and I tell you that, that has sparked off some reaction from people encouraging me to show interest and to come out and contest. Well, we leave everything in the hands of God and in a few days’ time, I will make my decision known.
I have heard people argue that with your experience as a former military ad­ministrator, with your age and then with your political reach across the state and the country, you will be doing the state a disservice if you do not contest. Do you agree with their point of view on this?
Well, I agree that such sentiments are there. I will like to serve my state, I will be ready to serve my state. I know I have the experience, I have the capability and I have the exposure as far as I am concerned and so we must have to wait for time. In a few days, I will make my opinion known.
From what is happening today in the camp of Kwankwaso and the APC, do you feel any threat coming from them in 2015?
The only threat I can see is if we do not unite. I assure you that once PDP in Kano is united and we speak with one voice and we bring out a for­midable candidate who will face the opponent, who will face the other political parties, I see no reason we cannot win.
But is that unity you are talking with­in your reach as a party?
You know that these eight years, we have been suffering. Everybody has felt it, everybody has got a touch of what it is not to have a party in the state and it is a general opinion of everybody in the party that we need to come together, that we need to bring about a formidable candidate who is going to face whoever APC decides to field. And we are sure of victory.
Do you see President Jonathan get­ting the 25 per cent of the votes cast in Kano State in the 2015 polls?
Well, personally, if you are looking for 25 per cent, you have to aim for 80 to 90 per cent. Per­sonally, I believe that the Federal Government and my party, the PDP have not shown any at­tempt to achieve this realisation in Kano. And I have my reasons for that. If you are aiming at 80 and you get 25 per cent, fine. But if you are look­ing at 25 per cent only, then you are not likely to get 25 per cent. Maybe the reason is that the strategists at the national level think that in the last election, the president got only 16 per cent in Kano and yet he won the election. Maybe the strategists have done their calculations and they felt that really they do not need Kano as much as people think they should need Kano. But of course, Kano and Lagos are where the votes are. If you are looking for 25 per cent, you go and aim for 80. Once you do that, then you will end up getting 25 per cent. But the way we are do­ing things now, I do not think that we have the determination to have that number. Maybe some people’s calculation is that at the last election, the President got about 16 per cent and so with Shekarau, who was in the other camp, coming in, people would assume that oh automatically we would be able to get the 25 per cent. But I am sorry to say, it doesn’t work like that.
From your own experience, what do you think Jonathan must do to win more votes in Kano?
Well, one thing I know and I am being very sincere, If we have to make a lot of impact in Kano, we have a lot to do. We have to engage the media, both local and national, we have to engage the electronic media especially. For a very long time, the governor of the state has been bashing President Jonathan in the media. He has been calling him names. He has been accusing him of so many things. No answer from the Fed­eral Government and no answer even from the party in the state. And this has been going on for a very, very long time. The average Kano man listens to the local radio and on a daily basis. Now if the governor comes out and has been using his propaganda machines to diminish the president, to demean the Federal Government and no countering challenge is coming back, and then you are coming in the last minute to say you are taking him on, that would be a very herculean task. To me, there has to be a deliber­ate programme, a deliberate agenda on the part of the Federal Government to rework the im­age of the president that has been created in the minds of the people here. Secondly, you need to identify genuine politicians who mean well for the country and for their people so that when you empower them, you are empowering the people and the people would see the genuine attempt by the Federal Government to assist the people in Kano. We have a lot of population. Every day, people are crying that they have no this and they have no that. Since my return, you need to see the number of youths that have been coming to talk to me about this Sure-P thing.
Have you heard of people stealing projects belonging to the Federal Govern­ment in Kano. It’s being alleged that rath­er than credit Jonathan, the opposition party and in some cases, PDP legislators take direct proprietorship of such projects in the state?
Yes, we have seen it. Even the governor, some of the projects that he has done on some selected roads – with Kwankwasiyya written on them – are not his own. Many of them are SUBEB projects. The state government commits counterpart fund­ing. They are co-funded projects between the state and the Federal Government and yet the Federal Government is not taking any credit for its invest­ment in the state. They should come to town and take credit for all their projects in the state, make some noise about these projects so that the people of Kano would know how much President Jona­than has done for them or is committing to them at the moment.