Hon. Abdulahi Umar Faruk is member-elect (APC) Birnin Kebbi/ Kalgo/ Bunza Federal Constituency from the North-West state of Kebbi. As a ranking member, he has been chairman of various committees in the House, including National Intelligence, Urban Development and Customs and Excise respectively. In this chat with Victor Oluwasegun, he speaks on the struggle for Speakership position for the 8th House, zoning and other issues. Excerpts:
What do you think of the series of endorsements by caucuses for the race of the principal officer’s positions for the 8th House?
While politicking, every candidate will go out and seek support from members-elect. I think the only surest way of knowing that this particular member-elect is with you hundred percent is for him to endorse you.
There have also been denials of endorsement by members of caucuses, is this healthy?
I think members-elect are very honourable. Even the constitution refers to members as honourable. Everybody who really knows what parliament and the position of Speaker is all about can’t toy with it. Once you meet all the criteria for a leader, and this particular candidate we are about to endorse has them, then I don’t think tomorrow for any particular reason you will deny it. Unless if by mistake your name is written without your permission, then that person has a right to deny it. But I think any honourable member who has endorsed a candidate will not come and deny it.
It was reported that the party may organise primaries for candidates in the senate; we don’t know if that will be extended to the House. What do you think of that?
The party actually has the right to moderate and guide its followers, because the party is an interested institution in what happens in the National Assembly. After all nobody came here to the National Assembly on independent candidature. We are sponsored by our political parties. Our victory is the party’s victory. So, the party has to protect its victory in the National Assembly. A party must have interest in guarding and protecting its victory in the National Assembly.
The party has taken such a long time to come up with where it is zoning which position. Do you think this is healthy? And what’s your position on zoning?
Personally, I don’t think the delay is healthy because it has created a vacuum and most loyal party members are looking up to their own party for direction. And to me, there is even supposed to be a retreat by the party for its members to rub minds and discuss. Because most of the members are returning members and they know the qualities of the candidates so far that have emerged. I think at the last count, they are five that are contesting, and they are not from a particular zone but various zones. So, the party has to be united, focused on its activities in the National Assembly. Mind you, it is a multi-party democracy, there are other parties too. Although PDP has been beaten electorally by my party, the APC, they may spring surprises; that is why APC cannot afford not to show interest in who becomes the Senate President or Speaker. They need to take it seriously and specifically call the members, have retreat and if necessary have primaries amongst them in-house as a party before presenting a candidate.
Do you agree there should be zoning?
Of course! Any student of history of the political development in Nigeria would believe and agree that zoning is very necessary. Mind you, Nigeria is a heterogenous country, multi- ethnic, multi- religious, and man in his nature is self- centered; that is the nature of man. So, how do you control such excesses of man, not to talk of even a politician? It is when you have rules and guidelines. And that is what zoning is all about. It is to specifically consider those very critical requirements in terms of politics to assuage the entire country that yes, this section is involved in the scheme of things, and then this section also is involved. There are various conditions, so the party has to find a way of saying okay, this section because of the performance of that party in glorifying my victory; we are giving them this particular position to bring and this section we are giving them this position to bring. And that is the only way the party can protect itself. Because any zone that actually have total faith in a particular party, say APC, and gave it about 90 percent vote return, and that party did not reciprocate by rewarding it with a deserving position, next election is coming, four years is just around the corner, and then they can turn against the party. That is why the party must protect itself. And for APC, if you can follow, based on the electoral fortunes of the 2015 general election, North-West, South-West, North-East and North- Central actually tried very well for the party and in fact, APC won convincingly in those places. Will APC now forget and take the leadership to those places that did not perform like the South-East and the South-South? That is not possible. So, definitely, APC must have a guide like a zoning formula where they will say okay, for this zone, having done so well for us, we are zoning this particular position to it.
As a parliamentarian, what do you think should be the qualities of the Speaker of the 8th House?
Mind you, before I give you the qualities, we are talking of Nigeria, the most populous Black Country on earth; the largest democracy in Africa, the mother of about 16 countries called ECOWAS. So, the way we choose her leader cannot be a child’s play. And we definitely have to bring our best that can represent us well and we have external positivity in him that he is representing Nigeria. That is why we have to consider first the cognate experience of the particular candidate. How much would you say you are comfortable with him to represent me? It is because of what he has done? What you have displayed. So, that cognate experience in legislative manners must be there. Now we are talking of the Speakership which is the highest administrative level in the body of principal officers. Now if you have somebody we had a stint in the body of principal officers who has served there, who knows what is there, who knows how to carry members along. Because APC should not just choose or allow a particular candidate to be there who would be thrown out tomorrow. But they have to put somebody there who has the requisite experience, not only of legislative matters but who has the administration at the principal officers’ level. Since this is an institution of co- equals, everybody has been elected by their people on the same equal pedestal; it’s just that the Speaker is the first amongst equals. It takes somebody who has the accessibility aura as a quality, that members can walk up to and he would have that patience to discuss with members. Any person who has high- handedness cannot qualify to be a Speaker. We need somebody who is cool headed, who is amiable, approachable and has the experience in the body of principal officers, to me, that’s okay.
A contender has promised new members-elect 75 percent of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman positions. What do you think?
Before we even talk about the feasibility of that, what do you call that? Do me, I Do you. That is corruption. This is an era of change; this is the era of APC. Nigerian people did not come out to chase PDP if not for one reason. That reason is actually the promise APC made for doing things differently, positively and transparently, and doing things better than what PDP did. And part of this is fighting corruption. So, if a particular member is bringing carrot to make members vote for him, he has disqualified himself, that is corruption.
The body language of APC as a party seems to be saying there is no zoning…
We are in the 21 century and the kind of archaic political thinking doesn’t have place in the APC of today. APC represents change, our mantra is change. The reason that people are against that word zoning is because of the way PDP mismanaged everything. PDP’s kind of zoning is imposition. A zoning formula ought to be seen as an unbiased, systematic and strategic guide from a wise political party to its loyal members for the devolution of leadership positions to reflect the sequential critical requirement of geo-political equity, party performance in the zones, merits and unbiased political consideration. Zoning is what is done to bring about equity in a heterogenous country like Nigeria. It brings about a sense of belonging and involvement across the zones. It is very apt and desirable. I don’t want you to see zoning like a PDP zoning. Zoning is about respecting the ethnic groups, and it is not only good but constitutional. The provision of Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution, particularly section 14, subsection 3 states the composition of the government of the country. We can’t wish away what we are. We see ourselves as Christians and Muslims, southerners and northerners. It is a reality. You have to take care of that thought. I think zoning it is; if APC wants to maintain its electoral gains and go beyond four years, the leadership must accept and should ensure there is zoning of the leadership posts in the National Assembly to ensure that all zones are assuaged and satisfied.
Now, if you were to support someone amongst the contenders for the position of Speaker, do you have any preference?
I have given you the criteria, go and check those criteria and you will get the next Speaker of the House.