An association the National Rescue Movement (NRM), was recently registered as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In this interview with TONY AKOWE in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), its national chairman, Senator Saidu Dansadau, speaks on the vision and mission of the party.
Will your party be fielding candidates for the 2019 elections?
I want you to write it in your dairy today that the NRM will be sworn in on May 29, 2019 to occupy the Presidential Villa. We are determined and serious. I don’t blame Nigerians for their mockery of the registration of 21 political parties because from our experience, most of these small political parties don’t make any impact. For us in the NRM, we decided to form this party because we are not satisfied with the performance of the APC. We have discovered from a survey we did through some consultants that Nigerians are disenchanted and are losing hope. That is why we say we hope to rekindle the hope of Nigerians and carve out a political party with an ideology. In Rwanda, after the genocide of 1990, people wondered how they were able to fix their country in just 20 years and they are today, the pride of Africa. If you go to Kigali, it is like you are in Europe and here we are in Nigeria, telling ourselves that Nigeria can not be fixed. I don’t believe in that. We are out, determined, resolute and committed to making the difference. All we want is the cooperation of the Nigerian people. We are going to present credible, patriotic Nigerians who are honest, God fearing to contest elections at all levels because we believe that they are there all over the country. The only thing is that these people have been running away from politics because they don’t have the kind of money to contest election or get the PDP or APC ticket. We re going to fish out those people and provide the platform. Their asset will be their credibility and acceptability by people. So, we are set to make the difference.
What are the major challenges facing Nigeria?
If you observe, part of the problem of governance in this country is that you have professionals and credible people, selfless and patriotic people who are willing and ready to serve this country. But, leaders don’t want to see the faces of such people. The prefer sycophants and hypocrites who will be singing the songs of sycophancy and this is a serious problem. That is why we want to make a difference, not only while in governance, but also in leadership recruitment. All Nigerians are entitled to be members of this party as they so wish. But, to get a ticket to contest lectionaries at all levels of governance, a person must prove himself to be credible God fearing, selfless and is accepted by his people. The NRM leadership will not sit here in Abuja like other parties and impose candidates on the people. We feel that until and unless there is justice, all that we do as a political party and as leaders, there can’t be peace and prosperity and good governance, unless the people are allowed to make their choice. That is why anybody who wants to contest election in this party should know that there are strict and rigorous processes of screening before he can be allowed to contest any election. The task of rescruing Nigeria from where it is today is a task that all patriotic Nigerians must be part of in other to have a better Nigeria and be able to catch up with its peers across the globe.
What is the view of the party on the fight against corruption?
For us in the NRM, we see no difference between the APC and the PDP, in terms of corruption, the implementation of the budget and prudent management of the nation’s resources for the common good of the people.
The $1 billion for the Federal Government to fight Boko Haram is generating mixed reaction. What is the position of your party on this?
Well, that money belong to the 36 states and the fact and the federal, Government. The Governors are the chief executive of their respective states and are the custodians of the resources of their respective states, while the Boko Haram issue is a security challenge that affects the entire nation. Yes, the insurgents are being fought in the north east, but its economic and social consequences are all over the country. So, for me, I think it is worth while as long as the money will be prudently used for the purpose it is allocated for. So, I don’t think there is nothing wrong with it. The Federal Government and the National Council of States should put in place a special mechanism for monitoring how that colossal amount of money is going to be used. The government has a very good opportunity which they don’t want to use. We have professionals who have retired who are credible and willing to offer services free, but they are not being utilised because people in government want to do everything. The government is setting up a technical committee to handle something and appoint governors and ministers as members when they have not been able to discharge their primary responsibility satisfactory and yet, you are giving them additional responsibility when we have professionals with the technical expertise to do that job. I want to appeal to the government to put a special team in place outside the government bureaucracy to monitor how this money will be spent in fighting Boko Haram because that is where the problem is. It is not allocating money that is important, but how the money is spent. That is what is lacking in the APC administration.
There is the clamour for the restructuring of the country. What will be your party position?
All the social economic problems we are having in this country should not arise, if we have good governance. My belief is that the clamour for restructuring, agitation for Biafra, Boko Haram, cattle rustling and many others are all manifestations of bad governance. For me personally, I don’t believe in restructuring, but I believe that at the appropriate time, the party will come up with its position on that. I believe in good governance because the moment you provide good governance, there will be no agitation. You are hearing about agitation for restricting because few people who are not more than seven have cornered the resources of the entire nation, do whatever what they want, take the money outside the country and that is why people are saying let us restructure. So, when you restructure the nation, you will also have to restructure the resources and allow every region manages its own resources. It is because of this gale of corruption that brought about all these agitations. So, for me, providing good governance is the answer to all these agitations and our socio-economic challenges in this country.
You said that not more than seven persons have cornered the resources of this country. How did you arrive at this?
I am just using that as an example and not talking about the exact figure. You are the one who came up with the terminology of cabal. We have had cabals in this country on several occasion snd the Nigerian people have alleged that the cabal are cornering the resources of this country.
It may even be better at both level. In the state, it is one person cornering the resources. Even deputy governor have no access to the money.
You said that one of your principles is to ensure national integration. Considering the fact that this country is divided along ethic and religious lines, how do you intend to achieve this?
The solution we have is to ensure justice and fairness. But, more critical is the issue of leadership recruitment. We are definitely going to change the approach to leadership recruitment. From 1999 to date, whatever happened, Nigerian politicians must take responsibility for that. We must take responsibility for the state of the nation today. If that is the case, what do we do? It is to answer that question that we need to change he approach. For us in the NRM, among the present conventional politicians in the country today, only a negligible few will be able to secure the NRM ticket. Before you are able to get the NRM ticket as somebody who has been in politics for a long time in Nigeria, you must be someone who has been acknowledged as somebody who is credible, patriotic and selfless. It is then that you can secure the ticket NRM. Our first point of call for recruitment is religious leaders. We are not saying that Cardinal Onaiyekan should come and contest election, but what we are saying is that they should bring out their disciples that they know are credible, patriotic an God fearing to come and contest election because they will,not need to bribe anybody to have the ticket. They must make that sacrifice because the time has gone when politicians will just come to religious leaders and say pray for us to win election. Religious leaders should take this message to their followers. Our second point of call is traditional rulers. We are not saying the Sultan should come and contest election. They know within their domain, the people they can trust that will not betray the reputation and credibility of the royal houses. Our third point of call are professionals who have either retired or still serving. We have already drafted letters to all professionals and trade union groups, women and youth groups, religious leaders and traditional rulers. We will give them our manifesto and ask them to make input into it because what we have today is an interim manifesto. For example, we will tell the Nigeria Economic Summit Group to make input into our economic policy and other professional groups. Then, we will aggregate these views. We will have interaction with them because the state of the nation today calls for sacrifice and so, all hands must be on deck. When we have professionals in the National Assembly, that is going to enrich the quality of governance and fast track law making. We must have credible people in leadership and that is what we are out to do for country.
Don’t you think that these traditional rulers and religious leaders are products of these same politicians?
One thing you must know is that all of us have a hand in the state of the nation today. I have said that we will fish out the credible ones among us. We have credible people in all cadre of the Nigerian society and these are the people we are out to look for. That is the fundamental difference from other parties.
