Comrade Shehu Sani, a prominent democracy activist and former Senator who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 9th National Assembly, is set to take another shot at direct politicking on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to which he recently returned. As he awaits the dynamics of 2027 political climate, he spike to journalists on current national issues and his future political journey. Excerpts:
Q: Trending recently is rash of defections from opposition parties to the ruling party, APC in a move some observers have dubbed an attempt to evolve a one-party state in Nigeria; what is your take on this?
A: Well, first of all, we must accept the fact that the political parties were not founded on any ideological leaning. They are simply vehicles for people to realize their own political ambitions. If you look at all the manifestos of the party, they all look alike. So, anybody can move from any party to another party without losing anything. And the only thing is that the party differs from each other by their names and not by their own ideology or philosophy, like in other countries. In Nigeria, if you have any interest in politics, the most important thing is, how does that political platform conform with your own interests? If a party is shut down against you, there’s no way you can continue to function in that party. So, it is not the problem of Asiwaju to protect opposition party and to make sure that people don’t migrate away from them, it is the opposition party themselves that need to convince and protect their members from moving to other political parties.
A one-party state is a state where you have a law that prescribes one party, but this is a multi party democracy, and most of the reasons why people are living in the opposition party, is not pull back factors, but push factors. They have been pushed away because of internal crisis, the internal crisis in the PDP, and their inability to resolve it led to the situation where we are today, because this is a party that has about two national secretaries. The Supreme Court gave judgment, but that judgment was neither here nor there. So if you have a party that has a leadership problem. The danger of you staying there is that the time for primary elections will come and you will have two factions laying claim to it. So from which of the factions are you going to collect form and fill?
So there is a likelihood of more defections away from the PDP, because a first time governor in the PDP will not be sure whether he will be given a ticket a senator in PDP will not also be sure whether he will get the ticket. So these are the factors that we have now, and I don’t think it’s going to change in the foreseeable future.
Q: Okay, some people are mobilizing to find a solution to this challenge by forming a coalition of parties against the ruling APC; do you think this can be a viable alternative?
A: Yeah, there is no way you can evict a ruling party without a coalition. It’s only on that basis that the coalition that the opposition political parties can sacrifice their own individual and narrow political interests and ambition for the general good of democracy in the country. We can have a coalition, and how that is possible is the issue. So far, the SDP said they are not interested in coalition. The PDP said they are not interested in coalition, and the Labor Party seems to be flying alone, and the NNPP says they are not interested in coalition. And if the opposition parties will go to the battle without an alliance, merger or any form of coalition, there is no doubt about it, that APC will have a landslide victory in the 2027 election. But if they come together, they will win many seats and will make a very strong impact in the political realm. They lost the 2023 election because of lack of unity, and they are likely to lose this election if they refuse to come together.
Q: From what you have said, and what is on ground, you appear to be concluding that the 2027 election is a done deal for Tinubu and the APC?
A: If the opposition parties refuse to come together and form an alliance or coalition, it is a done deal for us (APC).
Q: Now, another issue bothering the observers is the appearance of a restriction or constriction of the opposition space, or criticisms or free speech by the government of the day using security agencies. What do you think is the problem?
A: Well, this idea of arrest and persecution has been with us right from 1999 to date. The Obasanjo administration has its own and there are people who were arrested and persecuted under his government. And then continuously, we have seen cases like that during Yar’Adua and Jonathan. During Buhari, the same strategy was applied, where by many people were also arrested and were haunted. It has happened in journalists. So this is the issue, but we need to understand that we cannot protect this democracy if we do not guarantee people the right to freedom of expression, I understand the exigencies of security and the need to preserve peace, but citizens must be free to freely express themselves and hold government to account. If people are forced to keep quiet and get scared of speaking, the democracy is not safe itself. Government will do. Better if it listens to critics, if it allows free speech, and if it stops persecuting people for expressing their opinion, and that is my view on that.
Q: Would you say the judiciary has done well in supporting democracy?
A: The fact is that the judiciary is now judged by its political pronouncement and rulings each time there is an election in this country, and we have come to the conclusion that election ends in the court. And for those of us who are in the political field, you prefer to win and then be taken to court than to lose and take someone to court, because the judicial system is so cumbersome and skewed in favour of the winner, and for you to prove that your election is rigged, it’s not an easy thing to do, if you look at the way it moves, is that each time you lose election, you go to court. And if you look at it, the electoral body and the winner will be on one side, and then you will be on the other side, and then it is still the electoral body prosecuting,
So, judiciary has a serious problem when it comes to issue of elections in Nigeria, and that is the reason behind all these bashes. And they must have a way to reinvent themselves and to adapt themselves with the reality. As they are being called the last hope of the government, they have to prove that they are actually last hope of the common man. When people are rigged out of the elections, they should be able to get justice, and if they can’t get justice, then there will be no justice anywhere.
Q: You’ve been a lawmaker, and it appears the case of National Assembly is worse than the Judiciary in the perception of the public. The Assembly is perceived as a rubber stamp of the Executive. How much of a challenge do you think this is?
A: The impression of the people about the National Assembly can only be blamed on the people themselves, because people are more interested in presidential election. Each time they are talking of elections, they are not talking of who becomes the senator, who become House of Reps. They are only interested in who become the president of the country. Most of these people who are contesting presidential election are supposed to go and contest for the Senate or House of Reps and make the place rich, resourceful and strong. But so if you don’t care, or you don’t bother about those who go to National Assembly because your interest is in the presidency, then you should have nobody to blame; whereas the National Assembly is the most important, component of democracy because the National Assembly makes laws under which the judiciary administers.
There are people who are in National Assembly because they are warming seats for the governor to come and take over. There are people who just see National Assembly as a waiting session for them to become governors later, there are people who are the National Assembly because the seat has been zoned to their own local government. When you have people like this, you get this kind of quality of representation, as we are having.
Q: Coming to you now, where do you stand? How does your political future look like, especially vis a vis Kaduna politics now that we hear that you and the State governor are back on cordial terms?
A: We have always been brothers. And we are still brothers. I was out of the APC because of our conflict with the former government, but we were convinced to come back so we are now in the APC. It wasn’t me alone, even some House of Reps members are represented too.
It was because we moved out of the APC, that the APC lost everything in Kaduna in last election, except the governorship. Asiwaju lost APC. He lost in Kaduna, and APC lost all the three members of House and of the Senate. See what we went through and how we were able to overcome it. So you are right. We are now together in politics. We are hopeful that 2027, we will win the election.
Q: What I mean is that, what’s your next move regarding 2027?
A: My next move will depend on what God wants us to be. Life is transient. As a politician, I cannot contest the governorship of the state, but the position I can contest for is the Senate. And when, when there are political equations and calculations that favour that choice, certainly I will make myself available.
