2023: Why I Endorsed SDP’s Adebayo Ahead Of Tinubu, Atiku, Obi — Bugaje

Former National Secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC) and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) chieftain, Dr. Usman Bugaje, has described the APC-led government, from Buhari to Tinubu, as a disaster while backing Prince Adewole Adebayo of the SDP, citing his character, competence and courage as what Nigeria needs. In this interview with TITILOPE JOSEPH, Bugaje also addresses the ACF’s stance on APC’s call for northern support in 2027, the North-South presidency rotation, and why Tinubu may face the Goodluck Jonathan treatment. Excerpts:

 With the rejection of comments by the ACF, are you saying the North- South eight-year rotation is no longer valid?

This conversation has been around for 25 years, but much has changed, making it outdated. We have tried the North-South model, yet the country is only declining. It is time to rethink democracy with development instead of fix­ating on regional divisions while all development indices nosedive. We must recognise and include every part of the country without reducing leadership to a turn-by-turn arrangement. The real focus should be on building a competent team to fix a nation on the brink, not on the ambitions of reckless politicians who have failed for 25 years. If previous leaders did little with their turns, why insist on a tribal formula in the 21st century?

You or the ACF weren’t this fervent when it was the North’s turn, so why the strong stance now?

For me, this is not the first time I started talking about it. I talked about it in 2019 and all through to 2023. Before then, even from 2015, I have consistently said Muhamma­du Buhari’s presidency was a di­saster and that there were so many other things he did. He was putting too many Northerners in the secu­rity sector for no benefit at all for the North. I thought Buhari’s expe­rience is sufficient evidence that the idea of putting somebody from one part of the country to become president doesn’t work. It doesn’t make sense because what do you want him to do; to favour his part of the country and abandon oth­ers? This is very naive, to say the least. So, the point I’m making is that you can achieve inclusion but not at the expense of development. One way to do it, for example, is to recognise that there is no part of the country that has monopoly of competence. There are compe­tent Nigerians in the South West, South East, South-South, North East, North West, and North Cen­tral. Why don’t you pick those com­petent Nigerians from different parts of the country to fix and run your country? Why do you go for people who are barely educated, people who are crooks and people who have no idea of where to take this country; people who cannot engage the world, who don’t even understand anything? All they know is primitive accumulation and consumption with very per­verse tastes, simply running the country down. So, this is why I said inclusion is a very critical aspect of governance. And you can achieve that and still achieve development by bringing in more competent people. Some techno­crats can fix the energy and trans­portation sectors, and improve the entire infrastructure. The few that have come into government have been elbowed out. Some of them have been chased out of govern­ment because corruption will not accept the kind of thing that they want to do. And I feel very sad. I mean, we and quite several Nige­rians, and by the way, across the board, not just the North, the East, the West, we stood up to the mili­tary during the time of Abacha. We fought for democracy. But this is not the kind of democracy we want to see. We want a democracy that takes cognizance of compe­tence, recognises knowledge in the 21st century as the greatest capital and tries to mobilise. And Nigeria has a lot of these competent and talented people.

If you are saying that it’s time to do away with the system of zoning, then ultimately everything will be tipped in the favour of the north. How do you balance it out?

The constitution is already doing that because the House of Representatives is based on pop­ulation. I think the presidential ticket should not be clouded by this north and south thing. I think we have to prioritise knowledge, competence, courage and charac­ter. The most important thing is character. Yes, the North, in terms of size, is 78 percent of the coun­try’s size. You can put the whole states in the north in Niger State, and they will still have another space for the whole of the size of the north, even though there will be land remaining. Yes, that is it. This is geography. There is noth­ing we can do about that. But, the point I’m making is that we must not lose sight of the fact that this country is sinking. And if we con­tinue with this north and south thing, we will lose sight of the fact that this country cannot develop.

Would your stance be the same if the president were a northerner, given that in 2019, the ACF supported only northern candidates?

If you want the ACF’s position, ask its spokesman. As Usman Bugaje, I never made that state­ment and I also don’t believe in it. I have always prioritised com­petence, character and courage over regional considerations. I criticised Buhari’s leadership; I didn’t support him in 2019, and I also rejected the APC in 2023. While I care about the North, I be­lieve all regions must develop for peace to reign. Instead of fixating on North versus South, we need a new conversation about finding capable leaders to fix this country.

Is it that you will now support Atiku Abubakar and do you believe he can get the job done with all these traits and characteristics?

In 2019 and 2023, I supported Atiku Abubakar because among all the candidates that came out, he was the one that I thought was going to do it. That’s my own choice and everybody has his choice. I’m not an Atiku man. I’m not anybody’s man. When I was in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Atiku left and I remained. If I was his man, I would have left with him.

If Atiku runs again in 2027, would you support him?

No. In fairness to what I’ve been saying, if you have been listening, I have been saying that this idea of supporting one candidate with whatever combination of balanc­ing of the ticket to go into the villa to lock the gates and then the wife would become the Queen Elizabeth the First and the children become some prince and princess of Saudi Arabia and start behaving the way they like, is outdated. We must not allow this country to fall into the hands of this kind of people. I would rather I’m not talking about Atiku here, I’m talking about all of them; I would rather we do a collegiate leadership, where we get the best and the brightest, and there are a lot of them in this country, to come forward and salvage the country.

If you did not support Atiku in the last election, who would you have sup­ported instead?

Honestly, I didn’t know Peter Obi enough to support him. I’ve been in this business for 25 years and I saw there are ways you mea­sure people and size them up. So, the people I saw around him were not people that were ready to take the nation together. They were all reacting or angry about a partic­ular part of the country. And they were all fuming and trying to go on a vengeance. So, that was my worry. I would have supported Prince Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He comes across to me as some­body who understands the terrain and this country. I don’t have a full background of what he has been doing, but as a person, he comes across as some­body who knows what he wants to do.

The ACF’s publicity secretary claimed Nige­rians were sold an anti-corruption dummy in 2015. Given your dissatisfaction with the APC government, what lessons can we learn from its perceived failures?

I have made my views on the APC gov­ernment clear — it’s a disaster, from Bu­hari to now. I don’t trust the APC, PDP, APGA, or the Labour Party. What Nigeria needs is a collegiate leadership of the best and brightest, not self-serving politicians. We even launched the Rescue Nigeria Proj­ect, with leaders like Ituah Ighodalo, Pat Utomi and Prof Attahiru Jega, to find the real solution. We need leaders who under­stand the world, read, debate and engage, not those who only focus on distributing short-term aid like rice to the poor. I have made it clear in print: the APC govern­ment from Buhari onward is a disaster, and I expect no better from the PDP or any other party. Nigeria needs a collegiate leadership of the best and brightest — like what we aimed for with the Rescue Nige­ria Project —rather than self-serving pol­iticians out of touch with global realities.

El-Rufai suggested Tinubu might face Jona­than’s fate. Why are southern presidents seen as likely one-term leaders, and what are the key factors?

I think you need to get back to the time of Jonathan and see the kind of position I held. As far as I can remember, I have been consistent on this matter. If you can­not perform, you leave. What is the per­formance of the budget of 2024 for this particular president? My figure is that the budget performance was only 22 percent. Do you think these kinds of people should be allowed to continue? Now, forget that he is from the south or the north or from anywhere. For me, wherever he comes from, if he cannot perform, he should leave, simple.