Dr Williams Toyin Akanle, an aspirant in the last APC senatorial primary election in Kogi West, has reiterated his position that the exercise was a charade. In an interview granted journalists at his Makutu Isanlu residence where he feted over three hundred widows, an annual event, Akanle spoke on the behind-the-scene politics that robbed him of his mandate. The former National Director of State Security lamented that APC has not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians.
Excepts.
Kogi West APC Primaries
The primaries has come and gone, but there are some pertinent questions. Was there any primaries? Could we categorized that as primaries? What happened on 4th October was never primaries. I have chosen to keep quiet because I don’t believe in fighting over split milk. What happened in Kabba was a sham. In Kabba, after midnight of that faithful day where they hurried people to carryout the shambolic exercise after delegates had gone, having waited for two days. As for us, we insist that no primaries took place in Kabba.
Any Hope ?
Our hope lies in God. Let me give you a recent example. In Kogi State, we had an election where late Prince Abubakar Audu campaigned and went everywhere. He was the perceived winner of that election whether you like it or not but for Gov. Yahaya Bello whom we all knew what he did and what he stood for to be sworn in because he finished second. If that could happen, election were already over and the winner dies or the perceived winner dies, anything can therefore happen because. I’m still very hopeful.
Reconciliation ?
Is it not when they want to see you that they can reconcile with you? Did they even think of me till now? The major actors have not reached me and I’m not going to beg anybody. But I can say categorically that in Kogi West APC, I am a voice, a major voice the must be heard. So, if they are still playing god, let them continue. For now, nobody has approached me. From within the State, no one has thought it fit to talk to me. There was a time I met the party chairman in Abuja and I told him in simple terms, “you people are taking me for granted” and I said “you will see”. That statement is loaded.
Next General Elections.
One thing I have always said is, I will not work against my party. If anything is going to happen it will happen within the party. What do I mean, my followers whom we have been together over the past eighteen months for this exercise have made sacrifices to be in the cold, in the heat and they know what to do at the appropriate time. They may be waiting for my body language but when it is time for me to indicate to them the direction to go, I will certainly do that.
APC as a Party for Nigeria?
I won’t deceive you, my voice has dropped since after the primaries. I really don’t know what would happen. The primaries held by the APC all over the federation was marred by corruption all over. Some governors even had the effrontery to say they would not work for the party. They said they would also field and work for their candidates in another party, while a Minister even said he would not work for the party. And even till this very hour, people are defecting form our party. That is weakening our resolve. Party politics is like a system and when parts are falling off, it cannot function effectively. Just like a car, if any parts is bad it cannot function well. So if you ask me, there are cracks in the APC.
Those behind your travails?
Those behind my travails know themselves. They vowed that I shouldn’t get there. Some went about saying I don’t matter, that I’m not acceptable and not on the ground politically. But they now see that I am more acceptable than any one of them. They began all the inglorious, infamous things they did because they feared me, else they would allow for a free and fair primaries and let me beat them, trounce them. It would be like a game of football with the scores becoming like that of football. By all assessment, I had not less than eighty percent in that election. That was the minimum. Who are they, what are they? What did they do? Where did they go? Who did they meet? Where they on the field? Did we see their posters? Did we see their bill boards? Did they go round the eighty four wards like I did ?
Winner of APC primaries?
Who is the winner? that one? Can he come down from his high horse? Because he had the support of the government? Are they campaigning now? Now that elections are close by others are campaigning, where are they? They only went to Kabba few days ago. Even what happened in Kabba? The shameful and woeful appearance. Is that where our party should be? Looking at less than two months to elections, it is most unfortunate.
On same page with Governor ?
For me, I was on the same page with the governor but maybe he was not on the same page with me. I can say you are my friend, but it is only you who know whether I am your friend. Except to the extent that I don’t go to his house to wake up from there or beg. Some people do that, so if I was not doing that does that presupposes that I’m not on the same page. Then it is wrong, because I have wished the governor and especially the party well. I have done all I could. All those that are there today, none of them did ten percent of what I did for the party, so how do you want me to be on the same page other than being a worthy party member and I am that. So, if there is any issue from his side, or from the government side then I don’t know. But if they could direct all the appointees and the elected officers to do every thing possible that I do not emerge, then definitely, then I don’t think we are on same page. Because if appointees, even people from my community could go against me, knowing the implications, then, I think they are on the same page with him, then I may not be. I am still saying I may not be on same page with him because he is still our party leader in the State.
APC Winning Kogi West?
This is a very difficult question. It has been a long running battle between the various dramatis personae. Already, the situation on ground generally in Kogi State may have adverse effect even on the presidential election. The only saving grace is that the bulk of where some of the votes comes from are avowed APC members, but that aside, the event of the primaries and how the candidates emerged is creating so much problems and people are getting disenchanted.
This is not the time for anybody to stand up there and think that all is well. Everywhere I go, people want to hear the way forward. I have supporters all over, I listen to what they say, and if I do a sum total of what is going to happen, then there is problem. If they too are pretending that all is well, I know that there is serious, a serious problem ahead.
Advice on APC winning next elections
The party has to do more. They know there will not be primaries, yet they collected our monies. I’m not saying the refund is an issue. How much is the N7 million compared to several hundreds of millions I have spent. They know what to do to win election even if it means going to beg. Prostrate, roll on the floor, beg because people are hurt, and angered.
I have exhausted all available options to seek redress. The party has its own method in solving the problem. Immediately after the primaries, they constituted a National Peace Committee and I went there based on the appeal we wrote. They said it should be Toyin Akanle, it is on record and on paper but till tomorrow the NWC has not been able to sit down and implement it. Because some people unfortunately are playing God. People all over at the National and at the State are playing God, and it is unfortunate that was why when we were going round, some people just sat down and said we will give it to you. So they never bothered to go round. That is why they allotted result to him and so he doesn’t care.
February Election
It is not going to be about me nor the appointees. If all the principal actors, those elected in government from Kogi West can come and insult me, my experience, my age, all that I stand for, even those who never went to school. I thought we respected our teachers in those days because they are learned. I have gone to school, I worked in an organised system. I retired as a National Director of Security. I have been part of installing several governors. I have worked with presidents one on one. It is so easy to turn Kogi West and Kogi State around, but unfortunately, these people, they don’t have what it takes and yet they want to be celebrated. I have only one vote but the electorate would decide. Even if I vote for my opponent now does it make him win? Let them appeal to the electorates, but unfortunately because they have offended the electorates they can’t go to them.
There was a National reconciliation committee. I went to that of the North central and I told them the story of Kogi West primaries. The chairman was more or less putting his hands on his heads to say you mean this happened in Kogi West? The chairman, Prof. Osunbo, a former Governor, made recommendation, but nothing happened. I thought the National Chairman of the APC have something to offer when he came on board having had interactions with him as NLC President, but with all the confusion, money changing hands, allegations of new cars purchased, is that how you run a party. I lost because I don’t have deep pockets. It is like everything about the party has been monetised, from buying forms, even the getting committee reports.
Those of us who do not have deep pocket lost out. Unfortunately, we even have deep pockets than those they gave the tickets because they believed the government treasury will do the trick.
Any regret?
It is not over and so I have no regret. Between me and you, mine is a divine mandate, it takes somebody with character, conviction, after my experience and my background to come into politics. People would say what are you looking for. But the people are there. The people are the one who are suffering. I tell people, I thank God as a Federal pensioner, I can sit down quietly and live my life, after all, I am not training children in the university again. I have done well for myself, I thank God for his faithfulness. But what about the people, the electorates, those without a voice. Those who are going on the road. You refused to tar the road, when you speed with your vehicles, you pour dirt on them and when they complain you say go and arrest them that is why, I choose to run the senatorial election. 2019 election is still days away. It is not over until it is over. That is the message I give to every follower.
Look at the two major contenders, in APC and PDP, if you ask where the pendulum would swing to, every one knows where it would go. If you like don’t allow Dino Melaiye to come to Kogi, the people because of what they have done to me in Kabba, people are saying we will wait, come February, to vent their anger. I have told people several times that I am not leaving APC not because I am convinced that APC is the best but that this not the issue now. I am still in APC because I have to be in APC for a divine purpose. If not God, you must have heard people saying I was leading in some party’s considered as third force where I was not even a member. People went as far as making billboards with my name as their senatorial candidate. I would have gone to those ones. And let me not deceive you, the kind of work we have done, no party I would go to today that I would not win, that is if they did not bring their military or write result because the result of the primary they are brandishing, did we really have up to 1500 delegates as at the time they claimed that primaries were held. I was at the venue of the primaries till 1:00am, we had no agent, so all they did was to falsify results.
Advice to Kogi West Candidates?
Will this people listen to advise. I have been instrumental to the emergence of the two major candidates in the past. Smart’s second term, we all agreed he should go. I spent my money in this very country home of mine, we voted for him. It was only in 2015 after he lost the election that he called me to tell me that he has a plot of land he wants to give me. Am I a beggar? Did I tell him I don’t have plot of land in Abuja? He went about saying he gave me land and that I’m too proud. As a senator did he ever call me, not until he lost and he was beginning to nurse another ambition. It is not about land, houses, cars, money, but to give the best in serving the people. If it is about land I will just sit down and move from continent to continent and not country to country.
Hope for Kogi West?
Very bleak because the two principal actors have been there before and what was the outcome. One was there for eight years, what does he have to show? Some people campaigning for him on social media and said he gave cars, what kind of cars? How many people can drive the cars now? If you initiated an empowerment scheme that would enable people acquire skills and can employ others through it, would it not be better than giving cars? You said he gave some rickety ambulances to some clinics. Ambulances that never moved after they were delivered. What are you talking about? We know the source of all those things, making it look as if they are spending their money is deceptive. Over the years, I cannot count lives I have impacted positively. By virtue of my background, I don’t make noise about it. I am not like a Senator who would paint one classroom, and make so much noise about it. My community development efforts has received commendation and yet I don’t make noise about it. Until I joined politics, with followership that is like a movement and not about politics. I have friends in all political parties and they are ready to work with me. All those jostling to represent our people without any iota of contradiction are doing so for personal benefit. You cannot be in a place for eight years and you cannot tell us what you’ve done. People who cannot manage their lives and businesses now want to manage the lives of others. Even the incumbent Senator, what can he point to after four years? Rather, he is still battling with whether he graduated or not from school, yet these are the same set of people who want to represent us. In a civilized clime, these people would not present themselves for public office talk more of been voted for.
