As we approach the 2023 general elections in Kogi state, especially the race to represent the Kogi East senatorial district in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, one of the contestants, Prince Mohammed Abdullahi, the immediate past North-Central zonal chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and a senatorial candidate, bares his mind on important national and state issues. In a recent interview with our correspondent, Mohammed, popularly known and referred to as Elephant, says he represents a new beginning for the people of Kogi East.
A man with your wherewithal and experience can impact your people through different means, why politics?.
I must commend journalists, the fourth estate of the realm, for the immeasurable contributions you have made to keep our political developments in check. We are truly living in a changing world where they say ideas change the world. Politics today is no longer a business for the charlatans but it is the business that involves the lives and well being of the people.
As a people we have laboured and paid the price which had led to the present democratic dispensation we enjoy today. The people fought for this democracy because they see it as the best type of government ever enthroned by men to use as a vehicle in the development of society.
I chose to go into politics to give back to the society. I chose to go into politics to better the lot of my people who have been denied the dividend of democracy by past leaders who do not mean well for them. I am in the race today to democratically clear the Augean stable that have veritably entrenched themselves against the people’s development.
It was alleged in the media that your presidential candidate, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was booed and pelted with stones during his recent visit to Kogi state. How true was that?
I will tell you with every sense of responsibility that the visit of his Excellency, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was very successful and peaceful. There were no ugly incidences that happened during the visit and the writer of that story never told the world the real reason why they planted that story which is a product of their devilish imaginations. I have decided to be quiet as those that participated in that honourable event where his Excellency deliberately decided to visit the home of his best friend and the father of modern democratic leadership in Kogi state, the late Prince Abubakar Audu, of blessed memory, would attest to the fact that it was surprising to read that our August visitor was pelted with stones and booed.
Kogi state has always be home to Dr Kwankwaso.
Then, what is the true story to put the record straight?
Politics and greed. I would tell you this as one of the hosts of the visit. Some of your colleagues came to the event and wanted to meet the presidential candidate of our party and were told that His Excellency, Dr. Kwankwaso was praying and that they have to wait. Out of anger that they have been stopped from meeting and ‘collecting’, according to them, their share from the man, they went and concocted stories which they published. Our brand of journalism must change for the better in this country. The story, I can say, is anything but embarrassing.
You are contesting for the Senate seat of your constituency under the NNPP. Why the NNPP?
The simple answer is that the APC and PDP has failed. It had become a contraption instead of a political party which they proclaimed to be. The ingredients inherent in political associations that makes them pro-people are today lacking in them. This is because they have been turned to a vehicle for personal aggrandizement and self serving machinations. The big political parties are today considered by the people as the axis of the devil when it comes to political measuring.
When you peer review them with what the definitions of a political party is you would find out that they are bereft of ideas and have failed. It has now been an axis of political godfathers and rent seeking gladiators against the people. Their systems of leadership recruitment are anything but monetised and bastardised.
The NNPP is thereby a response to the cries of the people for a veritable alternative to the behemothic but empty in intent political parties especially the PDP and the APC that have failed the people.
What are the factors you took into considerations before choosing NNPP as the platform for your political aspirations?
The NNPP is our answer to the demand for a political party that mirrored the problems of the people and in doing so, having the ideal prescriptions in solving this problems through a well defined and implementable templates of policies. These policies are prescribed taking into consideration the current situations of the people and not enunciated based on international trends because what works in America may not easily work here. The NNPP has a system of leadership recruitments that is targeted towards getting the best leadership resources to solve the problems of the people. The aims and objectives of the party is to create a new type of political dispensation with the people as kings. If you look very carefully at the calibre of leaders in the party you would see that it is made up of political gladiators that simply represents integrity and competence.
You talk of leadership know-how as one of the cardinal requirements in your party’s leadership drive. The leader of the party is Dr. Musa Kwankwaso. What do you know about him?
I ascribe excellence to the name Kwankwaso. He is an apostle of development in all its physicality and type of politics. Excellence is never accidental, it is always the result of high intentions, sincere efforts and intelligent executions. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives as choice not character determines our destiny.
I have made a choice to follow and support Dr. Kwankwaso to make Nigeria great again. This is because he is not given to easy predictability or bandwagonism in thinking or acting. His focused political leadership in Kano state is there for all to see. He has shown consistently, a penchant for an inimitable leadership consistently provided in the service of his people.
What is your political philosophy and ideology?.
No one can contest the fact that there is a casual relationship between professionalism, competent human resources and efficient management dynamics and service delivery in political leadership. This is what I think are qualities that I brought into politics compared to others. It is this mix that I am bringing into the political arena. My qualities are meant to project and ensure the development of my people. This is concisely to be applied to factor the creativity of diversity management with the efficiency that such diverse human resources and its emotional social and cultural capitals can bring to bear on the service delivery objectives of my political contestations.
My ideology in politics is to make sure that no one go to bed hungry in the midst of plenty. My philosophy in politics is to make sure that the people have a new deal dispensation that signals for them the end of an era of their seeking for the elusive dividends of democracy and the beginning of an era where their development and that of the society in all its physicality, is there for them to see and touch.
What will be your key priorities in the Senate, if elected?
My key programmes in the Senate are sponsoring of a bill to build knowledge economy cluster areas especially in Kogi state that our people now love and celebrate education as the industry of the future. To educate you more on this, the world has now gone beyond celebrating oil or natural resources deposit in their countries as they are moving toward knowledge as the basis of their future development. Japan is an example of this as they do not have oil or many natural resources deposits but they made deliberate recourse to knowledge as their greatest resources and today, they are ranked among the most developed countries both in educational and technological attainments and this can be replicated in Nigeria.
What does your victory portend for the people of Kogi East senatorial district?
The majority of my people right are rooting for me. My victory, I will repeat, will signal the end of an era when my people wallowed in the political wilderness looking for the dividend of democracy which never materialized because of the ineptitude and lack of the requisite leadership resources to deliver on their avowed promises to the people and the beginning of the end of an era of which starts with me as their senator. Our people now recognize a leader when they see one and they know I have been groomed to deliver on my promises.
