Hon Aminu Masari, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, is a stalwart of the party in Katsina. In this interview, he declares that APC has all it takes to dislodge the party from power. He also bares his mind on other issues engaging stakeholders in the polity such as the Petroleum industry bill, corruption in the NNPC and amnesty for Boko Haram insurgents.
Excerpts:
There is now a new political party-All Progressives Congress (APC). How are you handling the intrigues over the registration of the party?
To start with, I don’t think there is much difficulty as such because the address given by those who submitted application for registration of African Political Congress (APC) to the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) cannot be ascertained, the people who submitted the application cannot be identified. So, it is an application of mischief to thwart the effort of the merger arrangement and it will fail. Although there is a lot in a name, we are going to merge under whatever name.
Already, we have submitted our application for registration to INEC in compliance with the provision of Electoral Act. I think the claim by people who could not be identified and their address could not be found should not be entertained by the INEC unless they are in collusion with the PDP to deprive our merger plan in the name of APC. But they cannot because in the first place we went to the public with that name and everybody has taken public notice of that name, every Nigerian has started to identify opposition with that name. So, for anybody to come out now to claim it that person is out to commit mischief. And however they are, they wouldn’t succeed.
There are insinuations in some quarters that APC is another gathering of strange bedfellows. How would you react to this?
When PDP was formed in 1998, it was also an amalgamation of so many political parties. So, why should anybody say that the merger of ACN, CPC, ANPP and some section of APGA is a gathering of strange bedfellows? All these are in the opposition; they are only coming together to defeat the PDP in the same way PDP was formed with a large association of people to make sure that military rule was over.
Also, we are merging to make sure that we remove PDP from federal to the local government level because we have not seen anywhere where there is positive impact of PDP’s rule. PDP has misruled the country for a long period of time. So, it is now time to get PDP out of office for a better future of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Will it be right to say that this coming together is part of the desperation by the North to get back power from the South as some people are insinuating?
Are the parties in alliance all northern parties? Is ACN a northern party? Is APGA a northern party? If you say CPC and ANPP are predominately in the North, can you say the same thing of other political parties? We are forming a national party to win election. Can you say that the presidential candidate of the party will come from the North?
Even as some are already looking in the direction of General Buhari?
It is their constitutional right to look in the direction of Buhari as their candidate. There is nothing wrong in that. May be if you go to Lagos, somebody is looking at a different person. If you go to the East, it may also be a different person entirely. In the North, it is the same. But the issue is who has the clout and credibility to win election for you. That will be our guiding principle when it comes to electing our candidate.
The principle of power shift was one controversial issue that generated a lot of heat in the PDP in the last general election. Is your party also considering including the principle of rotation of presidency in your constitution?
I think the problem in PDP is not about rotation; it is about people who are not honourabe enough to honour an agreement that is signed. It was reported in the papers when the meeting was held, who were there and who signed? So, it is not about rotation; it is about being ungentlemanly when you entered into an agreement and you go back on it. The manifesto and constitution sub-committee of the merger has written their constitution. But what I know about the APC is that the principle of justice and fairness will be held in all decisions of APC.
Although it has been dismissed as a rumour, but it is also true that some PDP governors are planning to join APC?
Everybody is free to join APC. Even Jonathan is free to join APC. What I am saying is that there is no barrier for people to join APC. So, if some governors are planning to dump the PDP and join APC, what is so special about it? The governors in ANPP are prepared to leave the ANPP and join APC. The governors in ACN are prepared to leave ACN for APC. The governor in CPC is also prepared to leave CPC and join APC. So, what is news in governors in PDP leaving PDP to join APC? It is no news.
But are they making overtures?
I don’t know but I believe those who say some governors are planning to join APC wouldn’t be lying.
Some Nigerians have expressed reservations about the PIB bill which is now before the National Assembly, insisting that it may not serve the general interest of the people if it is passed into law. As a former lawmaker, what is your view about this?
From what I read in the papers and contributions of some members of legislature, there are certain areas that need amendment, especially those areas that are talking about taking oil revenue direct to the oil producing communities. Besides that, there are some other areas which the lawmakers have to address. Since the bill has passed second reading, it means it is going to committee level. At committee level, there will be public hearing and people will come and hear their views.
The aggregate opinion is what the committee will report back to the House for consideration line by line. This bill seeks to empower the oil producing areas more after the debate of the onshore/off shore dichotomy. So, obviously, it is going to involve members knocking on some aspects of the provisions of the bill. But I hope that members of the National Assembly will come to a compromise so that the better part of the bill can be made into law for the benefits of communities, Nigerians and the industry.
The House of Representatives recently came up with a revelation that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has not been remitting its Internally Generated Revenue to the Federal Government since the advent of the present democratic government. According to them, the arrears of IGR expected to be remitted to the government coffers is amounting to about six trillion naira.
Why has the National Assembly refused to beam its search light on the activities of the corporation all these years?
I think NNPC is the biggest culprit. The National Assembly has no resources to audit completely the affairs of NNPC. Today you get information on one aspect and you discover a huge sum missing. Tomorrow, it will be another sector. If you talk to DPI, talk to the office of Accountant General, talk to revenue mobilization, what you get is conflicting figures in terms of crude oil export, revenue earnings, what NNPC is refining locally and so many other issues.
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