I’m confident about PDP victory in Adamawa – Wambai

Less than one month to the general election, the nation’s political turf has become busier than ever with stories about aggrieved politicians’ defections from one party to the other, tension-soaked campaigns, continued insurgency and killings in parts of the country. Abubakar Mahmud Wambai (Madaki Mubi), a member of the People’s Democratic Party representing Mubi North/Mubi South/Maiha Federal Constituency, Adamawa State, in the House of Representatives, in this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, Deputy Editor, urged politicians to play by the rules. Wambai, who deplored the activities of insurgents in the North East, urged the Federal Government to arrest the ugly development. He also spoke on other issues. Excerpts:

PDP has been unsteady in Adamawa State; what are the party’s chances in Adamawa State in the coming elections

The problem is sometime selfishness; we have a situation where some people try to manipulate things or try to manipulate whosoever is there to do things in certain way.

They tend to see themselves as Alpha and Omega. But one thing they should understand is that there are those they consider not important, but in politics, you cannot underrate anybody. Let me give you an instance of what happened sometime ago, using myself. 

First of all, I joined politics in 2009 during a bye-election after we lost our member who was representing us then (may his soul rest in peace).

I came on the platform of PDP in 2009 and as time went on, there was a problem arising from backbiting and mudslinging engineered by other opponents and all that, and the then governor decided to listen to such lies, and then kicked me out of the party, by denying me ticket in the primaries in 2011; that’s how I defected to CPC.

Then in 2011, I won elective post to the House of Representatives under CPC as the only candidate. So, we were there until we merged to become the APC and then at that time Nyako was still in PDP; from there he defected from PDP when he felt the party was not fair to him.

He met us in APC and instead of him to carry us along, he started doing things that would also sideline us; so we had meetings and tried to talk to him but he refused. So, when we saw that APC was no longer our party, and having been sidelined, we defected again to PDP, which is what brought me back to PDP; not only me, members of the National Assembly and all that.

Also sometimes the political parties, the way they handle certain things is not really the right way.  Well, they say politics is all about interest and that’s why we are seeing all manner of things happening all over the place. Well, politics also is about reconciliation; we are trying to reconcile issues and I hope it goes well. In Adamawa, the PDP is trying to stabilise; there were some developments during the concluded primaries where some were waiting for the exercise, only to be that some people had already concluded primaries in Abuja, and other members became aggrieved and those who lost the primaries defected to other parties- some to PDM, some to SDP, but fortunately we clinched our own tickets in PDP. But despite all these, we are stabilising.

Which means you are a candidate and hoping to go back to the House of Reps

Yeah, by God’s grace I am a candidate going back to the House. I got my own ticket. In some of those communities, people are saying now that it is not about the party, it is about the personality. Party leaders should try to make things easier for the people; this issue of imposition does not help at all.  It is not going down well with the people. If you observe well, it is also happening in other political parties, it is not only in PDP. PDP members are crying, the same thing in APC, SDP, etc.

Do you think that is healthy for our democracy

It is not healthy at all. This is one thing (internal democracy) we lack up till now. Sometimes, we do things on paper; we have the Electoral Act, party guidelines, but the problem is that they don’t follow the party guidelines, or the Electoral Act. This is what is killing the political parties.

Read also: PDP exposes APC plot to use military to hijack supplementary polls 

If you saw what happened when we resumed last Tuesday at the National Assembly, there was mass defection from APC to PDP, from PDP to APC, SDP, mass defection to various political parties by those who are aggrieved. We must stop that, and then follow due process.

You have been following the campaign of the major political parties; are you satisfied with the way they are going about it

In fact, it is not about whether I am satisfied or not, almost all the presidential candidates are selling their political parties. They are telling us about their own manifestos; so, what is agreeable to one party, is not so to another party. So, everybody is trying to tell the electorates what they hope to offer them.

But I tell you that some people do not care about what happens to their parties, but their own interest. If you are discussing on who should be voted for in Adamawa today, they’ll tell you they will do ‘rice and beans’ which means, vote for so and so candidate in PDP, and vote for so and so candidate in APC.

If you go back to the villages, this is just their state of mind and what they have resolved to do. My advice to leaders of various political parties is that they should begin to restore order and decorum in their midst.

Almost every day now we hear about Boko Haram attack; the way things stand now in terms of security, do you foresee violence during or after the election as a result of the insurgency

There are three states that were under emergency rule; it has expired, although soldiers are still on ground.  Some states are more volatile than the other.

When you look at Borno and Yobe, their own case is more serious than that of Adamawa. I am from Mubi, you remember that in the last few weeks, we were chased out – everybody, including the Emir, ran away, but we have started going back. INEC said that election is going to hold in Adamawa.

Out of the 21 local areas that we have, seven were overrun by Boko Haram, and the three local government areas that I am representing, were involved. Today, the military is doing a lot to contain them; soldiers have chased them away out of the areas they seized and normalcy is gradually returning in the area.

I don’t know what is happening in Borno and Yobe, although we watched Professor Jega saying that it would be very difficult to hold elections in the two states. The information we are getting is that election will hold in Adamawa, including the three local government areas that I am representing, although they said they are still contacting the security people to get the intelligence report on the extent of safety for such an exercise.

How do you feel that the three LGAs you are representing are seriously affected by the insurgency

In fact, I feel very, very bad and sad. I don’t know how to describe it. Sometimes, I see the Boko Haram thing as an international challenge. See what is happening in some other countries in Africa, even in the developed world. We heard about the recent killings in France. That’s why we always call on government to put more effort. According to the Constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria, it is the responsibility of government to ensure security of lives and property of its citizens. So, whatever it will take, government must live up to that responsibility.

There must be stability and the people deserve protection by the government. Let me tell you, in the North East, or elsewhere in the North, apart from Kano or Kaduna, Mubi is where you can get big business going on.

Again, we have the largest cattle market in Mubi, and it is one of the largest cattle market in the rest of West Africa. So, as small as Mubi, you find as much as 10 to 11 commercial banks there; sometimes people from the state capital come to Mubi to buy their wares which they resell in Yola, the state capital, and make profit. When the insurgents invaded Mubi, you could see the havoc they wreaked there and trailers loaded with goods were moving out of Mubi because the place was no longer safe.

What happened to us in Mubi two, three months back, as the representative of the people, I tell you, it was traumatic, and we pray we shall not have to experience such anymore.

What is your advice to politicians vying for one position or the other, and also electorates on how to conduct themselves during the elections

In the first place I am calling on government to ensure maximum security, whatever it can take, because, as I have said earlier, it is the responsibility of government to ensure security of lives and property of citizens. Secondly, as politicians, we, must eschew politics of bitterness. There are campaigns and enlightenments going on although we come from different political parties, we are all Nigerians, we are all brothers and sisters, politics should not divide us, and then some utterances that could cause lawlessness or violence must be avoided. We should go to the polling units and cast our votes peacefully. For those who are displaced, whatever means/methods that can be adopted by INEC to give them the opportunity to vote, that should be done peacefully. Every one that has a role to play to make sure the elections are free and fair must do so in the interest of the country. INEC