Former Minister of Information and governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Mr. Labaran Maku, in this interview with UMAR MUHAMMED, speaks on the just concluded election in Nasarawa State
How would you describe the last election?
It was the most fraudulent election in the electoral history of our country. This was an election where the result was prepared even before the voting took place. Now they are working to fill the gaps. It didn’t qualify to be an election. It was an electoral coup supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police and other security agencies. They hatched a plot to hijack the mandate of the people having known that the people were not ready to vote for the current administration of (Governor) Umaru Al-Makura because of the blood that has been shed across the state.
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What happened in Nasarawa State was a big shame. That is why days after the election result was announced, no single person came out to rejoice. This was because they know it was a fraud. We know the five personalities that coordinated it. Their mission was that I should not rule Nasarawa because I am a Christian. Several forces came into the state because of this conspiracy. I have never played politics of religion or division. I am a unifier. I have served in different capacities, which include being a commissioner and deputy governor for a combination of eight years and throughout, I played my role in stabilising the state and uniting Muslims and Christians. Nasarawa is the clearest example of a mini Nigeria and if we cannot unite this state, we can’t unite the North or Nigeria.
Now look at the shame that is going on from Maiduguri to Kano. Every day, northerners are killing one another because of politics. And you can’t blame this on anybody. Northern leaders must look inwards to stop the unnecessary division. The politics of division that pervades the region is killing our region, destroying our development and truncating the vision of our children. It is turning our region into a massive battlefield in which people are being killed every day. Who profits from the blood that is being shed, the talents being excluded from governance and the massive war that is going on, destroying opportunities in our region? It has now become a place where investors flee from.
Why do you think you lost in this election?
I did not lose the election. I won it by a wide margin. What I am saying is that the result figures were cooked up by the government in a particular centre and coordinated by one of the commissioners.
Al-Makura knows there is no way he can defeat me. Ninety per cent of the ad hoc staff were chosen by the government and handed over to the INEC in the state. That is why you could see that in Adoge, Ashige in the Lafia East Local Government Area, returning officers ran away. They found out that Al-Makura was not winning and that APGA, my party, was leading; they were ordered to flee. They then organised commandoes to hijack the collation centres. The commandoes went to Adoge four times, the people resisted them. But they were able to hijack the materials at Ashige, Assakio, Arikya and other places.
I want the whole world to focus on Nasarawa State. I want this country to know that the level of criminality that occurred in Nasarawa is something that I am personally ashamed of. In the governor’s village, two of my supporters were shot down in cold blood because they dared to vote for APGA in the electoral ward of the governor. At the Abacha Youth Centre in Lafia, a young man was stabbed to death in the midst of security agencies because he was an APGA supporter. At Giza, they drove away everybody and carried away ballot papers to go and thumbprint. They also did their rigging at Adudu; there was no report. There was a commando-style invasion of the collation centre at Karu by the military. Now it is difficult for us to distinguish between fake soldiers and regular soldiers because fake soldiers were on active service in the course of this election and that activity took place around 10:30pm. Around 2am, there was another invasion at Wulko by insurgents. There was invasion of Arikiya in Lafia Local Government Area by a private army who went there and hijacked ballot papers.
Why did you choose to contest on the platform of the APGA instead of the APC or Labour Party when you lost out in the PDP primaries?
I have been telling Nigerians all along that there is something that is false about the APC. I have problems accepting the ideology of the APC because there is a gap between what they preach and what they practise. I took that position a long time ago when I was in government. And then, I found out that in the North, the APC is associated with so much violence. The core of APC seems to me to be embedded in the ideology of violence and falsehood which is inimical to liberal democracy. I went to APGA because the natural place I could have gone was the Labour Party but it was in chaos in the state and also in the country. There were quarrels among party members and the leadership of the party. I did not want to go into a place where I would have to be truncated by quarrels.
I went to APGA because it is new and fresh and I wanted to experiment with a new party. It was not controversial in the state. APGA came to me and invited me. When I saw that they offered a better opportunity to contest on their platform, I went in. And you can see that APGA today has developed and we have been able to defeat the PDP and the APC in this election.
Will you go to the election tribunal for redress?
I am studying the situation. I am studying the full scale of the criminality that was committed. When I am properly briefed by all the stakeholders and the people involved, I will take a decision.
Don’t you think the choice of the party on which you contested affected your chances of winning?
No, it did not. I won. It promoted my popularity and I won. I won, even though the PDP has been here for 16 years; we defeated them (the PDP). The APC has been here for four years and we defeated them. APGA is beautiful because Maku is a household name. Thus, I didn’t need to suffer myself to educate people on what the party is. The slogan of the party, ‘be your brother’s keeper’ is a great advantage. Look at the destruction that is taking place in the state that has been imposed by the ruling clique in Nasarawa. The clique of violent cults has set our state in confusion. Now if you look at what has happened, you will find that, ‘be your brother’s keeper or be your sister’s keeper’ again talks about unity, service and brotherhood across religion and ethnic lines. It is clear from the bloodshed in the course of the election that some parties are their brothers’ killers. APGA offered a fresh focus; uniting the people across board.
If invited by the APC to come and join their government, would you accept?
Don’t insult me. I can’t join robbers to share the loot of my property. They stole my mandate from me, then they will sit down and invite me? No! I can’t join a band of robbers who have stolen a mandate that does not belong to them.
At any rate, I am not in the politics of going to join people who won election. If I was defeated properly, I would have congratulated them to build a constructive opposition, to remain in the opposition and to continuously checkmate whatever they are doing so as to improve the quality of our democracy. They should note that the quality of election is the quality of the soul of its leader. I am shocked that we still have this level of criminality even in the heart of people that ought to now have the responsibility of correcting Nigeria. Some of them participated in this crime.
Do you think you are that popular?
What did you think when you look at the results from across the state? There is no politician as popular as me in Nasarawa State at the moment. I don’t know of tomorrow. But today, if you ask the youths, the women and even the elderly, they would tell you that they are for Maku and APGA. Everywhere, people are saying ‘kukuruku’ because this is the only person that has come around to talk to them. I am a humble rural boy. You can see, I am still here in my village. I only go into the town occasionally. I stay in the village.
Since 1999, I have never gone on holiday abroad. This is my London. This is my Dubai. This is my Cape Town because I have not seen British politicians come on holiday in Nigeria neither have I seen Americans or people from the United Arab Emirates. South African politicians don’t come on holiday here. My leadership is to develop the heart, to stay at home with our people and build this country. We run around too much.
How would you describe the last election?
It was the most fraudulent election in the electoral history of our country. This was an election where the result was prepared even before the voting took place. Now they are working to fill the gaps. It didn’t qualify to be an election. It was an electoral coup supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police and other security agencies. They hatched a plot to hijack the mandate of the people having known that the people were not ready to vote for the current administration of (Governor) Umaru Al-Makura because of the blood that has been shed across the state.
ADVERTISEMENT
What happened in Nasarawa State was a big shame. That is why days after the election result was announced, no single person came out to rejoice. This was because they know it was a fraud. We know the five personalities that coordinated it. Their mission was that I should not rule Nasarawa because I am a Christian. Several forces came into the state because of this conspiracy. I have never played politics of religion or division. I am a unifier. I have served in different capacities, which include being a commissioner and deputy governor for a combination of eight years and throughout, I played my role in stabilising the state and uniting Muslims and Christians. Nasarawa is the clearest example of a mini Nigeria and if we cannot unite this state, we can’t unite the North or Nigeria.
Now look at the shame that is going on from Maiduguri to Kano. Every day, northerners are killing one another because of politics. And you can’t blame this on anybody. Northern leaders must look inwards to stop the unnecessary division. The politics of division that pervades the region is killing our region, destroying our development and truncating the vision of our children. It is turning our region into a massive battlefield in which people are being killed every day. Who profits from the blood that is being shed, the talents being excluded from governance and the massive war that is going on, destroying opportunities in our region? It has now become a place where investors flee from.
Why do you think you lost in this election?
I did not lose the election. I won it by a wide margin. What I am saying is that the result figures were cooked up by the government in a particular centre and coordinated by one of the commissioners.
Al-Makura knows there is no way he can defeat me. Ninety per cent of the ad hoc staff were chosen by the government and handed over to the INEC in the state. That is why you could see that in Adoge, Ashige in the Lafia East Local Government Area, returning officers ran away. They found out that Al-Makura was not winning and that APGA, my party, was leading; they were ordered to flee. They then organised commandoes to hijack the collation centres. The commandoes went to Adoge four times, the people resisted them. But they were able to hijack the materials at Ashige, Assakio, Arikya and other places.
I want the whole world to focus on Nasarawa State. I want this country to know that the level of criminality that occurred in Nasarawa is something that I am personally ashamed of. In the governor’s village, two of my supporters were shot down in cold blood because they dared to vote for APGA in the electoral ward of the governor. At the Abacha Youth Centre in Lafia, a young man was stabbed to death in the midst of security agencies because he was an APGA supporter. At Giza, they drove away everybody and carried away ballot papers to go and thumbprint. They also did their rigging at Adudu; there was no report. There was a commando-style invasion of the collation centre at Karu by the military. Now it is difficult for us to distinguish between fake soldiers and regular soldiers because fake soldiers were on active service in the course of this election and that activity took place around 10:30pm. Around 2am, there was another invasion at Wulko by insurgents. There was invasion of Arikiya in Lafia Local Government Area by a private army who went there and hijacked ballot papers.
Why did you choose to contest on the platform of the APGA instead of the APC or Labour Party when you lost out in the PDP primaries?
I have been telling Nigerians all along that there is something that is false about the APC. I have problems accepting the ideology of the APC because there is a gap between what they preach and what they practise. I took that position a long time ago when I was in government. And then, I found out that in the North, the APC is associated with so much violence. The core of APC seems to me to be embedded in the ideology of violence and falsehood which is inimical to liberal democracy. I went to APGA because the natural place I could have gone was the Labour Party but it was in chaos in the state and also in the country. There were quarrels among party members and the leadership of the party. I did not want to go into a place where I would have to be truncated by quarrels.
I went to APGA because it is new and fresh and I wanted to experiment with a new party. It was not controversial in the state. APGA came to me and invited me. When I saw that they offered a better opportunity to contest on their platform, I went in. And you can see that APGA today has developed and we have been able to defeat the PDP and the APC in this election.
Will you go to the election tribunal for redress?
I am studying the situation. I am studying the full scale of the criminality that was committed. When I am properly briefed by all the stakeholders and the people involved, I will take a decision.
Don’t you think the choice of the party on which you contested affected your chances of winning?
No, it did not. I won. It promoted my popularity and I won. I won, even though the PDP has been here for 16 years; we defeated them (the PDP). The APC has been here for four years and we defeated them. APGA is beautiful because Maku is a household name. Thus, I didn’t need to suffer myself to educate people on what the party is. The slogan of the party, ‘be your brother’s keeper’ is a great advantage. Look at the destruction that is taking place in the state that has been imposed by the ruling clique in Nasarawa. The clique of violent cults has set our state in confusion. Now if you look at what has happened, you will find that, ‘be your brother’s keeper or be your sister’s keeper’ again talks about unity, service and brotherhood across religion and ethnic lines. It is clear from the bloodshed in the course of the election that some parties are their brothers’ killers. APGA offered a fresh focus; uniting the people across board.
If invited by the APC to come and join their government, would you accept?
Don’t insult me. I can’t join robbers to share the loot of my property. They stole my mandate from me, then they will sit down and invite me? No! I can’t join a band of robbers who have stolen a mandate that does not belong to them.
At any rate, I am not in the politics of going to join people who won election. If I was defeated properly, I would have congratulated them to build a constructive opposition, to remain in the opposition and to continuously checkmate whatever they are doing so as to improve the quality of our democracy. They should note that the quality of election is the quality of the soul of its leader. I am shocked that we still have this level of criminality even in the heart of people that ought to now have the responsibility of correcting Nigeria. Some of them participated in this crime.
Do you think you are that popular?
What did you think when you look at the results from across the state? There is no politician as popular as me in Nasarawa State at the moment. I don’t know of tomorrow. But today, if you ask the youths, the women and even the elderly, they would tell you that they are for Maku and APGA. Everywhere, people are saying ‘kukuruku’ because this is the only person that has come around to talk to them. I am a humble rural boy. You can see, I am still here in my village. I only go into the town occasionally. I stay in the village.
Since 1999, I have never gone on holiday abroad. This is my London. This is my Dubai. This is my Cape Town because I have not seen British politicians come on holiday in Nigeria neither have I seen Americans or people from the United Arab Emirates. South African politicians don’t come on holiday here. My leadership is to develop the heart, to stay at home with our people and build this country. We run around too much.
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