Barrister John George Itodo is the interim chairman of the Benue state chapter of Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN, and one of the spokespersons of the party. Against the backdrop of the widely reported fusion of the Nigeria Intervention Movement led by Olisa Agbakoba into ANN, the public affairs analyst recently granted an exclusive interview to DAILY POST deputy editor, Sylvester Ugwuanyi, in the course of which he shared how the merger was pulled through, what 2019 and future elections hold for the party as well as other topical national issues. Below are excerpts….
How did NIM’s fusion with ANN come about?
That was a very big one for us and for the Nigerian people, because our party is built on the foundation of decent, young professionals who are ready to take this country to the level where it should be. And so that provided a platform for the other groups to join us, to run under ANN. ANN is made up of technicians, technocrats who do not have baggage as found in the other political parties.
So it was a very good avenue and tool for the Nigerian Intervention Movement to buy into, after they had checked out all political parties. We have many political parties but they found ANN as a party worthy to fly their flag.
Did you lobby for the movement to join your party?
Not at all. In every political setting, there is always the need for merger; different interest groups coming together. And as a political party, we cannot shut the door against any interest group or even a political party that wants to join with us. Our name, Alliance for New Nigeria, means that we are already poised to have alliance with any group that shares our ideals and interests. So, if they come knocking we open doors and if they find our manifestos, our ideals worthy, they are welcome to join us.
Do NIM’s interests properly align with yours such that there won’t be threats of factions and breakups in the future?
If you look at the history of the NIM you will discover that they were with this zeal to correct a lot of things in this country and it is that interest that draws them together, that is also the foundation of ANN, the need to better Nigeria. The need to build a new Nigeria, the need to give Nigerians what they deserve which is good governance. And so it was not difficult for NIM and ANN to fuse, because that is the same interest. For parties coming together, it is not about what we are going to get but putting the right people there, supporting the right persons so that we can achieve a goal. And what is that goal? A new Nigeria, better Nigeria and a Nigeria that all of us can be proud of. So, that is the interest. It is not about who becomes the president, governor or so. Firstly, what is the interest? The interest is Nigeria first, a better Nigeria. So I believe that in every circle, if all the different groups have this ideal that we want a better country, that will become the driving force that will take us there.
With the elections barely seven months away, when will Nigerians start seeing your structures, such as leadership across all levels and the national convention?
With the coming in of NIM and the elections ahead, there is really no time for us as it is now but we have already planned congresses that will take place from local governments to states and the national convention. When we have a national convention, we will now be able to get us a national chairman, the secretary, and officers of the party, it will be rectified at the national convention. But in building to this, we are already set, our congresses will be starting on the 11th of July across the country. Then by 14th July, we will have local government congress, then 18th of July we will have state congresses and the national convention that will hold in Abuja will be on the 21st of July 2018. So, it is at that point that all these people who are interested will declare. After that 21st of July, we will hit the road because there is no more time. The APC just concluded their convention, so we are not far behind from them. We will conduct our national convention on the 21st of July and then we will move on. And a very interesting thing that is happening like so many people have declared interest to run for different offices under the party especially for the presidency. We are also getting filers that all of them are talking to themselves to say: look we are not competitors, we are partners and at the end of the day we will come up with one sole candidate that will be acceptable to all Nigerians, not ANN or NIM members but all Nigerians. And we believe that we will give Nigerians a fresh breath of life.
How does ANN recruit its membership?
I know with INEC, we’ve had issues whereby people have to go to their local government to register and stuffs like that. For us, it is a party that is intended to be widespread down to the local government areas. So, if you are in Abuja we have an FCT chapter. All you need to do is to walk into the office of the party in Abuja and register even if you are from Kano, Bayelsa, Lagos, you can decide to register as a member of the party if you reside in Abuja. It depends on where you reside. If we go to the villages, the people there are going to make up the membership of the party at the ward. We don’t expect someone who is in Abuja to come and be a member there. It is a matter of interest and if you think you can be in Abuja and participate in your ward you can equally do that. But the most important thing is that you are a member of the party and you can contribute to this party. We have members that are coordinating from South Africa, UK, and even Russia and even as we are speaking the national chairman is in Russia and I know he has a lot of party members there too. We also take advantage of the technology. We have online registration on our website. We even carry out e-meetings online. It cuts down expenses of running up and down and so on. And like I said we are a group of professionals, young people who have access to technology and we are making effective use of it.
What is the difference between your party and other parties that are equally populated by professionals, and how would you deal with the desperation for power by politicians?
Our slogan is the difference, ANN – the difference. We are poised to make the difference, we want to a different set of Nigerians, a different set, we want to show the world that this people are different. Now when I say professionals, other parties have professionals and so on. It is not everyone that is a professional in a field that also imbibe the ideals of that field. I’ll give you an example, I am a lawyer, we are trained to be fit and proper but we also have lawyers who are not fit and proper even if they are assumed to be lawyers and professionals. Now it is the same thing, we don’t want politics to be a do or die affair. Our philosophy in our party is that it is not a means to an end but a means at achieving the set goal. You meet some Nigerians they tell you I’m a politician. We want to make a difference we don’t want politics to be your only source of livelihood. Because that is why you see people take politics as a do or die affair; the violence, they want to kill to get to a position. I have my practice if I want to serve my community this way I’m not going to die there, I’m going to go and face my job. That’s why some persons and, even me I belong to the school of thought, that canvases for the National Assembly to be on a part-time basis. Let the people go and do something else and then come maybe two or three times in a week. Which of course even as full time member that’s what they do, come two or three times in a week legislate go back and face their job. So in a nutshell, we are different from these other people because we have professionals and you see when I say professionals; we also have artisans, vulcanisers, etc. It cuts across people who a gifted and if you talk to them, they want a change, they are not being appreciated, so they are coming together with us and we are seeing how we can make a difference.
Looking at the 2019 elections, what are your projections; what impact will ANN make at the polls?
We are not strictly out to win elections. Now the reason behind that is this, we did not come together for the sole purpose of winning elections, even though INEC is singing is different tune. INEC is saying that if you do not win a seat, you will be proscribed. Our target is even 2023 to build Nigerians to get them to imbibe what being a political party is all about, to get Nigerians to buy into our ideology. To say look if we want candidates who want to be counsellors, we will train them. For us, anyone running for office must understand the party. By the time they win, the party is going to sponsor them to different institutes of legislative studies and the likes to have an idea of what governance is all about, and get members of the party to toe the line of our manifesto because that is what we are selling to the Nigerian people so we do not shortchange them. The difference is that we are poised to bring in people who will not shortchange the Nigerian people. So that is our drive, we want people who will follow what the party says it’s going to do. A very good example when APC came, one of the reasons why some of us then were in APC, chanting Buhari was because we saw the manifesto and it was wonderful and we said this will take Nigeria forward but we have not been able to achieve that. That is why we screen people who will contest under ANN so that when you win a seat under the party you do not become larger than the party. So, we are putting all these in place. If you are campaigning and you said you are going to provide good roads and the usual promises, the party will make sure you fulfill them.
There are topical issues like restructuring, attacks by herdsmen, Boko Haram etcetera… what is the position of the party on these?
There are different interest groups all over the country right now. These groups over time have been there agitating over one thing or the other. The sad story around it is that, most times if any of these groups gets into a position where they can actualise the dream of the group, they don’t fly it. Starting with what you have asked the restructuring; for me it is the way to go but the difficulty is that because Nigeria is built on the tripod of religion, tribalism and ethnicity and poverty as a tool. So it is difficult for us to actualize it, and for you to convince the man in Kano that you want restructuring without him thinking that a particular tribe is trying to gain either economic advantage or socio-political advantage over them. You cannot separate the fact that everybody knows that for now that the south-south is the cash cow of the nation. Now when you say restructuring, you cannot convince the man in Maiduguri to think that you want to be giving him stipends instead of us sharing our commonwealth. So this issues are larger than what you think. Reason being that Nigeria is structured in a different way and wired as a people. You need a fresh breed of politicians, a fresh breed of people and that is where ANN comes in, where people can sit down from Kano, Imo, Benue, we can sit down and talk without suspicion and say this is the common goal of Nigeria. All we need is for people to sit back and reason. In Taraba, I told someone if I am the governor I will not ask for federal allocation. In Maiduguri, if not for this present terrorist activities in the North-East, that is another place where you can tap in and you don’t need the easy money we get from the oil. The oil money has made us so lazy that nobody wants to look inwards. So restructuring is going to be a difficult thing. The reason why it is going to be difficult is because the North are not favourably disposed towards this restructuring as is being proposed. And where do we get this settled? The president cannot on his own decide that today I want restructuring. It has to go to the national assembly. Now if you go to the national assembly, the representation in the national assembly is tilted to favour the north, so anything that is not in their interest will not see the light of the day. That is why it is going to be a difficult task. The only way we can achieve this it is if this our present leaders or those agitating for it are able to lobby, able to give and take to those who will finally take a decision from the northern part of the country. Once they are able to have that dialogue, you will see it will work. And that is the only time Nigeria will be liberated from this circle of political and economic slavery that we are facing. The other issue of Boko Haram, I don’t like talking about it because it should have been over a very long time ago but because we played too much politics, it became a platform where other people enrich themselves, playing politics with human lives and the damage continues. A sad week for us in Plateau. As I speak with you now, our members who are doctors are gathering themselves together and making contributions and raising donations to provide immediate needs for those that have been displaced, those who suffered one harm or the other to begin to give them some assistance, psychological healing, and other form of assistance. As I speak with you, we are on ground working. So it is a very difficult thing and the reason why Nigerians must listen to us is this: we need to change the present leadership of Nigeria, it is very clear that the president, Muhammadu Buhari has lost touch with reality, it is very clear. I have great respect for him, I supported him since he was a military man, I believed in him till 2016 and I stopped believing in him from 2016 because he has failed me, he has failed a lot of people. There is no reason why the commander-in-chief will be asking us to pray over the killings, there is no reason!
Is there the possibility of ANN collaborating with PDP, SDP, other political parties to oust the Buhari administration in 2019?
Like I said, mergers will come. If I tell you, we as ANN will do it alone, I will be deceiving you, I’ll be lying. It is not possible for us to do it alone. Where we can, we will try but where we will merge with others it will be the way to go because we want to dislodge this APC government. PDP, I can tell you can’t do it alone as it is. You know the problem with Nigeria politics is that the winner takes all. They don’t take hostage. So with that mindset, there is a big battle out there. I’ve heard people who tell me in my state that look, we want to join your party but we can’t join now, let us try in APC, PDP, if they don’t give us the ticket we will come and join your party. But I have a personal stand on that, inasmuch as we are not shutting anybody out, ANN is not a dumping ground if you do not identify or start with us now, if you come we will shut our doors. If we only get a councillorship seat, we will continue to build. We are not insisting that we must go and win every election, we will build, we will grow and build people, we will build ANN as an institution that everyone will be proud of and when anyone wants to join any political party, you can point at ANN and say that is where you are supposed to be. So, that is what we are building.
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