Ahead of the February 26 national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) frontline national chairmanship aspirant Senator Mohammed Sani Musa has promised to, revolutionize the party to make it a model for other political parties in the country, if elected.
Speaking exclusively to The Authority Senator Musa said his intention to lead APC was borne out of the desire to make APC the “gold standard” of all political parties in Africa.
“My vision is to see a political party structure that is institutionalized in the APC, and not only the APC but let the other parties learn from us that we started a revolution and the other parties can follow and copy,” he said.
Continuing Musa said “I intend to to lead by doing it differently and in accordance with the dictates of constitutionality and making political parties become as corporate entities that people will subscribe to and would be able to follow to the letters of the constitution and guidelines that govern the party.
“There is nothing spectacular about party administration, the experience you have in leading successfully an organization is the same you need to lead a political party, it all depends on the qualities you have, you cannot tell me that because you are running APC that means you cannot run another entity, state government or a country?. It does not make sense, it is all about the qualities you have, what we are talking about is the new innovations that would be able to develop the party and restructure the internal workings of the party or entity that you are leading. Or are you telling me that operating as a political party administrator is different from being a politician that contested an election and won, defeated an incumbent senator? It does not make sense, let us be realistic it is just about how you are structured what do you have upstairs, what are you bringing to the table, I believe I have the visionary ideas of a realist that can come to the APC and make it a party that is anchored on the tenets of democracy.
The Senate Services Chairman further noted that “what I would do differently is to initiate a kind of new order in the APC, the first thing I would do as National Chairman is to bring the party to constitutionality by making sure all
we do are within the tenets of the party’s rules, guidelines, full implementation of the party’s manifesto and other conventions or treaties agreed. I will make APC a participatory one that carries every stakeholder along. I will try to inculcate in the party an affirmative action for women and a leadership training programme for the youths.
APC will have a leadership that will allow and give everyone in the different organs of the party their right of place. In reorganizing the internal structure, I will allow each office to function based on its responsibilities for example if you are the Secretary you have an objective to work as the Secretary, if you are the National Organizing Secretary you have an objective to work as one, everyone should be up and doing to his or her responsibilities that the office confers on you and there must cohesion. When you see a leader that is dictatorial in terms of leadership, then there is certainly going to be a problem. Failure to adapt rule of law is also a minus to our political development, once you are not going by the books, such as the constitution of the party and the guidelines or conventions that the party set down or flouting these guidelines and refusing to abide by them, certainly it will create disharmony and rancor and with such ills how can anyone expect achieving any set goals? So it is all about the qualities of one as a leader, style of leadership and experiences. For me, I have been in business for over 30years and I have been a very successful business man, if I can work hard to provide something that aid our political development and in a country of over 200million people… why will I not be proud to say that I have done it, and I can definitely lead a political party with 40million followers.
“What I would do differently is to initiate a kind of new order in the APC, first thing I would do is bring the party back to the path of constitutionality, all the things happening today is because people are not following the rules and the constitution of the party. If today I am elected as the National Chairman and a leader of the Party I should not look at you and say you are mine or that you are not mine because we have all subscribed to be members of the APC as our political party and we should be able to abide by whatever terms that binds us together, that is one, political parties are supposed to groom leaders, but are they really grooming leaders in our parties today? Most political parties today instead of grooming leaders will wait until the election period and then they groom thugs and they thereby make our youths irrelevant. I want to make the Nigerian youths to own the Nigerian politics. The time has come, if countries that are more democratic can give their spaces to everyone why can’t we do the same? Why are we always putting burdens on our Governors and elected officials? To say bring money, the party is broke why? Political parties when you make them viable entities they should be able to thrive, they should be able to stand on their own and be independent. Although they are not profit making organizations but they should be able to pay their bills, they should be able to make members that subscribe to be financial members, today we are in the age of technology our political parties can make money without putting pressure on anybody to bring money. The APC has over 40 million members according to our database, we will be able to make money for the party. How I will do it, I will not disclose here so that people do not steal my ideas.
Senator Musa stated that “We as members of the same political party will go back to the drawing board, we will sit down on the table and dialogue, we will always allow superior arguments to prevail. If you did not follow the due process or the constitution of the party and you want to bulldoze your way through it, somebody should be able to look you in the eye and tell you the truth, somebody should be bold enough to tell you that you are wrong that you have erred. We are not going to throw everybody away, we have to come together and agree. Is there any problem that does not have a political solution? Political solutions remains the easiest way to resolve these crisis because it all about give and take.
“I have always spoken about lack of internal democracy in our political parties, when I started this interview I told you guys that one of my cardinal objectives is to restore internal democracy in APC. We will use the three R’s Reconciliation, Reorganization and Restructuring. When I am talking about reconciliation I intend to bring everyone to the round table while we are working to reorganize the administrative internal workings of the party. We will restructure our system to carry everybody along. We need to come together to rebuild the party.
On the relationship with the Governors he pointed out “the Governors are a very strategic organ of the party, we need all to build the party together. The governors needs the party as much as the party needs the governors. So we must work together as they are a very strategic organ of the party that cannot be done without. But there must be cohesion and where there is none it would be very difficult to find a solution. What is happening in advanced democracies like the US, assuming I am a democrat and a sitting Governor wants to re-contest in an election then nobody will come out to challenge him it is automatic though we are not yet there but we will get there, it is a convention and not a written law.
“So what makes you think we can’t do the same thing here? We can do it if we all agree that everything we will do will be premised on the constitution of the party, guidelines or conventions and due process. I guessed you will say it is easier said than done, but if you have a leader that is principled, that is selfless and not there for his selfish interests, somebody that would use his position to be soliciting for contracts from State governments and Ministries then he cannot be firm. But for me to come to seek this office it means I want to make sacrifices and I am going to give it my all. We need change in this country. If at 55years one is still being looked at as a young child or man then what will we tell of our children?” He declared.
