By Daniel Kanu
Comrade Abba Moro, former Minister of Interior, is the Senator representing Benue South Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber.
A grassroots politician and former local government chairman, Moro has been a powerful voice for the people of Benue South, advocating for the creation of Apa State, since he became their representative in the Senate in June 2019.
He has been leading a strong campaign and agitation for power to shift to Benue South popularly known as Zone C in 2023.
Moro is irked at the Nigerian condition and believes that the ruling party, that All Progressives Congress (APC), lacks the moral compass to aspire to lead Nigeria again given the damage its government has done since 2015.
Senator Moro in this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun dissects sensitive national issues, including the challenges before the 2023 elections and INEC, crisis in the PDP, and his Obi-dient group assessment, among others. Excerpt:
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently expressed fears concerning the increasing wave of insecurity in the country, warning that such may affect the conduct or postponement of the elections. How will you react to this?
I think, it’s a genuine expression of fear on well-meaning Nigerians who share such sentiment because the continued attack on INEC facilities portend a danger to the successful conduct of election. So far, so good, INEC has actually tabled its report by following strictly to the letter of programmes according to their time-table, but these unfortunate incidents of attacks on their facilities certainly have become serious concern to well-meaning Nigerians and having voiced out that alert, I think it is incumbent on President Buhari, who has promised to deliver a successful transparent, free and fair election to take up the challenge and ensure that INEC and its facilities are protected.
But are you really optimistic that INEC will deliver credible and transparent election?
Of course, why not? I am an incurable optimist, quite frankly, I believe that having so far demonstrated some level of efficiency in the conduct of state mid-term elections, I don’t have any reason to doubt that INEC will deliver a transparent, free and fair election. Of course, no human situation is perfect I understand, but I think that given the records on ground, INEC should be able to deliver. And I have also followed the life of the INEC Chairman, Mahmoud from TETFund up to this moment and I think, he is an outstanding Nigerian and a patriotic one that won’t allow any considerations to undermine his integrity which I personally hold in high esteem.
How will you react to what is happening to your party, PDP, given the activities of the G-5 group and the ability of the actions of that group to destroy the chances/success of your party at the coming election?
I don’t think so. The governors of G-5 are complaining about certain issues and there appears to be some level of crisis in the PDP, every party and human organizations, at one time or the other will experience crisis, this is an organization and it is normal to disagree to agree. But I think Nigerians have made up their minds on the kind of president that they want and they have also identified some three persons that are front-runners in the run up to the 2023 elections and so, while I agree that it would have been better for the PDP governors and PDP members to work together and stick together as one of the ways for the enthronement of PDP government at the national level, I want to believe that what God cannot do as I always say, does not exist and I believe that at the appropriate time God will intervene and all PDP members will work together as one. But I can assure you that members of the party are still determined to work for the success of the party.
But are you not worried that for a long time this crisis issue has continued to linger and there seems to be no end in sight and this raises questions on the leadership capacity of the party in conflict resolution?
I don’t see anything particularly wrong here, honestly. I know that PDP has internal conflict resolution mechanism entrenched in its constitution, but you know that PDP is a voluntary organization, people join in their own volition and so, ordinarily, committed party members, once party primaries are conducted it is expected that party members commit to the candidate the party has thrown up. But when some decides on the contrary in line with their interest it is understandable…This is democracy and you can’t force people, and what happens in the party all the time is not usually acceptable to everybody at the same time, all the time, but I think that as committed party members once decisions have been taken by the party it is expected to be respected. And when you consider the whole issues against the backdrop of the degenerating state of affairs in the country and the urgent need for the enthronement of a genuine committed and effective government then I think that I will appeal to our G-5 governors to sheathe their sword in the interest of Nigeria to work together with the party to rescue Nigeria and rebuild the country. We have this intractable problems of bad governance, problems of corruption, problems of decaying infrastructure, problem of frequently interrupted education of Nigerian students etc, these are the main problems that we should be concentrating on, fashioning out how to solve them. No matter how bitter we may be with the party and you may be right in your anger, you may have all the justifications for your action, but there comes the moment you must focus on the bigger canvass, the bigger challenge. Our focus now must be to work as a united front, secure victory, and then commence the rebuilding of Nigeria.
The ruling APC government is accusing your party, the PDP of damaging the Nigeria they inherited so badly that…?
(Cut’s in) That is simply admission of failure because the APC came with this deceptive mantra of change; that they were going to do things better. Are they suggesting that seven to eight years is not enough for them to correct what they think or presumed or imagined was caused by the PDP? And in any case, when the PDP was in power, I was there and I can say this: The naira was exchanging N190 to $1, today, we have N740 to $1…, is it PDP? A bag of rice was selling for between N7,000 to N8,000 during the PDP era, today a bag of rice is selling between N35 to N40,000…, is that still PDP? A bag of pure water was selling for N100, today it’s selling for N250…,is that PDP? So, when APC talks about Nigeria’s problem as being created by the PDP, it’s ridiculous and I think it is an admission of complete failure on the part of the APC government.
You have been an advocate of creation of a new state, Apa State, from your state, Benue. How has it been so far and is it feasible in its realization?
Why not? It’s realizable. This is democracy and I think that the appropriate thing to do is to allow the aspirations of the people to manifest in all circumstances. So, if here in Benue State we feel that our interest is not being adequately protected and we want a new state, why not give to us? Don’t forget that there was the Benue-Plateau which metamorphosed into Benue and Plateau and then further metamorphosed into Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states, so what is wrong in giving a people with over a population of 10 million a state. There are countries that have less than a million people, and they exist as a country. So, I think that it is realizable and as the Senator representing the very good people of Benue South Senatorial District, we will continue to aspire for it, at the moment what I am pursuing, which I definitely in future will pursue parri passau with the agitation for creation of state is the rotation of power among the senatorial district and I think that when that happens that is when we will have opportunity of produce the governor of Benue State. But in addition to that the agitation for the creation of Apa State is certainly work in progress and we will continue to pursue it until we realise it. In fact, Benue South producing a governor is an idea whose time has come, and with God on our side and in the spirit of justice it will come to pass.
The Obi-dient group seems to be everywhere in the social media and beyond. Are you really worried or intimidated by this ever-growing massive group supporting the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi?
Definitely not, I am not worried a bit and this is what I was talking about. In 2015, the APC came with a deceptive mantra of change and today all Nigerians are in chains and we have not made any progress. If you ask any Nigerian now the person will tell you that we were better off in 2015 than what they are witnessing now and so with due respect, I know that His Excellency Peter Obi, is a gentleman and he want’s to be president of Nigeria but if you ask me, I can tell you that Nigeria today is a very complex country that requires one with sufficient experience and stable hands to run the country and I can tell you that I don’t see Peter Obi the head of the Obi-dient group possessing that quality. I say this with due respect. Today, Peter Obi is contesting this election on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, a party that I respect sufficiently because of my background, and in its welfare orientation, but how many people are contesting election on the platform of the LP to go to the Senate, for instance? They are less than 40 out of 109. How many people are contesting to go to the House of Reps on the platform of the LP? Look at the state Houses of Assembly, where are their candidates? When people talk about structures, some people say no that structure doesn’t matter, structure matters because structure is peopled by people and so, hypothetically in unlikely event that Peter Obi wins to become president, where is he going to find his ministers to hit the ground running from day one? On the Facebook? Where is he going to get his advisers from? This is because in normal presidential situation these people should come from the party first before you start looking outside. Where are the members of the LP in Nigeria today? And so it’s ok that young men frustrated by the maladministration of the APC government are pouring out in their numbers, attracted to the sweetness of the slogan of the LP and the Obidient group, but that is where it ends. The truth is that you don’t have polling units on the Facebook. No matter how you may want to downplay it, structure is still very relevant because as they are committed to winning their own elections, they are equally campaigning for the party vigorously and you cannot say this does not matter. It counts.
The ruling APC government says as far as this election is concerned their candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the most experienced and most qualified to take this country to the next level…?
I don’t know about that because the APC candidate that you are talking about has the highest political office qualification of being a Senator for three months. Is that what makes him the most experienced? Or being a governor of a state…,is that what makes you the most experienced? In other clime a party like APC will have no moral compass to aspire to lead Nigeria again given the decadence that we are facing under this present APC government. And like my people will say: The tortoise cannot have shell and its offspring having feathers. APC is APC and will not change from what they are. Look at even the composition of what we have on ground now as leadership of APC vis-a-vis the candidate of the APC, it doesn’t just add up and then if you imagine the gaps and the rest of them that we have witnessed in the course of this campaign so far, of misrepresentation of issues, and places and time and persons etc, the signs are there that the candidate of the APC, definitely needs a lot of more energy and more understanding of the situation to be president of this country. And the party itself is giving the people, the way they are running it, and then given the circumstances in which we find ourselves today, things getting messier and messier by the day…,they (APC) need to have a sober reflection of the damage they have done to this country and apologize. They have no moral justification, no moral compass to want Nigerians to vote for them again, given their abysmal failure. Given what we have at the moment, APC should go and hang their faces in shame and allow those that will clean up their mess and salvage Nigeria to take over the clutches of power and rebuild Nigeria.