From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Aminu Ringim is the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Jigawa State.
He was a Second Republic House of Reps member under the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), a former Chief of Staff to Ibrahim Saminu Turaki and Governor Sule Lamido and a two-time governorship flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jigawa State.
He spoke on the fortunes of the party, including why Rabiu Kwankwaso would defeat Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu and the rest of his rivals. Excerpts:
You have been officially affirmed as the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in Jigawa State. How do you feel about the development?
I think it was one of my happiest moments in politics. You see that affirmation by my party is an expression of trust. And as you know, what is important is how your people repose their trust in you. Despite the fact that the NNPP was formed at a very tight time, it has succeeded in a lot of ways and the people in the state have been very, very happy that I emerged as the governorship candidate of the party in Jigawa State because of what I represent to them.
The reports we have is that the turn up of politicians into this new party has been great and unprecedented. How true is this? And then, tell us how you have succeeded to swing many politicians to your side?
Like I told you in our private discussion, there are a group of politicians who are very experienced, but were hurt by the leadership style of the All Progressive Congress, led by the governor of the state or by the leadership style of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state also led by a former governor. The two parties that have ruled the state in the past and present cannot be linked with internal democracy, they have nothing like that. Rather they are reputed for their autocratic leadership style and structure. They rule by force, they govern by force and members are to submit to the leaders, whether they like it or not. It was this ill atmosphere in these parties that fertilized the ground for the wave of defections that have been rocking these parties in the state. So, you can understand the mood of the people when NNPP announced its presence in the state. People were excited and happy that a political party that would offer a level field for all and allow them to put in their best has finally arrived. This is a party that is driven by the people, this is a party that belongs to them as a people. What we did is that when we get to a ward, we say please elect your own leaders. When we go to the local government, we say please elect your leaders. That way, the leadership of the party at all levels, belongs to the people. When you talked about people coming into the party, the magic is that the people have hope and they are confident that since they were given the opportunity to elect their own leaders at the congress, at the formation, the party would give them the space to realize their personal and group objectives. Yes, the turnout is very encouraging. People are coming in and they are still coming into the party. And we are very happy. And today, we are a threat to the other two political parties in the region. I told you that PDP has been around for 24 years and APC has also been around for so long. But come to Kano or Jigawa or Katsina and ask for these parties. Are they anywhere around? They are around in their big names and big gowns`. They have been tested and the judgment of the people is well known to all. Politics is about people’s affair, it is a democratic affair and that is why you see these mass movement to the NNPP that is taking place.
Some APC senators in the state, the same for House of Reps and Assembly members are making arrangements to join the NNPP. What do you know about this development? And what are the measures adopted to carry them along?
You see, yes there are several people who are coming into NNPP and all I can tell you is that we are discussing with all of them at the moment. Very soon, we would be unveiling the personalities of the people. Very soon, you will see us celebrating their coming. But naturally, most of them, those at their lower levels, their foot soldiers are already inside. The only thing is the bigwigs, they are rounding up their sojourn in these parties. Look at what happened in Kano recently, where the ruling party lost its grounds, it was as a result of their in-` fighting where the government of the state took away the powers of the party unnecessarily. That incident started about nine months ago and now it has exploded on them. The people have deserted it. In our case in Jigawa State, it was after the primaries that the people decided that this party is best for their future political aspiration. What I can assure is that when we finished the cross over processes, every member that joined the NNPP would be treated equally, fairly well and respected. They would be taken care of and for one, their demands will have to be met, if not but at least to a reasonable level. We are trying and you will be invited for the celebration.
One thing about defection is that everybody is coming with an expectation. Rarely do people move on principles, they move to secure a need factor. Is there enough vacancy of positions yet for these people, their followers and all their demands?
We are not saying everybody has to be accommodated. This is because in reality, there may be no such vacancy for everybody. Look at the elective offices and positions for the 2023 elections. In every state, there are only about 46 offices, maybe in Kano they would have about 56 vacancies. But in Jigawa, there are only 46 positions and these 46 positions will not be sufficient for everybody. But there would be enough positions for all the leaders and all the leaders would be taken care of and it is expected that they would in turn take care of their followers in the same light. And then when we come to power in 2023, there would be enough positions to fill in the sense that there would government vacancies from which we can recruit or appoint qualified members of our party to occupy. So, it is not that everybody would be taken care of at the party level, there are those that would be catered for at the other levels and we would work hard to accommodate all those who are coming into the party.
You have worked at the highest levels of governance in the state since the commencement of this democracy, working as Chief of Staff to Saminu Turaki and Sule Lamido in the ANPP and the PDP respectively. What will you do differently from what these two had done?
Well, let me first tell you that before I ever went to the ANPP and the PDP, I was once a full member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) from 1980 to 1983. I was a member of the National Assembly in Lagos then. I was also a member of the UNCP where I was the Deputy Chairman in the state and later became the chairman of the party in Jigawa State. I was also a member of the SDP in the state and after then I was the Commissioner for Agriculture in the State back in 1991-93. I was equally a member of the ANPP and I was the Director of campaign of Ibrahim Saminu Turaki in 1999 and also in 2003. And I was also a member of the PDP where I served under Governor Sule Lamido. I was part of that administration but like I said there were challenges of leadership in the leadership. Look at it , in the recent past, all the bigwigs in Jigawa State were for the PDP, but today they have gone their separate ways. The government of the APC today was PDP yeterday. Our own group in NNPP was formerly in PDP. So, we have enough experience from these multifaceted backgrounds and from the PDP in Jigawa State to fly our own flag in a unique manner. We have enough governance and administrative experience. We know what happened, we know how they betrayed us, we know how they cheated us and we know how they became the “leaders” that they are today. So, we have a lot of experience from our past and I assure you that we are going to put these to the services of the people
But talking about specifics. What is your vision for Jigawa State? What should we hold you to in the event you come to power: Three , four areas we are going to task you with if tomorrow comes and you become the governor?
Nowadays, the first programme you deliver to Nigerians – and that is why Rabiu Musa is very popular- the first programme is to fight poverty and chase it away from our state. I want to fight poverty, I want to create opportunities and I want to create job opportunities, I want to put the people of Jigawa State in the right path and thereby we would have enough security. Don’t forget if you are poor, everything would go backward. An idle man is a devil himself. I will try to avoid it. Jigawa people only depend on the revenue generated from the Federation account. I will create an atmosphere whereby Jigawa people would not be solely dependent from the revenue from the Federal Government and this means that we should find ways by which we would begin to think of generating some of the money that we would need. Of course, we must improve on our farming system because in the first place, Jigawa State is an agrarian state and our land is rich in agriculture. So, we must create an atmosphere for the farmers to thrive and not like what the Federal Government is doing at the moment. When they want to give you a loan, they borrow the money from somewhere and they put interest and they give it to the Central Bank and the Central bank will put in their own interest and because they cannot disburse these loans directly to the farmers, they give it to another bank and this bank would also put in their interest before giving it to the farmers. So before the loans come to the common farmer, the huge interest the loan has accumulated has wiped out whatever is expected as the gains . I will try to approach the farmers differently, so that they would sufficiently benefit from their efforts. I will give them soft loan and I will make sure they get their fertilizers on time. I will try to improve the farming system. These are the three areas that I will concentrate and, of course, I will engage in developmental activities. We have to develop the state – we have to create roads network across the state, focus on quality education for our pupils and students, improve on healthcare delivery system and look at everything that would enable us make a better government. This is what I am going to do.
Your party is seen as a party that is mostly in the North. How do you see the chances of your flag bearer, Senator Rabiu Musa kwankwaso in relation to Tinubu and Atiku?
You are wrong! This is a faulty assertion or assumption. We are not only in the North. We are all over Nigeria. Everywhere in the country, the common man is with NNPP. The common man is the voter and the common man is with Kwankwaso. We are with Kwankwaso and he is going to be the next president of Nigeria. Quote me. These names that you are mentioning were part and parcels of the government that failed to address the present insecurity in Nigeria, that failed to check the present hunger that is wiping out our country men. So, when it comes to voting, you will see the voting patterns. These are names with money, but they do not have the voters to their side. When you talk of Atiku in Kano, who are you going to associate with him? Even if there were a few names, sincerely speaking can they deliver Kano for him? When you come to Jigawa, who is with Atiku? Talking about Tinubu, if you come to Jigawa, who is really behind him? If you go to Adamawa , who is behind Atiku there? If you come to Kano who and who are behind Tinubu? These are the kind of questions that you should ask, not to live with big names or to be trapped in old narrative of their political worth. The present statistics does not favour these candidates in the way many people are quick to assume. But when you talk of Kwankwaso, here is somebody who has demonstrated his leadership qualities, here is somebody who has offered an exemplary leadership to the people of his state and his region and Nigerians can base their judgment of him on clearly defined terms of what he had done in the past.
The NNPP is still seen as an infant party, a baby party of sort. In fact , when Nigerians rank political parties, PDP and APC are ranked at the top while NNPP and Labour Party are below. What is the actual strength of your party at the national level?
When you talk about a baby party or an infant party, I don’t know the indices that informed your thinking in that direction or that made you to come to that kind of conclusion. But like I said PDP was formed 24 years ago and it has ruled the country for 16 years. They have former presidents, former vice presidents, former governors, former senators and so on. The same goes for the APC, which has been there for seven years. They are the incumbent and they have the president, the vice and so on. When you come to the case of NNPP, we have a party which has just come in and which has not participated in any election and, of course, we have been praying that God should bring a bye-election before the general elections especially in Kano and Jigawa states so that we can test what is going to happen. But what you should use as an index to measure the strength of our party or the strength of any party is the movement of people into the party. Whenever you see people trooping into a particular political party and you see people fighting for positions in the party, it simply means the party is on the ground. When the reverse is the case, then there is no party there. So, I am assuring you that given the mass movement of people in all states of the Federation into NNPP, I am assuring you that NNPP is on the ground. Go to any state of the Federation and see. Ask yourself why are there this crowd moving to this party? Why are they fighting to join the NNPP and to get the tickets of the party? There is no state in the country where the governorship ticket of our party was not contested for? A reasonable population of the senators of the country is now covertly or overtly with the NNPP. Go to Akwa Ibom, go to Cross River states and so on. When we were there days ago, every state was called and every state was fiully represented. We are on the ground and the 2023 polls would change the story.