James Ojo, Abuja

 Adaji Usman is a stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from Kogi State. He is the Coordinator of the Special Marshals of the Federal Capital Territory, the Volunteer arm of the Road Safety Corps.  A PhD student of Political Science, Usman believes that the APC has done exceedingly well to earn it a second term in office.  

 Why are you highly optimistic of a victory for APC in these elections?

 I am from the Igala tribe from Kogi State. I hold a second degree in Civil Engineering and a doctorate degree student in political science. For me, politics is not just a career, but a part of life. I have a lot of respect for many politicians in the APC family with a lot of interest. They have been critical in trying to put things in good perspectives. They are unlike the pack in other parties who ventured into politics to milk the people dry. Records of what they did with our collective resources are there for prosperity.  They are basically people who can hardly understand the difference between their left from their right and sadly were elected into offices and given positions of governance. We have a lot of decay in our system which my party is addressing, firing from all cylinders. It is an open secret that many things had been corrected in just three years plus which is leading my party into total victory in these elections.

People believe your party will use money to woo the electorate and since your party controls the federal purse, it will not be difficult to roll out money for elections. What do you think?

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 No, that is not correct; it is even a wrong assumption. Nigerians have seen what APC has done in the past three and half years. We have touched people’s lives in all sectors. Agreed that money plays a lot of roles in politics, I belong to few organisations campaigning against the use of money to buy votes as much as we can. Nigerians should join us in the sensitisation programmes to make the people know the dangers of vote selling and buying which could destroy the country. The projects embarked upon since the advent of this administration to improve the lives of the people are candid enough to guarantee a second term in office. What we had in 1999 was different from what we had in 2003. And the level of awareness is more in 2015 than in 2003. I can tell you that people are going to vote their conscience. Yes, people can throw money around, but we as a party I believe we have done enough and still have the capacity to do more with a renewed mandate by the people.

But people are complaining of hardships as a result of your government policies and programmes, don’t you see them succumbing to money inducement or vote against your party?

I don’t see that happening. APC has ruled with transparency and openness, we know those that are complaining and why, but the electorate who are the real voters will collect these monies and vote their conscience. They love APC; you can see the turnout of people, I am talking about voters who trooped out in all our campaigns across the country. Is there any other way to demonstrate love and acceptability? Everywhere the campaign train of the party moves to, it has been crowd. The people are becoming wiser and hopefully they will be able to get that correctly, I don’t think they will mortgage their future. As a party, we are mobilising our members to go out and get their voter’s cards. Again, we need to be disciplined. That a man is hungry does not mean that he can take anything. There is a saying that weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. I believed APC is disciplined when it comes to the issue of not chasing voters with money.

What motivates you to join politics?

When you talk about politics being dirty, it depends on how we assess it. From 1999 when we started this dispensation coming from the military background, a lot of Nigerians were not sure whether the military was going to let go. So many persons who were supposed to be part of the transition were in doubt of a hitch free transition. By my assessment of politics since 1999, besides former President Olusegun Obasanjo who came out of prison to become the president, majority of persons who got elected  into various offices  do not know what they are coming in to do. Along the line, it became another avenue of money making. People do not see politics as a place where they can go and help the society. Rather, they saw it as a place of making quick money. But that is not my main reason for joining politics. I and some people of like minds are coming into politics to play it the way it should be.  I agree with the view of some people who had that perception that politics is dirty, on the other hand, others believe that they still need to come into it by contributing their quota to the development of the country. I remember vividly well sometimes in the governance of Lagos State, I remember when Obasanjo came in and there were issues with the Lagos State government which resulted into the issue of the revenues accruing to the state been withheld. The Lagos State government did well despite the issue. Salaries of workers were paid and infrastructure was built through the state’s internally generated revenues. And that is where you can see governance being delivered to the people of the state.