The National Chairman of the National Conscience Party and Secretary to the National Consultative Front, Tanko Yinusa, in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA describes the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi’s political movement as a revolution by Nigerian youths which is being underestimated by people.
He also spoke on the alignment of NCP with the Labour party, Obi’s consultations, among others.
Excerps:
What is NCP’s position towards the coming presidential election?
The Federal High court just gave judgments on our case against INEC and we are taking up the matter to the appeal court because we are not satisfied with the judgment.
However, we are also working on building an alliance with other progressive political parties like the Labour Party and others. We are still deliberating on this new development.
But there are speculations that NPC is aligning with APC and endorsing Tinubu as their presidential candidate?
APC is the least of the parties we can align with. We deal with people who have character and who can help this country. APC is not in the line of our agenda.
What is the reason behind your decision to work with the Labour Party?
For a very long time we have been working together with the Labour Party. This is the third time in decades of our work with them. This development is not strange because the Labour Party represents the interest of workers and we at NCP represent the interest of the Nigerian people. Our identity is sacrosanct but we can work with other like-minded political parties that have the same views and identity. These are the kind of people we align with.
Do you see Peter Obi penetrating the grassroots level and winning the election?
Personally, I think people are underestimating the movement, what we are aiming for is a revolution by the Nigerian youths who are already fed up with the status quo. For the first time in Nigeria, we see youths showing interest and involvement in politics and youths have found favour in Peter Obi as their candidate.
You would be surprised by the amount of support and movement Nigerian youths are showing. They are everywhere. There is a big opportunity for us to set Nigeria back on track led by Peter Obi.
Do you have confidence in INEC delivering a free, fair and credible election in 2023?
Over the years, I have studied the INEC chairman. He is determined to right the wrongs. He is following the due process of the law. He is going to do the right thing. Using Osun and Edo states as proof, it has been incredible so far. Given the changes in the electoral act, I believe INEC will do the right thing.
It has become a tradition in Nigeria for candidates to pay homage to past leaders and seek their support, but it appears that Peter Obi has not done more of this. Do you see this affecting his chances?
I can confidently say Obi has visited Ibrahim Babangida, Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo and quite a large number of people. He has also visited the mother of the late president, Musa Yaradua in Kaduna. He has been moving around meeting people. Probably some of them are very private or the media wasn’t given information about the event. He has visited and is still visiting leaders. Changing Nigeria is not a one man job, he needs to gather knowledge from past leaders with experience.
The youths who are supporting Peter Obi condemned some past leaders who they believed had destroyed the system. Now that you said Obi is seeking some of these leaders’ support, don’t you think this will also affect him?
As a leader, you will have to make decisions, either good and bad. Unfortunately, our past leaders’ choices did not reflect the interest of Nigerians. You cannot ignore a leader because he has made some mistakes, you can learn from them. This type of consultation would strengthen a new leader. Nigerians should understand that we must tap knowledge from past leaders’ experiences.
The presidency had said it was going to release the names of big men in Nigeria stealing the country’s oil. What do you make of this?
There has been lots of bad things happening in the past and present due to the lack of strong resilient leaders, however, if the government of today decides to expose them it would be interwoven and a lot of secrets would be revealed. Nigerians need to know and if the government decides to expose the bad eggs in the country, we will be waiting to see the government’s decision and the response of Nigerian citizens
This same government promised in the past to reveal people behind terrorism, yet nothing has come out that, do you think the government should believed this time?
As far as we are concerned, we are going to hold them accountable for their words. There has been a lack of trust between the people and the government, therefore, the government needs to be accountable for their actions and win the citizens back. This is the best time to do so.
