Atiku has supporters across parties, will win election —Gen. Sura

Brigadier General John Sura (Rtd) is a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) He speaks with Isaac Shobayo on the presidential election, the internal wrangling in the PDP and the chances of the PDP’s presidential candidate, among other issues.

Sir, what is your assessment of the political situation in Nigeria?

I will view it from two perspectives: the political and security sides. From the political side, there is a gradual movement towards 2023; the political class is deploying all their tactics and moving from one place to another trying to sell their manifestos to the electorate. So with all these, politics in the country is gradually coming to a crescendo; so everything concerning the politics of Nigeria would have been put in proper perspective. So the much-talked-about issue in Nigeria today is who becomes what in 2023. But from the security side, it is still a little bit frightening, even though the security agencies are doing everything humanly possible to have a secure environment for the election. I also want to believe that they have other tactics and manoeuvres to secure the environment for peaceful elections. As elections get closer, there are training manuals and codes of conduct that the security will also release for the conduct of the election. By January, we will all know where we are headed. And from the INEC side, they are not relenting despite attacks on their facilities here and there. So by the end of January, we would be able to know whether we would have a peaceful election or not.

INEC has maintained its position to deploy BVAS for the forthcoming elections, but some politicians are still expressing their reservations or scepticism about its efficiency. From your observations, what is your opinion on this?

One of the best things that has happened in the history of elections in Nigeria is the use of BVAS. I believe in it because I have watched it deployed in Ekiti, Anambra, Osun, and even in my state for the House of Representatives by-election, and it curtailed snatching of ballot papers and boxes, changing of results, and other things. The outcome of those elections was acceptable to Nigerians. If there is no hacking, it will be the best for our electoral system, and, of course, with the assurance from the INEC chairman, Professor MahmoodYakubu, it will be difficult to record any malpractice with the deployment of BVAS.

But with less than eight weeks to the presidential election, your party, the PDP, is embroiled in a crisis at the national level over the outcome of its presidential primary. Do you think the PDP can make a headway with this internal wrangling?

This is not strange to any political party; even husband and wife quarrel, but at the end of the day, they reconcile and continue with life. I want to believe that the resolution and mechanisms of the party have not been exhausted. The G5 governors that are still talking are aggrieved, and certainly, anyone who loves his family will not want to go and destroy the home. I want the G5 to look at it as somebody who leaves his home to go to a king’s house and work with the king; the day the king passes on and they are sharing the property of the king, he would not be among the beneficiaries. So if they choose to go and support another party, they should be rest assured that whatever they get cannot be like the ones they will get from their fathers. In any new place they go, they will be seen as intruders. They will also be seen from the perspective that they can still betray the new party the way they betrayed their former party. As the clock is still ticking, I see a situation where common sense will come into it and there will be reconciliation, but give or take, in the end, there will be reconciliation. And if it doesn’t happen, God will take care of the election for the party.

The pathetic situation is getting to the point of no return, but why is it difficult for the stakeholders to imbibe the principle of give and take to resolve the impasse?

The G5 has fundamental issues that touch on justice and fairness, and the party is saying: “Do we go home and start destroying the structure, and when are we going to rebuild around the new person again?” All is about the game to see how we win the election, which is why the party is still holding on to the structure within the party now. The question is: without the G5, what percentage do we have? With the percentage that we have, can we still win an election? If we can, let’s go with it. If we relieve the National Chairman of his position, would that give us an addition when the G5 returns? Then why don’t we do the needful? The useful thing is that we can just apply the doctrine of necessity and follow the constitution of the party. It will require changing the structures for the sake of the election and for the acting chairman to come from the South so that we can move on as a party. And if that cannot be done, we can move ahead with the present structure, which is capable of giving us what we want. But I will want to posit that why don’t we suspend the party constitution and bring in the doctrine of necessity so that the party can go for a mini-convention after the election? However, for the PDP to comfortably win the presidential election, the party needs the G5.

But it is like the stakeholders are sleeping while the crisis lingers.

In warfare, you don’t open up your strategies, and you don’t expect the stakeholders to come to the fore to discuss what they are doing. The opposition is no doubt happy about the problem we are having, and they want it to continue to further distract us. The stakeholders are no doubt doing something, and the result of what they are doing will soon come to the fore. But if it is just a statement and nothing is being done, well, we will all pay for it as a party.

What is your assessment of the APC-led administration at the centre in the past seven and a half years?

It is common knowledge that the party has not been able to fulfil all its electoral promises in the past seven years; they have failed in all ramifications: hunger, poverty, introduction of kidnapping, five months to go, nothing to show, and we are worse than when they came into power. On this issue, I can’t give a mark; it is a sham, and unfortunately, the country has cascaded to this level.

Can one exonerate the presidential candidate of APC from the performance of the APC-led administration in the past seven years because those at the helm of the APC Presidential Campaign of the candidate are saying two different things?

You can’t separate the presidency of General Buhari from the campaign of APC candidate Bola Tinubu; he was one of the front runners of the campaign for General Buhari and always at every campaign dropped ideas about student loans and the issue of bringing the naira value down. And he is the leader of that party, which means he has a say in policy and the ear of Mr. President. He should have given a voice to the policy of the government to make it succeed. Besides that, it is also the same people that are around the president that are running his campaign. Therefore, you can’t give what you don’t have. We have the worst corruption in the history of this country, and at this particular time, the CBN cannot track the amount of money in circulation. So I don’t see the difference; it is going to be continuity at the higher level. Seeing the kind of people around the campaign of Tinubu, there won’t be any change. That is my deduction.