An Interview With : Segun Showunmi
A Response To The Question Of Whether Or Not The PDP Can Put Forward The Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
Segun Showunmi a renowned seasoned media guru, cum political analyst and the presidential Spokesperson of Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO) in the 2019 elections in an interview on the program POLITICS TODAY with Seun Okinbaloye of ChannelsTV on Friday January 7 2022 while speaking on the matters arising as it concerns the race to 2023 Presidency; 'a race for the seat of power ' responded to a number of questions.
Showunmi when asked if the words of Former Governor Babangida Aliyu about 'Re-zoning' of the party's ticket to the North can be confirmed said,
Seun Okinbaloye : Former Governor Babangida Aliyu said the party has agreed to 're-zone' the presidential slot in the PDP to the North, can you confirm that to us tonight?
Showunmi:
"... That's very difficult for me to confirm. Typically in our party, when it comes to the issue of zoning or determining these things, that response is usually left with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
" To the best of my knowledge, the last thing we know about zoning is upon trying to determine where we will pull the chairmanship of the party before we were able to produce the Chairman Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, what the party said clearly was that they had not discussed the issue of the zoning of the Presidency and that pulling the chairmanship to the North does not preclude them from coming back to discuss that issue.
" So technically, you'll say the Presidency of the PDP is wide open for now and if anything is yo change, there are organs that just communicate that ; one of the most strongest of them being the NWC, the next would be out structure of the GOVERNORS FORUM but if Dr. Babangida Aliyu says they're putting it in thr North, I would want to believe that he has his suspicions but it's best not to work on suspicions, it's best to wait until the proper organ of the party puts it where it's supposed to be. "
Showunmi In his response to whether or not the PDP can put forward the former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, he said Atiku is a man who has been known over the years to stand more about his ideas therefore where he comes from has never been and shouldn't be an issue.
Seun Okinbaloye : Do you think the PDP again can put forward the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as it's presidential flag bearer?
Showunmi:
" I have always said that when it comes to Atiku Abubakar, where he comes from is not an issue, it's more about the kinds of ideas and what he stands for over the years.
" I believe that where people come from is an accident of birth and I also hold very strongly that in this country, there's one error we make often, or maybe a generalization.
We tend to assume that there are 3 Souths made up of the South-South, South-West and South-East and then when we get to the North, we tend to pretend as if there's just one North. Whereas, just as we have 3 South so also we do have 3 North made up of ; North-West, North-Central and North-East.
" To the best of my knowledge the North Central has not produced President in this dispensation, the North-East has not produced President in this dispensation, the South-East has not produced President in this dispensation and therefore, for the PDP also weighing on mind heavily is that, in the PDP ers, we have only had at best two and half years of northern candidate therefore most of the candidates who have been lucky under the PDP have been Southern candidates in the person of;
- Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (8yrs)
- Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (5yrs)plus.
Therefore these things are going to be discussed heavily but like I said, one must not play all the time to the advantage.
" The structure of the party is such that the NWC would set up an arrangement where these zoning issues would be settled and until that issue is settled, all persons of goodwill, some of the names you've seen listed there are good material, ready to go for presidency.
Let them continue to engage the field, let them continue to consult, let them continue to persuade the leadership and Nigerians on the kinds of agenda they're building but when it comes to Atiku Abubakar, I can tell you for free that those things he stands for are still things that they have to contend with.
" One of them is SECURITY ; we hold the view that you're not going to insist that you're going to bomb the entire country into submission. If you have security challenges of this nature, you must begin to look at the security architecture and rework it, that would mean something very heavy that departs us from the APC.
Segun Showunmi also speaking on the 'Economy' said ;
" We also hold the view that for you to grow the ECONOMY , you're not just going to do it by insisting that you're going to do contracts or you're going into debts to fund infrastructure. We believe that to open up the economy, your greatest investment must be in 'human capital' and in those things that the drivers of these economy, relative to small and medium scale industry, we are very heavy on that.
" When it comes to NATIONAL INCLUSION, we are departed from them, Atiku is someone who understands very clearly that this Federation is under some kind of threat and the threat may not be too visible and in some cases it is. But significantly it requires us to say yes 'let us sit down now and figure out how we can make the country be at peace with itself, make a nation that all Nigerians can feel a part of the country, have conversations on how we want to govern.
" If you call it' Restructuring' so be it, if you call it 're-working' the federalism so be it, if you call it 'True federalism' so be it but what is certain is ;
We hold the view that for Nigeria to become the giant that its supposed to be, we must discuss the federation related issues ; how do we want to governed, who is in charge of what? how do we manage the power? What kind of powers do we give to the section?"
" Where you have a situation whereby the chief security officer of the state cannot even have a descent dialogue with a police officer that has come to occupy and Invade the state, it tells you that at best we are deceiving ourselves we are not running a federation. If it was to be a federalism; then it must mean that we must review it and we must talk about it.
" When it comes to how we see DEBT , we have always said that one of the problems of the APC government is that they have piled up a lot without a great recourse to how they're going to pay it and because Atiku was Vice-President to Obasanjo they were able to pay that debt so we can reasonably assume that they understand that a nation in debt will eventually become a nation that will fail."
Watch full interview here :
No comments:
Post a Comment