As the nation celebrates its 55th independence anniversary, the National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Abudulkadir Abdusalam, has called on policy makers and other stakeholders in the country to go back to the ideals of the founding fathers of Nigeria. In this interview with Onyebuchi Ezigbo, the LP chairman x-rays the country’s political terrain as well as the actions taken so far by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration

How can you assess the progress Nigeria has made so far in the past 55 years of nationhood?
The message I have for the government and Nigerians is that we should go back to the ideals of our founding fathers. We should go back to Agriculture in its full scale. We should empower the youths in all the ramifications because  that is the only way to  avoid another time bomb, another Boko Haram. We need to empower the youths sufficiently enough in order to avoid problem of Niger Delta. We also need to empower our women. We need to go back to the drawing board to become what it used to be in the sixties, not a divided nation as we are today. We need to see ourselves as our brothers keepers, we need to relate to ourselves and uphold the concept of nationalism as we inherited it from the founding fathers and also do orientate our youths mentally, psychologically and in all spheres of human endeavours that will make them committed Nigerian and not make them the tools in the hands of politicians.

Looking at the whole gamut of the administration in APC as it is now, do you agree with them that within the last 100 days, that the government has achieved much even without ministers?
Like I have said consistently, they came with the concept of change.
Let me pick it from their manifesto, they said they are going to fight security, revive economy, create jobs and fight corruption; none of these can you give them five per cent because they have not attained anything in all of these. Now come to jobs for the youths, how many jobs have they provided? They said every year, they will provide three million jobs, this is the fourth month and they have not provided one thousand jobs, not to talk of millions of jobs. How do they want to get three million jobs? If you ask me to give Buhari percentage on any achievement, I will not give him up to five per cent because APC and Buhari do not qualify to score beyond five per cent. They are still rambling in a triangle.

What is your take on the comment by President Buhari recently that ministers are just noise makerss?
Yes, he has offended our psyche because his sense of self-supremacy is being  over-exhibited and is getting too far. He assumes he knows it all, he understands it all and appreciates it all. First, his party says they have no hand in the selection or appointment of ministers of Buhari, which means that Buhari is the only one who knows the saints in Nigeria. Who is perfect, who is more knowledgeable, and who is more committed to the course of Nigeria. 
Only him in his heart can bring about who and who becomes minister. In a responsible democracy, the caucus of the political party must be consulted and carried along in the appointment of ministers. Why is it that it is only him alone and it took four months without him appointing ministers and now to worsen the situation, he said ministers are lousy and only the technocrats could do the job of ministers.
Have you ever heard that anywhere in the world,  where the political office holders- who must take political decisions because the civil servants cannot take political decisions- were left out? That is where Buhari got it wrong that politicians cannot take political decisions. Can civil servants take political decisions? Political decisions are what matters all over the world in international diplomacy, internal diplomacy, economy, social and other wise. If you don’t take political decisions which is the responsibility of the ministers, then the technocrats cannot take political decisions because by our system they must not be heard, they can only be seen. I don’t know where President Buhari got his own ideas or concepts that ministers are noise makers. He wants those who will be quiet, who will be kneeling for him, bowing and saying may the king live long, that is what he wants.

If your party weres in power, what would you have done differently in the last 100 days?
No, don’t go into my party first. Talk about the ruling party, let us talk of what they say they can do and at what time they said they can do it. Let’s pick it one after the other. For instance, security wise, Buhari said when he assumes power, he will lead the way  into the war-torn area. He has probably managed to visit that place probably once.
Two, he said that he has absolute confidence in our military and that they can fight the insurgents. But later, he changed his mind,  went and created the joint international military task force with Chad, Cameroun and Niger to fight the insurgents which means that confidence he said he had was misplaced initially. Today insecurity still persists and the war is still going on right now. The tactics is changing. First, they told us that they are capturing the Boko Haram people; again, they told us that they want to negotiate with the Boko Haram people. Is it the people that you are capturing and defeating that you want to negotiate with? If actually they are defeating these people, you don’t need negotiations with them, go ahead and crush them because that is the promise they gave.

Every day in one place or the other, we hear people are being kidnapped, armed robberies are taking place in Abuja here, people can no longer sleep. The security aspect of it has not been met in any way.
Okay, you may say that  he  saw youths who voted for him in their large numbers, who liked him and appreciated him and the APC, he would provide jobs. Four months has gone and no jobs have been created, instead those who are working are losing their jobs. In the construction industry, more than 6,000 people have lost their jobs. In the banking industry, more people are losing their jobs and with this JP Morgan Chase thing, many more people are going to lose their jobs. You will discover that even our emerging market is being brought to question as at today because before international investors can deal with us, they will still go back to those major world marketers to find out if they can deal with the country. Is the government working? Is it operating? All these questions would be asked. The economy is going  into the doldrums and that is the fear that Labour Party has, and that all of us should join hands to ask Buhari and his APC to stop playing to the gallery and find this economy headlong. Every aspect of Buhari’s promises, he has not provided the way to carry, achieve or attain them.

When we go to the issue of youths empowerment, no youth employment strategy. Let us go to women. When they were going for the jamboree they went for in America, not even a single woman was carried along. Out of all his appointments, he has not been bold and courageous enough to appoint women as special adviser or other such positions.  The women aspect of our life is being neglected and these are the majority of people who voted Buhari to power.

Coming to think of it, Buhari said when he came, he met an empty treasury but no sooner than that, he made some millions of dollars available to joint task force on Boko Haram, he has been spending millions of dollars so far now without appropriation. To what extent is Buhari implementing the budget that was passed? Is he referring to the budget in any way because day in and day out you will hear that so and so millions of dollars has been spent, where is the appropriation and where is the National Assembly to ask questions? Where did you get these appropriations that you are dishing out?

The relationship between the President and the upper chamber of the National Assembly since the emergence of the Senate President doesn’t seem to be cordial. Do you see this as a good omen for Nigeria - the fight between the President and the Senate President?

The fight is carried to the National Assembly because of the inept nature of the APC because it is CPC that is ruling in APC. The ACN has been disenfranchised, the ANPP has been put aside, and they are not even considering the ANPP not to talk of the APGA. So it is the CPC in APC that is operational, that is in government and are feasible. All other birds of different  feathers can no longer be accommodated  in the same place. A responsible political party would have sat down and fashioned out who gets what.

They didn’t do that because CPC is in control of APC and then it was taken to the National Assembly. Buhari’s men lost out and the PDP people… that is why I say there is no difference between the APC and PDP because they are one and the same thing because it was when PDP moved to APC that APC became more relevant and attractive. No time had the APC shown to Nigerians any agenda. For the executive and the legislature not agreeing, it is due to the conglomeration of different people, coming together and forming a political party. It is as a result of one party dominating  others.

There is no way we as Nigerians  will be the worse for it because APC will soon crash as a result of no-agreement.  Now they are probably punishing Saraki after thirteen years. Even the CCB went to bed and suddenly they discovered that one Saraki existed and it is now that they will charge, accuse and bring him to book. What about all other people, all those presidents who have come and gone except Yar’Adua, what about all those governors? It will not work because we have a party that is not together, and that is the APC. Nigeria may be the worse for it.

You will agree with me that there are two most active opposition parties on the political landscape now- the PDP and your party, the Labour Party…
(Cuts in) No, not two, PDP and APC are one and the same thing. The PDP is not an opposition party. There learning to play the role of an opposition and they have not been able to get it and they can’t get it because it is just like saying the King, the Queen should come and be in opposition.
It will not work. APC is an off-shot of the PDP. PDP and APC are one and the same thing. So PDP cannot sufficiently say it is an opposition party. It is them who are still struggling to call themselves an opposition party. They are asserting it and Nigerians are not accepting them as an opposition party because they have failed and cannot raise their head.

Be as it may, the new ruling party which is the APC believes that most of the comments coming from the opposition parties are just meant to distract Mr. President. What is your take?
I’ve said it earlier, when Buhari came, he said he met an empty treasury. That is a lie because within the same week, he dished out thirty-something million dollars. If you said you met an empty treasury, are you saying that every day our crude oil is not being extracted for sale, our money is not  accruing and recently the Customs said they are second to our oil sales, generating billions of dollars. Now, all the billions of dollars he is dishing out, if he met an empty treasury, what has he done to have brought in so much money that he is spending now.

You discover that most of the things they have told us changed are freak, no change in them and when we are criticising them, let them tell us, in job creation, they said 10,000 police men will be employed, how? They didn’t tell us that to employ 10,000 police men will cost this much and this is how we will employ them. So in job creation and employment, nothing has been done and the youths have been left in the cold. In that respect, you cannot say they have achieved anything. Security matter is worsening day and day, so we cannot say they have achieved anything.
In the economy, the thing is going to the doldrums and that is what Nigerians should address quickly. They have not achieved anything and the situation is getting very bad.

Two elections are coming up within this year and your party the LP will be making a very bold show in these two elections. How is your party ready to take on Kogi and Bayelsa?
It is the press that keep on saying PDP and APC. If you go to Kogi we have made tremendous difference. In Kogi, the practice in the past is that the so called majority tribe must produce governor and that is why the APC produced the governor from the majority and PDP did the same thing and another political party did the same thing.

We want to show the world equal opportunity and social justice. With equalopportunity for everybody, that was why we picked our own candidate from one of the so called minority-the Igbira tribe- which is being supported by the central and part of the Igala people. So you discover that the man we chose is the man that has been tested and tried. He is a very sincere, dedicated, honest and common man and that is the former deputy governor, Felix Alawo. The Kogi people want change.  The same people that have been ruling them since the creation of the state remain consistently and constantly dominating and the Kogi people have nothing to show for it. Kogi has no business with poverty considering their geographical location. They have natural resources, they have human resources for people not to be poor and wretched as the Kogi people are now. That is why we looked for somebody who is credible, dependable and reliable and that is the person of Felix Alawo. You discover that in Kogi, we are going to make a difference. We have finished our primaries in Kogi. In Bayelsa, we are still working out our strategy for producing a credible candidate because we cannot produce any candidate anyhow in our own situation. You will be surprised the person we will produce in Bayelsa will be the person to beat.

In some quarters, some people are saying the acting chairperson of INEC doesn’t have the capacity to conduct that election. What is your take on that?
What do you consider as the capacity? Is it because she’s a woman? She is well educated.

The fact that INEC is not properly constituted; there are vacancies of national commissioners, it is a legal thing?
That is part of what we are saying. There is no functional government in the country. There is government but is not functional, if it is functional they would have submitted her name for approval and get other people as commissioners to be part of her team. I don’t know the versatility of Buhari in reaching out to people all over the country because he was a minister, governor, head of state, general and now a President. If with all these background and pedigree he does not  havemany people to rely upon at the blink of an eye to produce 30 people to occupy sensitive and prominent positions, then there is problem ahead.

Specifically, if you are called as the chairman of an opposition party in Nigeria today to advice the President on what to do, what would you tell him?
I will advise the President to go back to his political party, rejuvenate the party, bring their heads together and then he must have absolute confidence in his political party to guide him, to enable him to do what he should do for Nigeria. The way I’m seeing it now, Buhari has more confidence in his CPC people than the totality of APC. What I’m saying is that Buhari should develop confidence in the totality of the APC people, relate and interact with them, get their advice and workout policies with them because as at now, no party policy is working in APC. Nothing will work. The President is giving the impression that he is bigger, greater, wiser and more knowledgeable than his political party. That is why Buhari’s sense of self-supremacy is the one that will kill APC and it is dangerous for Nigeria because they must be there for four years. He should go back to the drawing board with his political party.