In this interview with Ihuoma Chiedozie, Dr. Agbo Major, the factional acting national chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), provides an update on the political party’s conflict. He maintains that Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the party’s nominee for president in the general elections of 2023, and his adherents, the Kwankwasiyya, are no longer party members. In addition, he discussed the state of the country in advance of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day.
The Kwankwaso group made plans to update the NNPP’s logo public. What are your thoughts about that?
You should refer to them as the Kwankwaso group. Kwankwasiyya is different from NNPP. Therefore, Kwankwasiyya is unable to alter the NNPP logo. And unlike them, we do not desire to impose rules on others. Their responsibility is to enforce laws. You can read current comments made by the judges regarding them and their perspective on various problems.
However, we do not share the same concerns with them because they joined the party just in preparation for the general elections of 2023. They have demonstrated the kind of individuals they are, we have ended the MOU, they have left, and that is all there is to it. They don’t have the authority to change any logos, especially now that the issue has been brought up with the relevant authorities. The founding NNPP members have notified INEC that any attempt to tamper with the logo is unacceptable. That comes in first. Judges advised their solicitors to inform them that they cannot alter the party’s logo or constitution for the time being because there are numerous cases pending in various courts.
The election of Governor Abba Yusuf, who is Kwankwaso’s protege, was declared invalid by the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. What are your thoughts on the Kano tribunal’s ruling in light of the problems within the party?
It goes beyond Kwankwaso as a person to explain what happened in Kano. The baby is not thrown out with the bathwater. Everyone is aware that the NNPP produced a governor in Kano on its platform. So, it doesn’t matter if he is Kwankwaso’s protege, son, or anything else; that is not the current point of contention. The judges who handed down that wholly inappropriate judgement are our shared adversary, and they must be defeated. However, we are unable to contest that conclusion.
All we can say is that they went too far by expressing their anger at the Kwankwasiyya group in such a public manner; we believe that is unworthy of temple members. That is our concern, but due to the overt anger they have shown against the Kwankwasiyya group, whatever they may claim to be their justification for annulling that result and returning the APC candidate for the time being, we find it intolerable.
And as I previously stressed and will again, you cannot bring the fault of the Kwankwasiyya sect upon NNPP. The Kwankwasiyya group is merely an election-related pressure organisation that joined the party. It makes no difference if Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is Kwankwaso’s son or not. The problem, as I have stated, is that the party is not pleased with the judgement that has been handed down. Our attorneys are working, and we have already notified the appeals court that we want to challenge the ruling. Nigerians will be informed of the party’s future move as soon as it is known. But in the meanwhile, I can tell you that we have provided the proper parties with an appeal notice because we find the ruling to be unacceptable.
You recently revealed that Kwankwaso is being investigated by the NNPP over alleged misuse of more than N1 billion generated from the selling of election forms. What is the latest on that investigation?
You are aware that Kwankwaso was invited by the committee established as a result of that directive to speak with him and further inquire about what happened to our campaign monies. He got kicked out of the party since he failed to appear. Now that he is no longer a party member, the situation has been submitted to the relevant security services. The appropriate agencies are currently censoring the party’s accounts in order to determine what happened to the public funds that were deposited there. The party’s accounts are open to the public, thus everyone involved in managing them, including Kwankwaso, must take responsibility for whatever took place.
He is currently no longer a part of our party, thus it is proper to report him to the security services, which has already been done. As a result, the party’s accounts are currently being checked and examined. The security agencies will decide the next course of action, and once they do and inform us, we will likewise inform the wider public.
There seems to be little chance of a reconciliation between your NNPP side and the Kwankwasiyya group.
These folks are dishonest, as we have consistently warned you and continue to do. They approached us with a very cunning mind and a secret agenda. Since you and I aren’t God, we can’t possibly know what someone is thinking when they come to you for the first time and ask for something. We also believed that as a political party, we ought to be open to all Nigerians, thus as human beings, we were honest and endeavoured to do our best. We made an effort to establish a relationship, but as soon as the MOU was signed—a MOU that was ultimately canceled—they began displaying the true nature of their character—the dishonest attitude that drove them from the APC to the PDP and beyond.
The MOU had been signed, which is number one, but after that. Second, the elections were close, and we didn’t want internal party strife. Now that the elections are concluded, it is time to organise the party’s activities, which is why they are being expelled. All else being equal, we anticipate that since their leader has been expelled from the party, he will be allowed to depart with his followers as well. Keep in mind that we promised you we had our windows open for dialogue when each of these problems first began. After the MOU was dissolved, we said, “Okay, no big deal, we’re starting over.” After failing to uphold the terms of the MOU that was signed, we can start talking again with the intention of establishing a relationship that is different from the one that was labelled negative. We promised you that there would be a window open for new conversations and a new connection, but as things stand, these individuals have persisted in demonstrating that no one can relate to them, and as a result, they were shown the exit from the APC and PDP.
They attended the Accord Party and the People’s Redemption Party before coming to us. They were well-known to these individuals. We were ignorant. They are gentlemen that anybody can relate to, in our opinion. This is ultimately how it has worked out. Imagine individuals who joined a party that is already 22 years old only a year ago deceiving Nigerians by claiming to be the party’s founder members on newspaper and television front pages?
Imagine if people who joined us just yesterday, in March, claimed to be co-founders while knowing that this party was started by just one person before millions of Nigerians joined. They are currently contacting other NAGAFF members, who are the founding father and mother of NNPP, to inquire about their availability to serve as co-founders. NAGAFF is the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders. It is illogical. It demonstrates how amusing individuals can be.
I believe the window is rapidly closing. At first, there was no restriction on discussion, but as the relationship deteriorates day after day, no hope of reconciliation remains due to the activities that have been made thus far. We need to finish this swiftly, put it behind us, and then move on to 2027, and the only way to do so is to get rid of these individuals who have caused issues for our political party, which has previously been extremely calm.
However, the Kwankwaso camp is the owner of the NNPP’s national secretariat. Do you plan to claim it back? What approach would you use here?
What you imply by it is beyond me. Kwankwaso’s personal property is the alleged national secretariat of the party. And several of us objected to using someone else’s home as the party secretariat right away after he provided us that address. Some of us never felt at ease staying there. That was never the party’s national secretariat. We are back at Willand Plaza in Wuse Zone 4, where the party’s national secretariat used to be. We’re now in that position. Because the so-called National Working Committee, NWC, under Kawu was later disbanded by the Board of Trustees, BOT, who constitutionally has the authority to oversee the operations of all other organs of the party, whatever they are doing with Kwankwaso’s personal property in Area 11 is entirely their business. Therefore, they are acting unlawfully. However, the court will shortly issue a ruling and the situation would be resolved.
In a few days, Nigeria will commemorate its anniversary of independence. What do you think of the state of the country?
Every other Nigerian is experiencing what you are. For so long, we have endured suffering from poor leaders. The issue we face is not a lack of resources to provide a comfortable life for our people, but rather how those resources are managed. Effective resource management is the foundation of good government.
These resources are thus the missing piece, but the issue becomes how they are managed. You will see as you travel the world that the United States of America and other developed nations lack what we have. In Nigeria, there is nothing you can’t find. We will thus keep praying for God to act one day, but I must declare right now that, in Africa, we annoy him too much. We continue to annoy God despite the difficulties we are expected to handle on our own. When all we need to do is act morally, why would we want to bother God? Nobody gave the APC a chance in the recent election since we were already going through extremely painful circumstances under the Federal Government that was then led by Buhari. But consider what transpired. They are in charge once more today. Only God knows how long they will remain in office, and given how much worse things have gotten since the new administration took office, it is clear that we are suffering more. Fuel costs more than N600 where we are, and over N700 in some other locations. A litre of diesel currently costs more than N1000. However, they count on the industry to function. Therefore, I ask that while we celebrate this year’s anniversary of our independence, we should all rekindle our prayers for this nation. This is where we will be in about 60 years, which is bad, but there is yet hope.
As in previous years, there won’t be much of a celebration for Independence Day. Do you believe the government should keep the celebration of the nation’s independence from Great Britain low-key?
Have you ever wondered why someone would use the word “low-key”? They do this because they are aware that those who ought to celebrate—typical individuals like you and me—lack even the capacity to do so. Furthermore, they don’t want to be perceived as living extravagantly off of our riches when the ones who produce them are unable to provide our kids with rice and meat on Independence Day. What part of the celebration is low-key? They would not be saying it if they didn’t know that people were angry with them.
