APC leadership should forget old ways of gangsterism and godfatherism - Richard

Daniel Richard is an Adamawa State-born philanthropist with deep interest in sponsoring politicians with outstanding leadership talents. In this interview with SYVESTER AIGBE OMOSE, the highly influential political investor poured out his heart on the way forward after the various elections, insisting that, for Nigeria to move speedily forward, All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership should forget the former ways of godfatherism and gangsterism to embrace the path of honour and integrity which all Nigerians are yearning for. He cautioned the ruling party to be wary of the same old mistakes its predecessor, PDP has made, which resulted to its downfall. Excerpts:

 

We would like to have your humble background for record purpose.

My names are Daniel Richard from Adamawa State. Apparently, I don’t belong to any political part. I also believe the Nigerian politics is not ripe enough for me to take a position on any party. I have come to realize that our parties are not driven by any sound political ideology, I decided to stay aloof. So, what I do is to carefully pick candidates across the parties, SDP, APC or PDP, and then support same to actualize their political ambition, this, to me, has helped me to add my humble quota to national development. 

 

What does the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as the 8^th NASS Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively, mean to you?

No no no, their emergence, especially of Hon Dogara doesn’t mean all to me alone, but to all Nigerians. You see, we are either pretentious or we are showing to the world we do not have sense of history. What happened in the House of Representatives today (Tuesday), happened four years ago. Four years ago, it was the same thing. The so-called cabals in PDP, decided that they will decide who becomes the Senate president, the Speaker, but, when the thing got to the floors, we all knew what then happened against the backdrop of PDP’s recklessness and lawlessness. They didn’t even do it with some kind of decorum, they just said this is what we wanted and so be it. But, unfortunately for them, Nigerians just voted for change, they are now trying to drag us back to where we were with impunity and lawlessness. Dogara’s emergence as Speaker is just what happened when Buhari emerged as president. I think Nigerians are now getting serious to say look, if we have been in this mess for 10 to 15 years, there is this tendency that military might not come back; so, let’s effect the change we want. Nigerians are beginning to realize that their votes count; that one’s single vote now can count. It means even the president of a country can be easily removed. With my vote, I can remove my president, my governor, senator and my House rep from office. Now, Nigerians say fine, if it is real, we must demonstrate that. That anybody that thinks he is a godfather, we can show them that we are not their godchildren. I think Dogara’s emergence is just a lesson that if we have a sense of history, we are still building on it so that in the next Assembly, we would have just a small transition. For me, what has happened in the last three months in Nigeria is a real transition to democracy, which has not happened in our democracy before. I think we have started practising it now. As far as I am concerned, I think what is happening now in the country is the beginning of our real democratic experience. What happened in the past was gangsterism and godfatherism. I am encouraging young people to be actively involved in politics, I think our time is gradually passing away, our younger ones should learn from our mistakes and reshape the country for our desired change.

 

Why, particularly, do you encourage the younger ones in politics?

I attended a conference somewhere recently, I asked the secretary, what will be our role in the scheme of things in fixing Nigeria? He said, let’s prepare for tomorrow, I said to him, majority of us hustling today may not even have tomorrow, and so, why don’t we encourage and prepare the younger ones for the task of tomorrow? I support and encourage the younger ones because, I believe in them and they are the leaders of tomorrow. We should be the backbenchers and that will tell them this is where we made mistakes, don’t go that way, and so on and so forth. I said like prediction, why are we encouraging people that are ready to die, and two days later, one died and a week later and another one died; that shows you where we are now, does it mean younger ones cannot do well? This is why I am so much in support of raising the younger ones to drive Nigeria and also tell us where they want Nigeria to be. Even when this has attracted bad name calling to me, I am not discouraged or looking back.

APC leaders just said they are not in support of Dogara and Saraki, what are your views on this?

APC is a party formed by Nigerians not by ghost, if they say that they don’t want the leadership of Saraki and Dogara, where would they want to get their leaders from. As I said earlier, let the leadership of this party forget the former ways of godfatherism and gangsterism to embrace the path of honour and integrity which all Nigerians are yearning for. This was the mistake PDP made; I just hope APC will learn a lesson. APC is just a political platform, their threat that if you don’t do this or that, you will not return, is not good enough. How can somebody sit down in Abuja to decide who returns in Yobe or elsewhere? To me, that is undemocratic. Again, APC is not the problem, but the cabals that are making the party look like a bad party. Nobody should see APC as his estate or his own party, as you know that without the generality of the people, there won’t be APC.

What do you think of corruption and the fight against it?

I told somebody in London the other day, that corruption is our life style. I said we don’t hide corruption in Nigeria. We live it as a life style, so, my advice to President Buhari, if he really means business, is for him to go on high moral ground…set the high moral standard. If you say you will fight corruption, it is our life style, people may have their views, but, this is the truth and nothing but the truth. I have seen people that are not corrupt being maligned. Some say he was a minister for four years, look at the type of car he is driving; they are so stigmatized like people with leprosy just because they toed the path of honour and integrity. So, we have turned the table against the honest people. Honest people are, at times, afraid to attend functions like launching with just N5,000 in their pockets, where one small crook is giving N50million. This is the country we are living in today where the crook and corrupt are celebrated while the good and the honest are disregarded and disrespected. This happens in the mosques and churches where special seats and positions are reserved for highest bidders.

 

What is your advice to our leaders, especially these agents we expect to change Nigeria?

I quite commend Dogara’s statesmanship, we all saw what he did after the election; he went to hug his opponent; that, to me, is a good spirit of a true leader. Again, this is not Dogara’s issue. If we still don’t believe what God has done for us as in the last six months and Nigerians still believe this I-will-follow-my-leader attitude without questioning, this has been the major factor that has brought us to where we are now, and they call themselves rulers; rulers and leaders are two different things, they are not the same. It is only in Nigeria that elected officers call themselves rulers, other countries, it’s not like that. So, my advice to Dogoara is just like the president said he is for everybody and he is for nobody; Dogara should be for everybody as we have known him and be for nobody. He should do his best to serve the interest of the Nigerian people. The day he fails, I pray he doesn’t, I know him to be God fearing and humble; that is what has brought him to where he is now, I pray he continues with this humility. To Nigerians, we shouldn’t see this as Buhari, Saraki or Dogara’s project, but as Nigerian project, that with the example of what God has done, children of ordinary people can aspire to any position in the land. This, to me, is the beauty of democracy.
What is your advice to the media in deepening the nation’s democracy?
First time in recent times, the Nigeria media has so distinguished itself and living up to its billing, to me, the media is up to its responsibilities now more than ever before. This is encouraging; with vibrant media on ground, the government has no option than to do the needful. The media has been very truthful and objective in its reportage, especially before, during and after the 2015 general election. I would like to congratulate the Nigerian media. To me, the credit for the peaceful and fair election should be given to the Nigerian media.

 

Your advice to Nigerians

I’m sure you have seen the 60 seconds’ bills passed by the lawmakers who are carting away billions of naira for doing nothing. What they are showing us by the last-minute passing of bills is that they have been sitting doing nothing but taking all that huge amount of money. If a senator that has been there for four years could not pass a bill, but just because he is going now says every bill should just be passed, clearly that shows what Nigerians are losing. These are the same people that are still in the senate today, we should hold them accountable to us and also checkmate them. This is the time to let them know it’s not tea party as usual. It’s time they work for Nigeria or they are recalled.