A member of the House of Representatives, Babangida Ibrahim, who represents the Malumfashi/Kafur Federal Constituency in Katsina State, tells LEKE BAIYEWU about his defection from the All Progressives Congress to the New Nigeria Peoples Party, and the chances of the ruling party and its candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 presidential election
The All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, are expecting a block vote from the North-West geopolitical zone in 2023. Do you and your party feel threatened by this?
Let me be very honest with you; when you are doing political analysis, you have to be very objective. I come from Katsina State and you know that Katsina State is the state of Mr President. Katsina State has been APC all along until during the primaries when the party could not manage itself; when due process was not followed and there was a lot of dissatisfaction by the majority of members within my state. That was the reason why most of us pulled out of the party. I can assure you, I don’t want to exaggerate, but the APC is coming third in Katsina, struggling to meet up.
Which parties will come first and second?
(They are) the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the Peoples Democratic Party. The APC is struggling to come behind these two political parties.
How about the large crowds at the APC rallies, especially in the states in the North-West?
Let me tell you what is happening; when you have a government, you can organise any gathering but what is important and key is not about the numbers or the crowds you assemble in a place, it is about the feeling of the people at the lower level – the actual voters. That is what matters. By the time the election approaches, you will see that the reality will come out. All these cover-ups will be exposed. Because you have money, you can invite anybody; put any gathering of people together at any place at any time. That is because you have the resources to do that. But there is a limitation to that. Those gatherings, those crowds, they are all artificial.
There are speculations that the presidential candidate of the NNPP, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, may step down for either Atiku Abubakar of the PDP or Tinubu of the APC close to the election. Do you see this happening?
Let me tell you what people don’t understand about politics; when you say ‘I step down for you,’ I will step down for somebody that is better qualified than me. I have done this analysis, not once, not twice; pick all the presidential candidates – all of them, put them together at a table and pick them one by one. None of them has the antecedent of Kwankwaso.
Including Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
Asiwaju was just a three-month senator. That title, ‘senator’, under normal circumstances, he should not be using it, but because the law allows him; because he was sworn in as a senator. He was just a senator for three months. But let me tell you his antecedent of our presidential candidate. He (Kwankwaso) is a former member of the House of Representatives – he was deputy speaker. After being deputy speaker, he was a governor (of Kano State) for eight years. He was a minister (of defence). He was a senator (in the 8th National Assembly). So, tell me, which of all these presidential candidates has those qualities or antecedent? None of them! He was part of the Executive (arm of the government) – he was a minister and governor. He was part of the legislature; he was in the National Assembly – he was a presiding officer in the House and he was in the Senate. He was even an attaché. So, tell me who has that antecedent out of the other candidates. So, for somebody to come and say that somebody should step down for somebody that is less qualified, what are we looking for? Are we looking for quality or we just want to play politics
Does your candidate have the kind of political structure and network that Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku have built over the years?
Let me tell you what people don’t understand about political structure; most of the people who are following Asiwaju, it is either they are beneficiaries of the current government or they have interests they want to protect. I did an analysis; let me do it for you again now. If you go to the North-East, how many states can the APC guarantee of winning? Basically, three states. Give them Borno, Yobe and Gombe. They (the APC) cannot win in Taraba, Adamawa and Bauchi. Let me come to the North-West where I come from, you can only give them two states; if they are lucky, Jigawa and possibly Zamfara. They cannot take Katsina. Kano is gone. They cannot take Kaduna. They cannot take Sokoto. They cannot take Kebbi.
