Hon. Isa Sadiq Acida is the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto State and chairman of APC North-West Forum. In this interview with JOHNCHUKS ONUANYIM, he speaks on the mandate of the national caretaker committee, planned registration of members and other sundry issues
Looking at the mandate of the National Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Mala Buni, would you say that the committee has been able to achieve that?
As far as l am concerned and as far as APC is concerned, we are seeing progress. As a state C=chairman, there was never a day the former National Working Committee (NWC) members gave us an opportunity to even know what is going on in the party but the present Caretaker Committee under Governor Mai Mala Buni has done that. He is one chairman that has called for a meeting with the state chairmen to know the position of the party in the states. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, he is doing very well and we are in support of him.
Some persons are not in support because they believe that the Caretaker Committee is not carrying out the mandate of conducting a national convention. Are you in support that the committee should conduct the convention next month?
Before any convention is conducted, let us first stabilize the party. Let us make sure that the party is on a sound footing. Let this reconciliation issue be done before we go for a convention so that we can go with one voice. That is my position.
Some members of the party also believe that the Caretaker Committee can go ahead with the convention, while talking about reconciliation because reconciliation, according to them cannot be achieved within a short time. What do you say about that?
The argument is not germane in any way because there is no way you can go into a convention with a divided house. There are so many issues and there are so many divisions in state chapters. How can you go into convention when you have not reconciled the problems in states? The best thing is for us to have reconciliation, we are not in a hurry and we are not going into a general election immediately. So, the most important thing is for us to have a strong and virile party before we go to any convention.
On the issue of membership registration, some members have argued that there is a membership register, so what the party needs is membership revalidation. As a state chairman, do you have a membership card of your party, and if you do, will you support the registration of members or revalidation?
I have a membership paper, not a card. If I was registered in APC, l can’t be a chairman but then l don’t have a formidable membership card that l can say is a membership card and that is how it is everywhere. That means it is good to have a very formidable membership card that somebody can call a membership card of a party. On this issue of revalidation or a new registration, l don’t know what the law says, so l cannot conclude on it. But all l know is that, like in my state, we may need a new registration because some people have decamped from the party and followed the state governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to PDP and none of them came to surrender their membership card stating that they have left the party. Our register, therefore, is not authentic, it is not a correct register. If we are going to have a new register, that is when we will have authentic members of APC. But if you say we should revalidate, how can we expunge the names of those who decamped because they have not come around to say that they have decamped. Some people are holding our membership, while they have decamped and that is the case with Sokoto State.
A major issue for the APC at the moment is the zoning of offices. As chairman of the party in Sokoto State and chairman of the APC North West Zone Forum, what would you expect that your zone should get after producing the president?
The question is too heavy for me to answer. It is too heavy for me but you know that North- West is the home of APC. The two states that we lost; Zamfara at the court and you know we did not really lose Sokoto because the margin of 342, is not enough for a sitting governor to say he has won the election. Therefore, the whole North-West states are APC. Remember the zone gave over 40 percent of the whole votes for APC to win the presidential election. We are APC and we are the stronghold of APC. So, North-West is APC and it remains APC. Zamfara is still, even though PDP took it through the court. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not secure 25 percent of the total votes in the state; it was the Supreme Court that gave them the mandate.
How do you think APC can take governance away from PDP in Sokoto State in 2023 given the fact the governor is eyeing the PDP presidential ticket.
What l will tell you is that with Senator Aliyu Wammako, Sokoto State is APC and it still remains APC. I can tell you that as long as Wammako is the leader of APC in Sokoto State, the party will always win Sokoto State – today, tomorrow and next.
One of the problems some persons are mentioning in APC is lack of reward system. As a chairman of the party in a state, would you say that APC has rewarded those who worked for the party in the last general election?
Members are not appropriately rewarded. We are not rewarded at all; that l can say to anybody and anywhere. There are card-carrying members of PDP, those who decamped from APC to PDP, who are still holding positions in the federal parastatals as chairmen and as members of Boards and they are still in PDP, working for the PDP, while those who laboured and worked hard for APC are left with nothing.
If you say that APC members are not rewarded, who should be blamed, the party or the presidency?
Actually, l don’t know where it is coming from or who to blame. What l will say is that wherever it is coming from, let them look at that issue because that is the complain in all the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory. The issue must be addressed for us to succeed but they have left it, doing nothing. There is no reward system and that is obvious.
As a member of the APC State Chairmen Forum, what do you think the group has done or can do to help reposition the party for a greater height?
The only thing l can tell you is that we are APC and we remain APC whether reward or not. We want to follow the President because we are ardent supporters of Mr President and we will work for APC, but then, it is good that APC will look inward and do the needful.
Has the forum of State APC Chairmen helped in any way to reposition the party?
We are the custodians of the party in the states, so we work for the party on daily basis. We work to ensure that our party is strong, that is just it and you can ask everybody. So, chairmen are very important stakeholders in the party because they are the ones managing the party in states. They are the ones coordinating the party in states and they are the ones making sure the party is doing well and strong in states. And like l said, we are in APC and we will remain in APC.
If you are to advise the Caretaker Committee on how to reposition the party, what more would you add to what it is doing?
Let them consult party leaders the more. There are party leaders in states; let them not work alone. Whatever they want to do in my state Sokoto, for example, let them consult Wamakko because he is the leader there. Let them consult the people, who have the interest of the party in their hearts and let them make sure that whatever problem the party has in the state, is resolved.
JOHNCHUKS ONUANYIM
