2019: “We Do Not Come For Our Sake But, We Come For The People”……Haruna Sae’ed, Kaduna SDP Governorship Aspirant

 

MAL. HARUNA YUNUSA SAE'ED

We are not coming because we just want to come but, because the people have called; they have cried and they have expressed the need for somebody to come and salvage them. And, I believe that I have what can be taken from an individual leader, to give that leadership that they require……Mal. Haruna Yunusa Sae’ed

Ahead of the 2019 gubernatorial elections across the country, the polity in Kaduna state has become heated up with the number of aspirants jostling for the tickets of the various political parties on who occupies the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, seat of government in the state.

Among the various contestants squaring up for the primaries, the name of Haruna Yunusa Sae’ed Kajuru has continued to dominate political discuss and gatherings in the following what many political pundits and analyst have described as one of the most credible aspirants, based on his antecedents.

Haruna Sae’ed, popularly known as AG Haruna, served as Accountant General of Kaduna state for eleven years, making him the longest ever in the history of the state and thereafter, as the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI.

Speaking with Emmanuel Onotevure, Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of NAIJ NEWS ALERT, the soft spoken Haruna Yunusa Sae’ed talked about his political party; the Social Democratic Party, SDP and why the absence of quality leadership in our political space has continued to be the bane of development in the nation.

He also talked on some of the reasons why he and other political stalwarts left his former party, the APC.

EXCERPTS     

Presently, we have 91 registered political parties, including your Social Democratic Party, SDP gunning for the various offices with the different promises being made to the electorates.

What makes the SDP any different from the others and also, considering that the Nigerian electorates seem to recognize just the two dominant parties; PDP and APC. What are the changes that the SDP is coming out with that should make the people embrace it?

Thank you very much. But first, let me say, just like you said, there are ninety-one political parties or thereabout. Then, in every state of the nation, there are those parties present. What you have said about the electorates and also, the two political parties, is only true to the extent that, these two parties have only been made by people who market the party. This is because, in every political party, there are quite a number of stages. The entity itself, is the just the name that is acquired but then there must be people who populate it.

For people to populate them, it must be marketed. The people must be aware of the existence of that party. Some have registered their party and they marketed it and have brought it to the door steps of the people; the voter class and even the non-voter class.

So, first, they have to bring that to the people. The people must know about the party. If people know of that party, they must be willing to key into it. How do they key into it? It is by bringing in, certain leadership at all levels of the party. So, you find that there are quite a number of parties don’t have leadership. You have parties that are only there and have a chairman; so called in the state, but he has no executive class.

That is an aspect we cried out for, in the APC before we left. There were a number of vacancies that existed only at the state but not at the local government level and at the ward levels.

So, the leadership must be there and that leadership must be vibrant to bring people to register in the party. If people register, then, they must be willing to vote that party and bring others to also, to vote for the candidates of that party. So, that is when you can say dominant parties, exist.

What we have done in the Social Democratic Party, SDP today is that we have done quite a number of sums that will ensure such and as I talk to you today, we don’t have only two visible political parties today but at least, three dominant parties. SDP as one, and the other two which I don’t want to mention their names. But, how did we arrive there? We first have to market the party; we had to get people to come in and register. We have leadership at all levels and also, we have offices at all the local government levels and we also have people talking about the party every day.

Now, we are getting people wanting to contest elections under the party. There was never any body contesting in all positions of the party. Now, you have Haruna Sae’ed who has championed so many things and also, Haruna Sae’ed is contesting in that same party.

Again, there are a lot of personalities in that party and, we must also understand that the personality issue is a key thing as those who champion the party, must be believable. When the people believe in the people moving the process, they join them.

That is what we experienced in the SDP and now, we have people joining because they believe in the people championing the cause of the party.

Sir, your declaration to run for the office of governor under the party, puts you in the contest alongside other notables including the incumbent whose party calls the shots at the federal level.

How prepared are you for this?

We are not the ones to call the preparation for this. The major issue is that, we do not for our sake but, we come for the people. In that case, you don’t come when the people are happy and, you only come when the people are sad and you want to remove that sadness from them.

What we have in Kaduna state today, is what we heard earlier on that, people were sad that, the developments that were taking place in the PDP then, and therefore, chose to change from the PDP to another party, believing that their sorrows will be taken away from them but, unfortunately, that never happened. So, what they get now is what they never bargained for. They are now asking for a new beginning all over.

So, how do they get that? They did not get it from the old party that they had left. There had to be a new party that will give them, a new sense of direction. So, it is not how I; but how as the people will now chose to clear the mess that they are faced with. This is the thing. 

The people themselves are the ones looking for a change.

We are not coming because we just want to come but, because the people have called; they have cried and they have expressed the need for somebody to come and salvage them. And, I believe that I have what can be taken from an individual leader, to give that leadership that they require.

Talking about leadership; should you emerge as the flag bearer of your party, the SDP, what are the likely changes and the areas that you intend to focus upon to improve on the lives of the people of this state?

Well, the major issue like I said is not re-inventing the will. You don’t re-invent the will in governance, you only enhance and we have that in our mind that, we need to enhance the way people are being governed. First and foremost, there is a de-linking of government and people; the government and people of Kaduna state are no longer connected. There is a disconnect and because of that, there is a de-linking between the people and the government.

So, the people are feeling all sense of un-belonging and that they are not being catered for and they feel nobody cares for them. So, they feel no trust. Trust is lost and people no longer trust the government. 

The moment people no longer trust the government, then at the end of the day, authority will be lost because, people will take the laws into their hands. To avoid that, there should be a new government because, if you don’t do that, the society can degenerate to a level where people will begin to do certain things that are unpalatable. Society will have the consequence that they have not asked for. We don’t want that to happen.

We will ensure that there is the tying of the knot; we want to tie the knot so that, people can now get back together.

In all areas of human development, we will enhance what is liked; we have education that is the worst sector that has suffered greatly. We have other aspects of the various sectors that have suffered such as the health; infrastructure that you could see so many projects that have been started and nobody is giving them any attention. Some of them have become sources of accidents rather than areas that are supposed to solve human problems. They have now become human problems instead.

We want to ensure that we tackle these issues. Then, we have all sorts of issues regarding agriculture; people are complaining day and night. The whole value chain in agriculture is suffering from planting to processing and marketing and what have you. So, the people are not just getting what they are expecting at all in this government and, we intend to improve on all areas of human endeavour when we come onboard.

Sir, majorly, there have been issues of impunity in the other political parties which many stakeholders have insisted to be responsible for many problems bedeviling our democracy. Also, there are issues bordering on leadership.

What are the guarantees that the same problem of leadership and impunity will not arise in the Social Democratic Party, SDP?

We are trying hard to ensure that such does not happen. We don’t want that to happen in our party and we have told every person who has expressed interest that it is going to be a level playing field and that is why we are agreed to key in and give our own contribution. 

That is why people are agreeing to be partners in the project. And, to this end, we are hoping and working hard to ensure that it does not do any such thing and, the whole premise that the party came up with is, the fact that we want to run away from what is happening in the other two political parties that you know of.

So, you cannot run away from that and come and get the same in a new party; no, it is not going to work. It won’t happen!

We have received several reports of perceived threats, harassment and intimidation of members of the opposition by the ruling party using every available means here in the state.

Has your party and even personalities like you received such acts of threats? It is necessary to ask this question because, just recently, particularly around the city metropolis, campaign posters belonging to other political parties and their candidates were being removed from the streets under strict supervision of armed security operatives?

We have not witnessed any of such, maybe because of the fact that we have not being irresponsible. If there have been some that have been irresponsible, I don’t know about that because, we don’t believe that campaign posters should be posted on where they are not supposed to be pasted. We try to tell people that posters are not meant for that and then, we equally tell our people that we need to pay the necessary dues for campaign Bill Boards to be raised. 

Therefore, we pay every attention to laws.

In a nutshell, we have not suffered such thing and we hope not to suffer. Where however, such has been done in order to simply take advantage because you are in government and do what you are doing, then, that is political thuggery which we shouldn’t allow. And, indeed, it should apply to everyone. You cannot be in a party and allow your members or even in leadership position, allow yourself hang posters and banners and disallow others. Everybody must do the right thing. 

You must do the right thing by paying the right dues and also, hang them in the right place.

There is this other issue and I think this is an opportunity for you to clear the air.

Sir, there are insinuations in certain quarters, particularly, the political space, that in 2011 when you contested the position of governor under the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and was reported to have lost in the governorship elections to the eventual winner; the late Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, it was rumoured that you were handsomely compensated to forgo your mandate.

How do you respond to this when we also have to consider you were the flag bearer of that party with very good chances in taking over the mantle of leadership of Kaduna state?

The first thing is for people to understand what it means to be rewarded. You cannot be rewarded for a fight. You can only be rewarded for a non-fight or, if you say; a stage-managed fight.

We did not stage managed a fight; we fought and we won the fight. So, we cannot be rewarded for winning nor can you be rewarded for taking up an action where you are short-changed. Nobody would give you money to go to court to challenge his so-called victory.

So, we stood an election gallantly and fought it and won. We were squeezed by the power and the mandate taken away from us by force. We didn’t like it and we didn’t agree. We did not support it and we have the best lawyers at very great expense because, those who did, that, even the president was never hiring more team than we hired. We had four SAN’s; one from Lagos, one from Kwara, one from Oyo and one from the North. It was a cosmopolitan kind of arrangement where we believed that, even if there was anything, they could not easily be compromised, because they were coming in from different kinds of backgrounds; different beliefs.

We really covered our backs and we did everything but the judgment that was delivered, was not in a manner that anybody could imagine. 

The Tribunal judgment was something that was the shabbiest of it all. 
There was no ground for the judgment and that gave us grounds for appeal.

We went to appeal and the way of the judgment of the appeal, was another poor outing because, on  a Sunday, somebody came in singly when there should have been more than one person to announce that and, he did that without proper reading from the judgment sheet.

So, we couldn’t accept that either and we went for the Supreme Court and, at the Supreme Court, it was equally worse. Because, at that level, there was supposed to be five Judges but only three came and all they did was to say that they concurred. Not even one piece of paper was brought; we knew they were compromised.

Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do, because from the Supreme Court, there was no place further we could go to.

My lifestyle never changed but it went for the worst after that because, we had been in quite a financial difficulty to have supported that kind of expensive lawyers. It was really an issue and if our lifestyle had been any different, the people could have come to have taken their own share from whatever it was.

So, anybody can say anything but, the fact is that the character of an individual very well matters and people can ask around because, if we are of the character or the kind selling themselves in other parties; we don’t to be blow our trumpets by ourselves, we are asking people to investigate our character and also, investigate the character of others who are making empty promises and talking rubbish in the town. Let them check their characters too, of each and everyone and see. If at this age and in this time when people can easily dig down, ask questions and even visit people; the criminals know us and we don’t know them so they can always find us anytime.

Lastly, the Electoral Reform Bill before the President which he has refused to assent to, has been described as an attempt to derail our democracy.

What is your view about this as it relates to the President refusing to give assent to the Electoral Reform Bill?

First, the President has the right to refuse signing but, the question is, why is the Bill before him? There have been legal interpretations which even the lawyers have differed upon by a couple of them. They have always never agree on anything but, let us call a spade, a spade. 

Why should the National Assembly take so much interest on re-ordering the elections? I am not saying that will not have an effect on me or, on anybody else. But, the fact is that, we must never take so much position that is not attributable to our own role. We must never assume a role that is not given to us, directly. I don’t think the National Assembly has been given the mandate to organize or, arrange the sequence of the elections. That is a nitty gritty responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

So, in that case, the moment somebody else wants to do it, you smell a rat. You begin to ask why. That is an aspect I will hinge my argument on, that it is not expected of the National Assembly to begin to re-order. If they or, anybody has any argument, they can make their points clear to INEC and see whether they can carry the day if for anything that there should be no change in that case.

If anybody wants to say anything or assume that every decision of INEC has always been that, they base their timetable, first along the line of State Assemblies and Governorship. Then, the Federal House of Representatives, the Senate and finally, that of the Presidential. So, the law says that we must finish X, Y and Z and in that order, one must believe that it should also conduct the election of the lower cadre, first before the others follow. 

The sequence now is maintained but, for the National Assembly on its part to want to break this and say; let us do the Senate first before that of the presidential, it tells that they are asking for priority to see who will help them to achieve certain personal interest before they can now decide who they will help at the end of the day or, what they will do.

In truth therefore, the INEC should have maintained their mode of operation and every political should follow the same; they order their primaries in same manner; State Assemblies and then, what have you but, because the two elections normally come together, it is always better to order the elections in such manner; the state assemblies and the governorship, first.

So, this is what I believe.

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