Senator Datti
Baba-Ahmed is a politician and educationist. He was a member of the House of
Reps from 2003 to 2007 (Zaria Federal Constituency) and a former Senator (June
2011 to February 2012), representing Kaduna North Senatorial District. He is
currently the Pro-Chancellor of Baze University in Abuja, and he is currently
in the news for his interest in running for president. In the following
interview, he spoke on his reasons for making a bid for the No.1 office in
Nigeria, his chances, his own brand of politics, and more. Excerpts:
Daily Trust: You
recently left the APC and joined the PDP, and thereafter declared for
the presidency. Is it a decision you took on your own, or were you were
advised?
Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed: I
took the decision myself. But I must add that it coincided with advice given to
me by people who would have in the past advised me to go for a lower office. As
usual with me, the simple reason is that President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government has brought the economy it found standing to its knees. Insecurity
has spread to other regions with new dimensions. His anti-corruption war is
strictly meant for his opponents, and people he has scores to settle with,
while looking the other way for friends and relatives.
Back to your question, I have
ticked all the boxes as far as presidency is concerned. Nigeria needs to be
rescued, and it is people like me who are to do it: I have simply presented
myself.
DT: But
there already are many aspirants in the PDP. What do you think will give you an
edge?
Baba-Ahmed: Since you’re
talking about having an edge, let us realise the challenges against me: I don’t
have the kind of money other candidates have, but by the grace of God, I am
able to do every legitimate needful. Though it is not something to flaunt,
people who know me will tell you I do not do money politics, because it is the
root of our problem including that of our present government. Remember that I
was ripped-off in 2007, and I lost in the tribunal and court of appeal?
Remember that I also lost my Senate seat at the tribunal and court of appeal?
All these I lost, gallantly, and with full trust in God. That trust is, in
itself, an edge.
And this is another point that
many Nigerians following Buhari fail to realise, that there is more than one
honest person in Nigeria. In fact, there are many. The only difference is that
the rest of us living honest lives do not engage in wicked ways.
DT: Is
it true that some powerful politicians and ex-generals are the people
championing your presidential ambition?
Baba-Ahmed: That’s not true.
I’m championing my own ambition, but one of the best things that can happen, is
to have them support me. I must also add that I consulted widely.
DT:
With President Buhari’s cult-like support in the North, and South West, how
would you penetrate these areas in the event you get the PDP ticket?
Baba-Ahmed: Correction:
President Buhari does not have cult-like following in the South West. Just look
at the 2015 results again; that was nearly 45-55 in the South West. Upon
hearing the narrowing margin between Buhari and Jonathan in 2015, I became
convinced that Buhari didn’t actually win 2003, 2007, and 2001. Yet, he
distracted all those governments by suing all the way to Supreme Court.
Jonathan and PDP did not sue Buhari, but willingly handed over power in 2015.
As for the so-called cult-like
following in the North, you need to appreciate the psychology of it. Buhari
built his politics on the hatred of the masses for the elite. Now his
government has bruised and destroyed most of the elite, but the masses are
feeling it more. Mine will simply be to promote love and unity between the
masses, the middle class, and the elite. Also, Buhari promoted agriculture far
beyond education; I will simply do the opposite. This will be the end ofexploitation of
the masses, sentiments, and lack of awareness. With my kind of politics, that
era is gone.
DT:
What is your impression about the APC-led government’s approach to the fight
against corruption, and to salvaging the economy?
Baba-Ahmed: To date, the government has
not addressed the menace of inflated government contracts, as it ravages the
economy and provides for corruption, and 2019 election funding. There are six
other technical aspects of corruption which his government appears completely
clueless about: Fighting corruption is about government in power and not about
governments past, and Buhari doesn’t seem to know this. Those who are not in
power logically have no funds to steal, but only those in government.
Buhari’s focus is on PDP, and
past governments, and hardly on his own government in power, which is wrong.
His government also thinks fighting corruption is about arrests, which have not
yielded any convictions and have remained media entertainment. Real anti-corruption
is about blocking all the avenues of corruption, which his government has not
been able to do.
Regarding the economy, the
whole of Nigeria is now only worth 40% of what it used to be. Millions of
jobs lost from companies leaving Nigeria and indigenous ones closing
down. The government competes with private sector in borrowing from banks. To put it
mildly, Nigeria’s economy has never been as mismanaged as during this
administration. I genuinely believe unless this government is shown the way out,
we’re only a few years away from a collapsed economy, and total breakdown of
law and order.
DT:
Some major billboards of yours are springing up nationwide. What’s your
campaign funding like?
Baba-Ahmed: On a lighter note,
at least I didn’t pick up my phone to call my bank manger to pretend that I borrowed money to
buy form. Those who know what borrowing is, know you have to be worth more than
twice what you are borrowing. But the masses, or the illiterate ones who don’t
borrow, who are not well-integrated into banking, easily believe that this
candidate does not even have money for the form. But back to your question:
Surely, my funding comes from clean, legitimate, hard-earned sources, from friends,
and family.
DT:
Does that mean you have a fully-stocked ‘war chest’, or you are still going to
embark on fundraising?
Baba-Ahmed: As you know, there
is the legal provision of campaign funding in the Electoral Act, and I’ll faithfully go
by its provisions. It is in my interest, because I can’t imagine getting the
kind of money that they talk about, for campaigns. And I am very prudent, and I
live within my means. I do not overburden friends
and family unnecessarily.
DT: As
you’ve ventured back into full-time into politics, what is the plan regarding
the running of your university, Baze?
Baba-Ahmed: They are two
separate things. My role had been to establish a university, which by special
grace of God I have done, though you never quite finish such projects. That is
why I am Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the governing council.
In my capacity now, I am only
an aspirant, not yet a candidate, not yet elected. I remember there is at least
60 to 90 days from being elected, to being sworn-in, which you are given time
to drop all your commitments that would clash with your role as president. As
we speak, the management of Baze University is entirely independent of my role
as a politician, completely detached, and I am fully entitled to pursue a
career independent of which I have established. It helps, too, that the
university has seasoned managers.
The Vice Chancellor is a
two-time DG of the Nigerian Law School, there are two Deputy ViceChancellors, one
of them is a two-term Executive Director in NDIC and a Professor of
Economics, the other DVC is a qualified Nigerian lawyer from the United
Kingdom. The Registrar is a retired Major-General. All I do is the role of
establishment, key appointments, borrowing, financing, and so on. So, they are
completely separate and I pray that somehow that those I am contesting with,
would find it in their heart to forgive me and my “transgressions” and deal
with me only, and not the university (laughter).
DT:
Many watchers find it interesting that on some of your billboards, the appendage
‘PhD’ is added. Was it a conscious move?
Baba-Ahmed: If you notice, I
have never used the word ‘Alhaji’ in my names, and I have been to hajj. The
simpler, the better. And the word ‘doctor’ has been overused, and misused in
Nigeria. But in the context of politics in Nigeria, you need to show certain
things, and in the context of what Nigerians need, it is not out of immodesty,
it is out of guiding the electorate to what we specifically require in Nigeria.
If you believe in education, and identify with, and promote education, there is
going to be an inconsistency if you yourself have not reached a certain level
in education. So it was conscious.
I’m leading by example, and by
the special grace of God, I have conservatively contributed to the education of
11,000 individuals, and there’s evidence that, with federal might, I can
educate many millions of Nigerians within four years. This is a promise.
DT:
From entrepreneurship to politics, then to education, and back to politics. How
would you say these experiences would add up to what you will offer the
electorate?
Baba-Ahmed: I think it is
divine intervention in my life, as it happened this way. Way back in 1996, when
I was completing my MBA in Cardiff, I dreamt of having a private university.
But not until 2007, I was doing my feasibility studies and updating them from
time to time, and not until when I saw the daylight robbery in which my
election was taken away from me, and all the way to the Court of Appeal, and I
could not go back to the House of Reps. I thank God for all that has been
happening in my life. So I re-invented myself.
Ordinarily, it would have been
the university when I retire from politics. But God made me lose, even though
the results showed that I won. He made me not to go back because He wanted Baze
University to come to life. God decided that I go to the Senate, and I
challenged Makarfi and defeated him at least for eight months before he went to
the courts. I went back, then I paid more attention in 2015 when the chances of
opposition were brightest, and I was meant to contest governorship in Kaduna.
Again I assessed the situation, how Buhari was so much in favour of El-Rufai
even before the primaries, and how the primaries were interfered with, and I
decided to maintain a dignified absence from what was happening in the APC. I
stayed away from the 2015 elections, but voted to bring about change.
Now, after seeing Buhari and
his governors ‘perform’, I feel it is the right time to present myself. I’ve
had the most interesting career. A bit of public life, as I started at the
Nigerian Security and Printing Mint, went back to school, started my
consultancy, went into construction and real estate, then politics, followed by
my university, then back to politics, and back to university again. Each and
every step, I am learning a lot. What I’m offering Nigerians now is a
development strategy, of one sentence: ‘use quality education to build the
economy that would solve our security challenges’.
DT: Why
are you running for the presidency?
Baba-Ahmed: It is the only
office that has enough constitutional powers that would enable me carry out the
grand design I have for Nigeria, to transform the present-day, chaotic Nigeria.
Nothing less than that because I need to attack insecurity. I need to reform
the economic order of Nigeria, stabilize the naira, drive down interest rates,
pay federal public servants more.
What I intend to do for
Nigeria, you will excuse me for not elaborating here, because security is the
first thing, and security is not discussed in public, or the pages of
newspapers.
As President I would account
for every square metres of Nigerian territory. It used to beat my imagination
in 2014 and 2015 when APC was challenging the then PDP government, if you are
not fully and officially briefed about security, how did you know what to do.
Right now, I am a civilian, and outside the government, so how would I know
what I am talking about? I need to get into the office, receive official
briefings, then work with the experts to begin to provide solutions.
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