APC will sweep next FCT polls —Chairman

Abdulmalik Ahmed Aminu is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In this interview with newsmen in Abuja, he submitted that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, manipulated the election results of the FCT with the help of the then Federal Government. He assured that in the coming elections, the APC would sweep the polls, especially because the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been able to assert its independence. Excerpts:

As it stands today, the FCT is under the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). What are the chances of your party in the coming local Government elections?

Our chances have always been bright. The problem is that the PDP continued to manipulate the FCT results because they cannot stand the shame of losing it to the opposition party. The situation is different now. The INEC has asserted its independence and when the results are out you will see the real results of the FCT. It is not a boast. The APC shall sweep the polls and take over the mantle of leadership.

If you have been following up, you will observe that even with their antics and the authority influence they got from their presidency, they did not get it any easy. The margins have been very close.

This is the first time in the history of Nigeria a ruling party was defeated by the opposition. So Abuja should be seen as APC territory because we shall soon take over and effect the expected change for better.

Your party only managed to win one area council out of six in the last local area council elections. How are you going to perform magic this time?

As l told you, we shall clear all the area councils in the next election. The hand writing is on the wall. As you can see, political leaders and their followers have been massively joining us and you know that politics is a game of numbers. We shall fulfill them, I mean our campaign promises, and after all we are in government.

We mean good for people of FCT and Nigeria in general. Our performance will speak for us, we believe in transformation and fight against corruption. We basically promised change and Nigerians shall feel it when it comes.

You seem to be underrating the abilities of the top politicians in the FCT, including the senator representing the territory who is a three-time senator in the National Assembly?

You should have noticed that people from the PDP here have been massively decamping to the APC. As I talk to you now, a large group of the PDP members this morning decamped to our party and it has become a routine happening for some time now. In fact, we have been receiving them almost on daily basis. If you can study Abuja well, you will find out that PDP only remains in name here. So as far as Abuja is concerned, we have taken over.

With these massive decamping from the PDP to the APC, don’t you think that at some point your party will begin to look like the PDP. Much of activities going on in the party at the moment can easily be credited to the PDP defectors?

We can never look like the PDP in anything, notwithstanding the number of them joining us. The moment anyone of them joins us, we ensure that the person drops every feature and thinking process of the PDP inside him. He swears allegiance and embraces our constitution and manifesto. He has nothing again to do with PDP. With such measures I don’t see how we shall begin to look like the PDP at anytime.

On the success you credit to the persons just joining the party, I want you to know that a politician is a politician, and that before they arrived, the APC had been making individual progress and achievements.  What the APC offered is a natural, conducive environment -one they could not have in their original party to excel.

The APC is a winning political vehicle. The defectors are not strong, it is because the APC platform is a winning political vehicle: you join, you excel, simple! If they did not join our party, we would have still won the elections. All that you see today happening in the party at all levels would still have been taken place if the politicians from the PDP did not join the APC.

At what level does a typical politician joining the party today come in?

It is at the primary level. The person joins and is expected to serve the party by contributing to the day to day progress of the party. Anybody joining the APC now thinking it is an opportunity to reap may be disappointed. The party is still work in progress. We expect that in the FCT, Abuja, the former members of the PDP joining us in the APC should work hard and assist our party in dislodging what is remaining of the PDP in the Federal Capital Territory.

Secondly, we want to ensure that we fulfill our promise by ensuring that infrastructures are in order, among others. In fact the APC is all about effecting positive change which we want to do by ensuring that ordinary Nigerian feels the impact of democracy. You will see that we want to transform the country positively.

What l meant by this is that as soon as you become a member of a political party you serve through the party. So nobody is going to humiliate anybody, but we shall abide by the rules of the party for its interest and that of the country.

How are you going to fix the infrastructural problems? Your party has said that the economy is in shambles.

I thought the press reported the Goodluck Jonathan led PDP federal government saying they had paid 100% of the contracts they awarded. So we shall assemble the contractors, look at the mandates of their contracts and make them accountable by ensuring that they deliver on promises. We shall expose any fraudulent cases. On the other hand, we shall award fresh contracts where there is need. The idea is to bring the promised change that we promised.

Some residents in Abuja have been crying of marginalization in the hands of indigenes when it comes to political appointments, even when they participated fully in the campaign process that achieved the results

That is why we are different from the PDP. In the APC, we ensure that executive offices are shared equitably. I am the chairman of the APC in FCT, but I am from Nasarawa state. The party secretary is from the FCT. The welfare officer is an lgbo man. Other positions are occupied by the Yoruba and other people from other parts of the country.

So who is dominating the other? There is nothing like the indigenes dominating the other tribes in the FCT, and vice versa. The answer to your question is that there is nothing like domination of other tribes by the FCT indigenes in the APC. The persons saying so must be referring to the PDP.

What advice do you have for your party members and FCT residents for successful democracy to be achieved?

I want to start by thanking party members for their support which contributed in no small measure toward promotion of unity of purpose and cooperation in the party in Abuja. I urge them to keep on because it will help in fulfillment of our promises to the people.

For the people of FCT, l wants to thank them for their support. I therefore appeal to them to continue to give the APC their support, which would go a long way to letting the APC at the national level, and indeed President Buhari deliver on the mandates of the APC. We want to reduce corruption to the barest minimum which if done through their cooperation will be beneficial to all. Let all hands be on deck to that effect.