Senator Aisha Jumai Alhasan represents Taraba North at the National Assembly where she is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs.? In this interview with John Mkom, she speaks about political issues in Taraba State.
We were a little bit taken aback when you were visibly absent from the recent state congress of the PDP; what could have accounted for that absence in a major event that was to decide the structure of the party in Taraba State?
Yes, I was visibly absent from the congress because I am sure you are aware of a letter of complaint that my colleague and brother from the central zone, Senator Tutare and I wrote to our leaders in the national headquarters of our party, PDP, on the ills that were happening in the party at the state level.
We wrote to alert the national headquarters of PDP that contrary to the instructions that party leaders at the state level should go back to the state and get stakeholders and encourage consensus. When you say consensus, you call stakeholders, sit on a table and then design an acceptable new structure. The national headquarters has encouraged us to encourage internal democracy whereby we can concede to one another.
As a senator, I should be called into such meetings that would encourage consensus candidates from wards, local governments and state congresses. But that was not the case in our state. I was never called. When I find out why, the governor did not tell me himself, but there were stories that the governor said I should not be called.? To date, nobody has told me why.
?My people started complaining that they are just calling a handful of people to decide for the majority of the party members on who should represent them and who should lead them. What is democracy for God sake? I expected them to allow the people to select their leaders, people they want to lead them.
And that was why the national headquarters said there should be consensus; otherwise, where there is no consensus people should go to the polls. That was the instruction of the national headquarters. How can you have consensus in northern Taraba and not call Aisha? It’s impossible.
Nobody called me. Whatever reasons they have, I don’t know. I kept quiet. The same thing happened in central zone. They did not call Tutare. And this gave birth to so many people complaining that what they are doing is not right. It got to a point that people were threatening that Ok, if that is what you people want in PDP, we shall leave PDP for you.
For God sake, in that circumstance, I am a leader in the northern zone, I am a party faithful, I am a senator of PDP, what was I to do? I reported the matter together with Tutare who had the same problems, the same complaint from his zone. We reported what the governor was doing to the national headquarters, and that if care is not taking, we shall start losing our party members and our party will start going down in this state.
There are many other parties; it is not only PDP. We have to entrench internal democracy in our party for our people to have confidence in the system of the party, and then we can make the party stronger. That was all we complained about. But it became as if heaven was going to come down.
But, you see, we have been vindicated because INEC that, an independent umpire, said there was no congress in Taraba State. We have alerted the national headquarters of the party that there is problem in PDP in Taraba State because people are not happy.
The truth is that people are complaining; people are not happy and there is no internal democracy in PDP in Taraba State.
Everybody knows that. And for that reason, I said, ‘well, if the governor would go ahead and impose people on us, I will not be part of that system. So I decided not to come because there was no election,? not even a single congress in Taraba State.
In politics, people disagree to agree. Does it border you at all that there is no reconciliation effort by the leaders of the party in the state?
Everybody now in the northern zone is my constituent, my own. It does not matter who becomes the leader of the party from the ward level to the state level in the northern zone because they are all my own. But what I want is for people, members of the party, to be allowed, from the ward level to the state level, to choose people they want to lead them. It does not matter who.
Whoever becomes the leader is my own; I have no problem with it at all, but let the people choose. Coming back to your question, we wrote and alerted them about what was happening, and everybody has seen it. God has vindicated us. It has happened and INEC has cried out, and INEC is still crying out that there was no election in nine states and one of the nine states is Taraba. Was it Aisha that made? INEC say that?
INEC witnessed what happened, and, as an independent body, INEC never knew that we had earlier written a complaint to the national headquarters of our party. But you see, they witnessed and saw that what we were trying to prevent happened. We are still waiting. We wrote to the national headquarters. We all went to school. When you write and complain, you wait for somebody you complained to, to respond.
He national headquarters directed the former north-east vice chairman of the party, Paul Wampana, to investigate and report back.? Unfortunately for whatever reasons, he did not report back until when the process of the congress commenced; so we are still waiting. Now there is a new leadership in the party. We are now waiting for the new leadership of the party to settle in. I know once they settle down to work, they will reach out to us. If it is reconciliation, we are ready.
Whatever it is, we only want the party to grow stronger in Taraba State. We don’t want to lose Taraba State. But the way things are going, if we are not careful, PDP would come down and Taraba State will be lost. Taraba State had always been PDP.
People are not advising the governor right. People that are around him are sycophants – with due respect to them. They are just after their selfish interests; they just advise him to suit their purpose. They just tell him, whether right or wrong, what he wants to hear.
He is a human being; therefore, he is fallible. His judgments may not always be right. People that are around him should advise him. But they are not doing that for selfish interest. It is just unfortunate that there are people that still behave like that in this age and time. It is most unfortunate.
With the crop of leaders that emerged from the state congress, should the national headquarters of your party call for reconciliation? Would your group work with the new leadership of the party in the state?
I have no problem with these people that were put there. It is the process that brought them in that was wrong. It was imposition – the governor imposed those people on people. If he had called all of us and even told us that these are people that he wanted, we would have reasoned with him.
It is not my concern. Did I form any executive before I came for election? When God gave me, did I not win? It is God that gives; nobody can change anybody destiny. Nobody can make what God has not destined to happen to happen.
By the hierarchy of office, the senator is higher than the governor; were you able to personally or formally tell the governor about? his ‘wrong’ moves?
The link person or the central point of all party members in the party is the state chairman of the party. If there is any problem within the party, you go to the chairman and not to the governor. The governor is an executive governor; he is also a party member and he is under the party.
I alerted the party chairman. I called him many times to tell him that these things they are doing are not right. For whatever reasons he did not act or could not tell the governor what I said.
But I told the party chairman, ‘look, you are the one that went to the national headquarters and that you are the one that the nation headquarters directed that there should be internal democracy; you should encourage consensus and where consensus fails, people should go in for elections’. I called and challenged the immediate past chairman several times before we finally wrote. He kept shifting the blames on the governor.
The three senators and the six members of the House of Representatives from the state worked collectively to ensure the rejection of Mr. Obadiah Ando is the minister nominee from Taraba State; why the sudden division?
Maybe Senator Bwacha did not have complaints from his zone. So that was why he did not join us in writing. People were complaining to me, people were complaining from the central zone to Tutare.
Bwacha was called in as stakeholder but Tutare and I were not called in, and that is why I am telling you that, till date, we did not know why we were not called. It was because of that, and our people were complaining and things were going wrong and were about to collapse the party, that was why we wrote.? We saw things going bad and people threatening to go out of the party.
We had to alert the national body to come in so that we don’t lose grip of Taraba State. You see, I feel very ashamed that people at that level, I mean our members at the National Assembly, I feel really ashamed that somebody that has that kind of status will start lying in public.
They all know that they lied – by saying that things were well in Taraba State PDP, because things were not well. What do they now say about what INEC observed? Has it not come to pass what we were saying might happen? It happened. Why were they lying? It is common knowledge in Taraba State that at the time of the senatorial election, Governor Danbaba removed Anthony Jallason and put him in Labour Party to contest against me because he said he had no confidence in me,? he did not like me.
He (the governor) did a lot of anti-party activities during the last general elections, by bringing out different people to contest in opposition party against PDP candidates. These are facts everybody knows.
So why would lawmakers representing this state at the National Assembly go and tell lies in newspapers?
They have ridiculed themselves and I am just so sorry for them, and I am ashamed of them.
In the counter-petition written by the senator from the southern Taraba and the members of the House of Representatives from the state, they described Senator Tutare and you as ‘ingrates’ stating that after riding on the shoulders of the governor to achieve your aims, you have both turned around to bite the fingers that fed you. What do you say to this?
In the first place, we know that the meaning of ingrate is biting the fingers that fed you; for you not to be grateful for somebody that did something good to you. That is the direct meaning of being an in grate. Let me go back to history so that you understand these things I am going to tell you very well.
I come from a political family. In 1959, 1960 when I was born, my father was already a member of the House of Reps representing Muri in the First Republic, in Lagos. My father later became chairman of NPN in Gongola State in the Second Republic. My father was the chairman of NRC in Taraba State in the Third Repuublic. My father was in the G10 that metamorphosis into PDP. My father was one of the conveners of PDP. My father brought PDP to Taraba and handed over. Not only that, my elder brother, same father, same mother, was a senator in Taraba State twice.
How can anybody say I came and reaped from where I did not sow? Let me tell you something: at the time I was Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice in Taraba State, Governor Danbaba was a permanent secretary. I was never under him at any time. I was attorney general and commissioner of Justice 1997-1999 in Taraba State.
Where was he? Danbaba was a permanent secretary on the run because, at that time, there was this white paper they gave me to prosecute him as attorbecause he was indicted in a fertiliser scandal. So I was never at any time under Danbaba and I will never be under him by the grace of God.
Nigeria is at a cross-roads due to the high level of insecurity; what is the red chamber doing to douse the tension?
We have been meeting with the security people to brief us on what is happening. They have been trying their best and we know that they have. The attacks are getting lower and lower. The government is trying its best. We are not security agents; when we are worried, we call them to ask them what is happening.
They will brief us and we give them our own suggestions. They take some and the leave some because they are experts. But, so far so good, at least the situation is getting better.
On a final note, what at a personally level would you like to do so that, before 2015, all of you can come together and speak with one voice again?
You see, where there is justice, there is always peace; where there is injustice, there can never be peace. I will never be part of injustice to the people; and that was why we wrote to say we want peace in our party. Therefore, the national headquarters should intervene.
I am sure the national headquarters will not leave this kind of situation in Taraba State, or anywhere, because if they leave the situation as it is, the party in the state is sitting on a time bomb. Once it explodes, the party is finished. We don’t want that to happen. We will do all that we can to see that our party remains number one anywhere, not only in Taraba State.
The national headquarters would not allow that; they will come in. I am sure it is just a matter of time. By the time the new leaders of our party settle down, I am sure they will do something. And we are always willing to hear what they will say, take their directives on how to move the party forward.