National Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Ahmed Ajuji, speaks with ISMAEEL UTHMAN on the internal disputes within the NNPP, the party’s 2027 strategies, insecurity in the North, and his assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Your party has been engulfed in a factional crisis in recent months. What is the root cause of this conflict?
There is no crisis or faction in NNPP. Those calling themselves a faction are people we asked to appear before a disciplinary committee for anti-party activities. But they refused to honour the invitation, and as a result, the National Working Committee decided that they should be suspended, and the suspension was ratified by the National Executive Committee of the party. After that, the NEC referred their suspension to the National Convention of the party, which then expelled them from the party.
By the constitution of our party and the Electoral Act, those people have no locus standi in the party at all. But they took up the case and began going from one court to another. At one point, we had 18 cases with them. But out of the 18 cases, I cannot remember a single one that they won. They went to one obscure court in Abia State and obtained an expedited ruling, but neither the court nor they served the proper NNPP with the proceedings or the facts they filed there. Before we knew it, we heard that they obtained an injunction restraining the proper NNPP, and the judge said the party should be handed over to them. We were shocked by that because, under every judicial process, that ruling is null and void and completely ultra vires. We went back to the same court to appeal the ruling, and the court set it aside. The court said we should be properly served before the judge could continue with the case. That is where we are right now with the Abia court case.
We then took them to court in Abuja, praying the court to restrain them from parading themselves in perpetuity as members, let alone officials, of the NNPP. But the judge ruled that she had no jurisdiction because it was an internal party affair. The expelled members then held onto that and said they won the case. I don’t know how that can be interpreted as winning by any party. If you want to clarify the position of NNPP, check INEC records—you will find our names there. We have been the ones fielding candidates since then.
Can you explain the controversies surrounding the ongoing congresses of your party?
It is the same expelled people claiming to be genuine NNPP members who are making the noise. There is no controversy over the Congress. What baffles us is that they said the party was registered by an individual, and therefore that individual is the owner of the party. That is far from the truth. The majority of those who founded the PDP, for example, have left the PDP. Did they go away with the PDP? Has the party stopped existing? Political parties are not business ventures. Once INEC registers any group as a political party, every Nigerian has the right to join and contest for elective positions in that party. Therefore, their noise over the congress is not genuine. We started the congress on Monday because, despite the noise, no court stopped the process. The ward congress was held throughout the country.
But there are claims that NNPP belongs to the Kwankwasiya bloc?
Every organisation can come into a political party; it doesn’t mean the party belongs to that organisation. There are several organisations that came into NNPP. I know that the National Movement came into NNPP, in addition to the Kwankwasiya and other groups. I am the National Chairman of the party, and I don’t belong to any group. The claim that the party belongs to Kwankwasiya is false.
NNPP is seen as a party largely dependent on the former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso. What efforts are you making to expand the party beyond an individual?
Kwankwaso is just a member of the party. If the NWC decides that he has contravened any law of the party, the NWC has the right to discipline him, and disciplinary measures may include suspension or expulsion. Every political party has a strong figure or backbone. For example, former President Obasanjo was the backbone of the PDP then; that didn’t mean he owned the party. Kwankwaso is just a member of NNPP, and we value his membership and contributions.
Parties are not funded largely by individuals. They are funded by contributions from registered members. Every registered member throughout the country has a registration fee to pay at the time of joining, and they also have dues that they pay into the coffers of the party every month. So, the number of members you have determines the finances of the party.
Kano remains the only stronghold of the NNPP, but with the gale of defections, do you think your party will retain the state in 2027?
We will retain Kano and, not only that, we believe that even in the last election, we won Taraba State and one other northeastern state, which I will not mention. We believe that we will also win a number of states not just in the North but also in the South or East or West. We are a political party that seeks to win the presidency, and we cannot win the presidency without winning a number of states across the country. We are working very hard to ensure that we win as many states as possible.
Your party has lost four national lawmakers to the APC in less than six months. What is responsible for this?
What is responsible for the defection of PDP governors? Political party affiliation, membership and loyalty depend on the individual. If today an individual—either elected or non-elected—decides to abrogate his or her membership of the party, then he is free to do so. He is free to join any party.
There is nothing wrong with NNPP; those who defected did so of their own free will. Political participation depends on individual interest. We have no problem with people who left the party. However, we understand that while you may hear that a hundred people defect from NNPP to another party, the next week you can hear that 100,000 members of APC, PDP and others have joined the NNPP. So, we have no grudge against any member going elsewhere. What we know is that we will do our best to win the next elections.
Are you considering alliances or a merger with other political parties?
We have always said that we have several options before 2027. We may go on as a political party and contest the election; we may join a coalition; we may even, as an option, want to join the APC. We may also come around an individual who has the clout to be a presidential candidate and have him contest on our platform. So, we have a number of options, and we are not stranded by any of them.
Is there an ongoing discussion on that?
Discussions always go on. If somebody has options, he must either be considering them himself or talking to others in order to actualise those options. So, we are talking with as many people as possible, and many people are also talking to us.
Which bloc are you discussing with?
That is too premature for me to reveal. I am sure that in the next few weeks or months, we will come up with what we have decided.
Will you accept any political terms that put Kwankwaso out of the 2027 presidential election?
I have referred to that earlier — if we have other individuals who are interested in contesting for the Presidency under the umbrella of our party, they are definitely welcome. The NNPP presidential ticket is not exclusive to Kwankwaso. Anybody can join and contest for any office in our party. That is why we are different from those who say the party belongs to one individual and therefore everybody should leave the party for him. The NNPP presidential ticket is open to every Nigerian.
In terms of policy, what unique proposals is the NNPP bringing to address Nigeria’s current economic hardship?
Whoever wins our presidential ticket will have to endorse the principles and key objectives of the party, and our key objective is to promote the interests of the common man. We are not here to protect the tax incentives of those who are very rich. We are not here to pamper people who regard education as a privilege and therefore rely on private schools. We want to democratise education. We want to ensure that every Nigerian has open access to proper medical facilities.
We are determined to make sure that within four years of winning the presidential election, we will completely abrogate medical tourism. The resources are available, and we will definitely provide proper medical care. We are determined, as a matter of policy, to ensure that adequate resources are pumped into the security architecture in order to ensure that the country is secured.
We are baffled by the present situation, where we know that if the government actually wants to combat insecurity, it has the resources to do so. The only difference between us the other political parties that have won the presidency or want to win the presidency is our commitment to protect the territorial integrity of this country. It is the number one thing that has to be ensured, apart from the welfare and well-being of the citizens.
The northern part of the country has been witnessing a fresh gale of abductions of schoolchildren and kidnapping. What is responsible for this surge?
The actual causes of insecurity are poverty and lack of opportunities for young men and women who have gone completely wayward, although there is no excuse for what they are doing. The laxity of government in ensuring that these groups — whether Boko Haram or any other group — are confronted and defeated has denied those who live in the affected areas their rights to safety and security of their lives and property.
The North has grabbed the headlines, but every part of this country is not secure. Nobody will tell us that the East is more secure than the North. The Middle Belt, where you have these attacks against the natives and reprisals by the natives against the attackers, should have been addressed squarely by the military.
Just recently, I travelled to Guinea-Bissau and I was quite surprised to see that the country is actually under the protection of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Wherever you went, you would always see Nigerian military personnel. They are keeping the country safe and secure. If you can secure Guinea-Bissau, then you can secure Nigerian states. So I don’t understand why the Nigerian government would send its armed forces to secure another country while it has failed to secure any part of Nigeria. They say charity begins at home; we should have given ourselves that charity before extending it to anybody outside the country. The Nigerian Armed Forces have a track record of peacekeeping and helping our brothers in other African countries. But when you have this kind of insurgency, the most logical thing is to address your own issue before addressing that of other people.
Why have the Nigerian Armed Forces been unable to stop insecurity in the country?
Maybe they have not had the same political will to address the insurgency. The Armed Forces are outstanding, but they do what the leadership of the military asks them to do, and that leadership is dependent on what the government wants to address. That is why we think that withdrawing all these forces and concentrating them in the states where we have insurrection would have been the first logical thing for any government to do. It is not that we should not contribute to peacekeeping, but you must keep your peace first before keeping the peace of others.
What is your assessment of the current administration of President Bola Tinubu?
It is characterised by hardship, hunger and insecurity, which is a shame because we have the ability to address all these things. The government is saying they are laying the foundation for economic development, and that such an effort will require sacrifices and hardship on the part of Nigerians.
If there is any economic policy that focuses on the future, that policy should also take care of the present. You cannot sacrifice the present completely with the hope — not the certainty — of economic development in the future.
Both the present and the future should have been balanced appropriately so that we do not have widespread hunger and deprivation as the cost every citizen is expected to pay for a brighter future.
There is an insinuation that some northern elements are deliberately undermining President Tinubu’s administration by fuelling insecurity in the region. How true is this?
I don’t see how that would happen because you cannot burn down your house just to blame your neighbour. That is totally illogical. I doubt if any northern politician would wish to ignite this insurrection and banditry because the vast majority of victims would be northerners, including members of his own family.
I reject that notion completely. Like I said earlier, banditry and insurrection are fuelled by general discontent, particularly among youths who are unemployed. If you structure the economy of the country — or the northern economy — to cater for the youth, we would not be witnessing this. Whoever has employment will not leave it to take a gun or cutlass and go to the bush to call himself a bandit.
Lack of employment, lack of opportunity, and lack of attention to education in particular are responsible for the insurrection. If they are educated, no matter the hardship, they would be able to cope and ensure that their lives continue. Nobody would want to become a bandit except if the conditions in which he lives do not allow him to live properly, and he feels that there is no future whatsoever except to become a criminal.
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