Barrister Sanusi Musa, is the National Coordinator of the Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN), a group that recently purchased the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he speaks how the money was raised and the legality of their action.
What promoted your group’s purchase of Nomination form for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari? It was purely out of conviction that the President Muhammadu Buhari has done so well, and there is need to consolidate on the gains.
Prior to his coming all of us did live in apprehension.
In fact, then when you go to market, place of worship you may not of your safety back home.
We were being subjected to searches everywhere we go.
Fourteen Local Governments were seized from the federation.
A flag was posted by the terrorists claiming these places but with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to secure this country and protect his territorial integrity led to the chasing away of the terrorists away.
Today, there is no part of this country or a single Local government that is under the control of terrorists.
In a nutshell, these are some of the things that have informed our decisions to do what we have done and we are proud that we’ve done that.
There are insinuations that Governor Yahaya Bello is the sponsor of your group? I, as a person, have never met Governor Yahaya Bello.
I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me as a person.
I have never made any effort to meet Governor Yahaya Bello or any other governor to solicit for financial support.
So, probably some people think because of the closeness of Governor to President Buhari, they thought that he might be behind our group or probably because some of the prominent members of this group visited him.
But I want to say that as at now, no single government official has contributed a kobo to our money.
No! Certainly No!
As a supporter, are there things that the president has done that you think he should have been done differently? Of course! That is the difference between the APC and the PDP.
We never claimed perfection and the President never claimed perfection.
As a human, you cannot get it 100 percent but what is required as I always say is, when you put whatever has been done by the present government on the scale, I think it should swing towards the good of that government.
I think whatever imperfections that are there, those are personal things.
You see, I have had the opportunity of leading students union and also this association, there are things that a leader should use his discretion to do.
We are not claiming that this government is perfect 100 percent but what we are saying and we insist on without fear of contradiction is that this government has done better than what was done from 1999 to 2015.
Most of you in your group are young men and women, how did you raise N45m? I am a lawyer of twelve years standing.
I think I can afford N200,000 for instance.
When I have 40 members, how much do I have? N8m.
And my secretary is an engineer, a communication engineer who has risen to the position of manager in one of the Telecom companies.
He resigned and started his private business.
My deputy chairman and coordinator for South South is a lawyer too and has practiced for more than twelve years, is a former local government chairman, a former youth leader of this party.
My deputy chairman and also coordinator for South East was a former majority leader of Anambra State House of Assembly.
He has been a lawyer for more than 25 years.
Don’t you think he has the resources he can put together to do that? I am a grassroots politician; I served as a ward exco for two terms of eight years.
So, I believe I am into politics in the grassroots not like all those Abuja politicians that joined politics yesterday.
So, I can claim some little expertise on how to mobilize the grassroots on this kind of project.
And the essence was to show to the elite; those who are saying that the President should not continue to meet the yearnings of Nigerian people, to show them that ordinary Nigerians love the President.
Many people contributed, N2,000, N1,000 and even some contributed N50.
We have the records from various states because when we started, you can check our website, the first thing we wanted to do was that, from August, when we had our first meeting and September when we invited all our coordinators and some of our leaders in the State, was to gather 10m signatures, asking the president to contest in 2019 election.
10m people is about 15 percent of the voter population of this country and through that, we generated our members.
In fact, we still have excess money in our account which we are going to use for the purpose of promoting the President.
There was a report that you people violated a section in Electoral Act, which stipulates no individual or group should pay more than N1m for a form for anybody, can they (your group) pay more than N1m? As a lawyer, did you look at that position well? I don’t know how ThisDay reached that their conclusion.
As a reputable organisation, I believe they must have evidence.
What they said is not true, is not correct, Section 91 that they quoted is not the law.
They skipped section 91, sub-section (a) of the same Electoral Act, where it clearly stated that in posting the election expenses of any candidate, what is posited to the course of the party, in the course of nominations should not be put into consideration! That is clearly stated in section 9 (a).
You can also consider Section 87 of the same Electoral Act, paragraph two in particular.
What does it say? Because Section 9(a) is talking about a candidate, no person or individual entity is allowed to make more than a million Naira donation to a candidate, that is the wordings of the provision.
Now, who is a candidate with respect to the Presidential election? Go to section 87 (iv), paragraph B says that a candidate of a party, who after the primary election of the party, emerges with the highest number of vote, so from that day, he would be regarded as a candidate of the party.
So, before that time, he is an aspirant.
So, that provision is talking about a candidate.
As at now, can you refer to President Buhari as a aspirant? Certainly No! Because in the case of Sylva in Supreme Court, the court defines who is an aspirant and candidate as stipulated by the Electoral Act.
It says you can only be regarded as an aspirant when a political party allows you to participate in its primary election.
In other words, there is a decision of Supreme Court in the case of Sylva against INEC when somebody, not until you bought nomination form and interest, you are not yet an aspirant of your party, you are only trying to be an aspirant.
When you fill the form and submit it, when you have passed the screening process of the party and the party says go and participate in the primary election, that is the time you are an aspirant.
It is when you get the certificate of clearance after the process of screening, you become an aspirant.
Even after you have become an aspirant, the position of section 91 (9) doesn’t apply to you.
It is after the primary is conducted and the person is declared the winner, and his name is forwarded to INEC base on Section 87(2) of electoral Act, that person is a candidate of a political party and it is from that day somebody is expected to spend more than N2m as election expenses.
The editorial board of ThisDay was so hasty; they did not do their homework very well.
I also saw what the PDP said that INEC should sanction President Buhari for committing Illegality.
That is the unfortunate.
