African Peoples Congress promoters are jokers --Lai Mohammed




In this interview with ADE ADESOMOJU, the Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, speaks about the planned merger of his party with others and his book, which is about to be presented.

Action Congress of Nigeria is the first to organise the statutory pre-merger convention among the parties intending to merge to become All Progressives Congress. Is it to confirm that ACN is the party taking the leading role in the merger process?

No, it is not. The first thing you notice since we began the merger process is that we have been proceeding with the talks without any conditionality on the part of anybody.

We have not gone there with the mindset of one party being senior or the other being junior. That ACN was the first to go into this convention is simply because our constitution makes it easier and faster for us to convene national convention. In our own constitution, all we need to convene a national convention is for the national EXCO of the party to give  seven-day notice to its members. But because we also wanted to give 21-day notice to INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), we gave about one month notice to both INEC and  our members for the special convention.

In some other parties like CPC (Congress for Progressive Change) and ANPP (All Nigerians Peoples Party), their constitutions are such that the process of convening a national convention must first be approved by the National Working Committee and NEC (National Executive Council) before it can be announced. But our own constitution makes it easier and faster for us to convene a national convention.  I am happy to say that CPC and ANPP have also given notice of their conventions.

How far have you gone in resolving the controversy over the use of APC acronym for your new party?

I think there has been a lot of misunderstanding about the issue. There has never been any problem between us and INEC. What happened was that, while we were embarking on this merger process, a group of people, out of mischief, went ahead to announce new parties with the same acronym as ours. But because the process of merger is longer and more complicated than the process of fresh registration, they went ahead to announce that they were going to register a party with the same acronym.

You see, in the case of merger, there is no requirement of the law that you should go and ask for name reservation. The only time that you can write INEC is only after your convention in which your party has given you the mandate to go and merge. But you see, before you get there, there are a lot of hurdles to cross.

One,  there must be confidence building between you and the various other parties that want to merge.

You must be able to agree on a name; a common logo; the constitution and the manifesto. We are talking about parties that were established; parties that have governors; parties that have senators and members of House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly, so it's quite complex. It requires a lot of delicate negotiations. Obviously, the African  Peoples Congress and others have an agenda which was to truncate and frustrate the process of merger. So they went ahead.

Our argument has been very simple, which is that even though we have not written any letter to INEC, because the law does not require us to do so, INEC cannot pretend not to be aware that ACN, ANPP, CPC and a part of APGA have agreed to merge and adopt the name  All Progressives Congress, APC. What we expect from INEC is that when these jokers came up, INEC ought to have told them that they (INEC) are aware that some people also want to use the acronym.

You can see that the joke is being taken too far. They have now gone to court asking for injunction restraining INEC from registering with the acronym APC. But we are waiting to see what INEC will do.

Can you say something about your book you are about to launch?

My book is called 'Witness to History'. It is a compendium of all my press briefings which I have made on behalf of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the last couple of years.  It covers a lot of grounds  ranging from rule of law, military, security of the country to foreign affairs among, others. Actually, it is a chronicle of what happened in Nigeria in the last couple of years in the perspective of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

What is it like to be the spokesman of a major opposition party in the country?

I have been very fortunate because I have  very very cordial relationship with the media and that has afforded me the opportunity to see them more as  partners in progress.  Traditionally and by their constitutional role as a watchdog, they are closer to the opposition than to the government in power. Many occasions we sing from the same hymn book.  Over the years, I have come to appreciate them a lot for their impact and also for their patriotism.

Though we don't always share the same viewpoint on issues. But generally, on the issue of taking Nigeria to an enviable position, I think we share common views.

Generally, I think  my years as spokesman for ACN has been quite interesting  with the support from the media.

What is the nexus between your training as a lawyer and being the spokesman of the ACN?

I was not trained as a lawyer from the start. I read French in my first degree at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then, University of Ife. I  didn't get into media relations with my becoming the spokesperson of the Action congress of Nigeria.

I had been interacting with the media, but of course, later when I became a lawyer I practised more of law until when I came into politics. So  in the last seven years, I have been more the spokesperson at different times, for AC (Action Congress) and ACN.

What is your reaction to the boast by the PDP that the party was going to "capture" at least 32 states in the 2015 general elections?

I don't think that the word 'capture' is a lexicon that should be used in a democracy? That belongs to the military era and that is the mindset of the PDP.  In a democratic setting, you convince people, you woo them  and how do you woo them? You woo them with words and actions.  Which of the sectors is PDP going to use to woo people for election? Is it security? Is it employment? Is it infrastructure? Kidnapping is everywhere, unemployment everywhere. So what are they going to tell Nigerians if they will have to re-elect the party (PDP). Of course, the only thing is that they are bent on rigging the election come 2015 and Nigerians should reject it.






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