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Recently, the election tribunal dismissed the petition of Alhaji Sani Sha’aban, ANPP’s Kaduna state gubernatorial candidate, saying that there was no correlation between the witness’ testimony and his written briefs. Undaunted, the former federal legislator intends to appeal the judgement. In this interview, he explains why.

The election petition tribunal in Kaduna has upheld the elec-tion of Architect Namadi Sambo of the PDP as Kaduna State governor. What is your reaction to this judgement?

My opinion is not different from the opinion of every right thinking Nigerian. Every indi-vidual that resides in Kaduna knows what happened, espe-cially during the election and what followed after the election. This is a case that was conduc-ted openly, where evidences were tendered, witnesses were openly brought in, where official INEC documents which of course are supposed to be go-vernment papers, were presen-ted all through. Where there are even so many challenges about the legitimacy of my candi-dature, whether it is me or Senator Aruwa until when the court determined who is the actual candidate. And for us to wake up and find out what was delivered in Kaduna was of course shocking.

But the interesting thing is: I must tell Nigerians, I must tell the people of Kaduna that all hope is not lost. We were aware of the judgement, few days to the time. A senior citizen of Nigeria called me and told me that this was what transpired. And I felt sad, because I am a law abiding citizen. I don’t want even an ant to be killed just because Sani Shaaban wants to be a governor. I decided to just pack my bag and just go for Umrah. I went to the Holy Ka’abah and stayed there meditating and praising God Almighty.

You mean you are not going to appeal this judgement?

My documents for appeal should be about 95 percent ready. As a tradition, the same tribunal is supposed to give you all their judgement, all the document, text and materials in terms of evidences that you presented. We are gathering those ones and we are ever ready. I have already told my lawyer – once we heard that that was the line they took, the unfortunate compro-mising of their integrity – that we should not relax. I said I will go to the last court in Nigeria to ensure that the rights of the citizens of Kaduna who gave me the mandate, who desired me to serve them for four years as their governor, is not thwar-ted. No amount of pressure, blackmail or insinuation that can deter me.

There is only one life to live. I have buried my father, my best friends, my business associates and people that are close to me, they are no more. So what is the guarantee that I will even see the next hour? Whatever I do, I do it with the consciousness that I may not be there the next minute. This is my thinking; so I am going for the appeal. We will continue until we get to the highest level. If there is a need to go to the Supreme Court, we will be there. We have the facts to show that we won this election. Even those who are on the seat know this. As they say action speaks louder than voice. You can see the programme of the government is being carried haphazardly, no coordination. Why because you just wake up, you never dreamt of something, they just dragged you and dumped you in there and say this is what you should do. This is what the people of Kaduna are suffering. But through prayers, we will be able to overcome it.

What was it that the senior citizen told you transpired?

For now, since I have decided to go for the appeal, we are leaving that for the future, because it is not Sani Shaaban that is cheated; it is also not just the citizens of Kaduna State that are cheated or short-changed. It is the system itself. The whole struggle is not about Sani Shaaban becoming the governor of Kaduna State. No, it is about allowing a true democratic culture to take roots in Nigeria. It should not be a kind of democracy by inheritance, where after the expiration of your tenure, you just look round and get your associate, friend or brother and say come and continue. That is not democ-racy.

Democracy should be practised in Nigerian as it is being practised all over the world. And I believe if the people have the fear of Allah, have knowledge of what the Qur’an or the Bible says, definitely they will not find themselves even entertaining to be on a seat for one second that they know they don’t deserve. You cannot expend people resources without their blessing. The question is about people enjoying what is legitimately theirs. It is not about siphoning their money and putting it in a foreign bank account. That is not what the people of Kaduna State bargained for.

If you go round our local governments and our villages and if you see the poverty; go to the institutions in Kaduna today you will weep. You will see able bodied young men, who have graduated long ago, roaming about the street without decent jobs. This shouldn’t be so. Kaduna State is rich. With or without federal subvention, I can run Kaduna State. That I can assure you. We are agriculturally oriented people, we have the best climate, we have the best soil and our people are not lazy.

On what grounds do you want to appeal against the judgement?

It is pure and simple. We went through an election. All the results we are talking about and asking the members of the tribunal at that time to have a look at are genuine. These are not documents that were fabricated or printed from Sani Shaaban’s backyard. These are officially authentic INEC documents that show result one after another. We have an electoral act and the act states how, where, why and when should election be conducted and in what manner as well as the calibre of people that can participate in particular elections. And in any case where there are clear cut contra-ventions of those acts or where there a clear cut cases of over-voting or winning and you are denying such people, if we are to be the respecter of the law, then we have to abide by what the constitutions says, what the electoral act says and other relevant laws.

The documents we presen-ted are genuine results and I challenge anybody to go to the street where Architect Namadi Sambo lives to find out, did he win on that street on the day of the election? If I want to know who you are, I start with your immediate neighbour. If your immediate neighbour says you are not fit to be my leader, then who are you to show your face? All these are not secret. I have no grudge whatsoever against Namadi. All I am interested in is streamlining the system. I have no time to quarrel with an individual. The Almighty in His infinite mercy has given me the skill and the wherewithal to run my business for the last 17-18 years. Today Alhamdulillah, I can comfortably say that I am an employer of labour in my shipping company. I don’t even know the number of people I am employing.

We cannot claim to be good Muslims or Christians and we are sitting on something that is illegitimate. We did not work for it; we did not earn it. If we do that, what right have we to even correct others?

With what happened to your case, and judging by what you are now saying, do you still see the judiciary as the last hope of the common man?

Don’t forget that I am appealing the tribunal ruling. The judiciary has no doubt started a job well done. It was even applauded by members of the international community. But unfortunately, we are beginning to see some long stretch of arms dwelling into the affairs of the judiciary. What are the repercussions? The tendency is that people with the best commitment and best programmes will definitely shy away. If you have a commitment but don’t have the money, you will not waste your time. If you have the money and you are not sure you belong to the right camp, you will not even attempt to go. So we will continue to have what you call the houseboy syndrome of ‘yes, you are my boy, come and take over’ kind of a thing. And where will that take Nigeria?

If you look at Nigeria even from the angle of sports to other things, we are becoming a laughing stock. I just had brief stopover in my flight in Addis Ababa today and for the number of hours I stayed,there was no single black out. And do you know what that country has as major income earner? Coffee; how many people take coffee? That is all they have but they are proud. Today Ethiopia runs the most successful airline in Africa. Is it not a shame to us in Nigeria?

In Nigeria, you know I am not qualified, you say be this, go to the House of Reps, you don’t even know the work of a legislator and you are sent there. You neither have the talent nor the commitment, in fact not even the desire. All you are after is what comes into your pocket. And that goes for the senate, for the governorship, for the presidency and all the other positions. At the end of the day the cookie crum-bles, the system collapses and that is what we are try-ing to avoid. It is not about Buhari becoming the presi-dent or Shaaban becoming the governor of Kaduna State. No. It is about having a system that works. It is kind of a silent revolution we are trying to do.

As you prepare to go to the Appeal Court,, what is your message to your supporters?

First, I must sincerely thank the Almighty Allah. Sani Shaaban is only an individual. Some even forget that I never asked to be a governor. People have been supporting me all the while. During election campaign, I went to all the nooks and crannies of Kaduna State with a convoy of over 300 vehicles. We sometimes sleep on the road in villages and I can assure you before we got into any village, some five-seven kilometres, you will see the young and old men and women trekking to receive me. So the people of Kaduna have shown me love. And I assure them that so long I remain alive, I pray to Allah to give me the opportunity so that I will show them that the confidence they had in me, was not misplaced because I shall never let them down. We may not completely remove poverty, ignorance, hunger or disease, but we should be able to scale them down to the barest minimum. So the people should calm down. We will continue to pray to Almighty Allah and follow the legitimate way, not through violence, to attain our objec-tive.