ALHAJI ABIOLA ABDUSSALAM: The Special Adviser to Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso when he was the Kano State governor from 2011-2015,Alhaji Abdullateef Abiola Abdussalam, was a guest at the Rave FM programme FRANK TALK on Wednesday.
SOJWORLD.COM brings to you the interview held for the purpose of the Presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port-Harcourt on Saturday October 6, 2018 in which Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is a candidate. RMK as he is fondly called is the current Senator representing Kano Senatorial District in Kano State.
The interview was anchored by Femi Olanipekun
Q: Why is Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso the best man for the job, why should PDP delegates vote for him?
ALHAJI ABIOLA: The major things going for RMK is that he hails from the most populous zone in the country. I am sure that the PDP will not want to make the mistake to elect anybody that does not have the pedigree and ability to confront the incumbent president of the country because he came from the same part of the country. RMK has followership from every part of the country with his Kwankwasiyya Movement – The Red Cap Revolution.
In the North-West particularly, there are over 18 million voters in that zone, definitely the incumbent president also came from that part of the country. If you take someone other than RMK you can be very sure that all the votes are very much for the opponent to just pick all. That is number one.
Number two: With his experience as the former Defense Minister, I can bet you that all the security challenges of the country will be a thing of the past with RMK at the helm of affairs.
I also want to assure you, in the whole of this country there is no single governor that had achieved what RMK has achieved as the governor of Kano State in four years.
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You can find out that followership of RMK had to do with the feelings of the masses, the impact he had gotten from the masses and he is going to extend that to every part of the country.
He is a detribalized Nigerian, as I speak to you, I was a member of his cabinet in Kano State from 2011-2015 as Yorubaman from Osun, Ikirun in particular. We have an Ibo man likewise from South-South and the North Central who are part of his cabinet. And there is nobody who lived in Kano that will tell you he was discriminated against during his tenure.
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Q: Permit me to come in here; People are saying today that there is no politician that can match the popularity of President Buhari, that RMK can only make an effort.
ALHAJI ABIOLA: I want to tell you that RMK will not only match the incumbent president but will defeat him hands down, in fact the best thing can happen to PDP is for RMK to be their flag bearer on Saturday… I can assure you RMK is a man to be beaten.
Let me tell you that not only in the North West, if you have the followers of the trend of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, when he visited President Buhari’s home town, Daura some weeks back, if you look at the followership and the very committed people from the incumbent president’s home town shouting “After Daura it is going to Madobuâ€. We are talking of the president’s home town.
If he goes to Port-Harcourt he does not have to move crowd from anywhere, there is no single state in Nigeria that RMK does not have followership in most of Local Governments in Nigeria.
Even in Osun State Kwankwasiyya Movement have its Head Office at the state capital, Osogbo and other offices in all the Federal Constituencies and Local Governments.
In all of this, he is not a politician that would pay his way. There is caustic followership committed in someone whom they know he does not have to give anybody money, that is not to say that, as a politician, he cannot match people that they would be motivated.
But I can assure you, he is a politician that can be followed because of the love people have for him.
Q: Some people believe that RMK has lost his base in his home state, Kano to the incumbent governor
ALHAJI ABIOLA: No, No, No, not at all, what is happening is forms of camouflage of some people who don’t believe in themselves politically, from people who are afraid of RMK politics.
Q: But you saw the huge numbers of people who came out for the APC primary. They counted millions. If they can get millions in primary (He cuts in…)
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ALHAJI ABIOLA: Do you want to listen to me, those are rented crowd, they have their red caps in their pockets and they are committed followers of RMK. Time will tell. As far as Kano is concerned, Kano has never experienced committed followership to any single individual like this time around.
The crowds that you see queuing up; they are people who have not been carried along by the government of the day in Kano. The people are hungry. And whenever they were invited as a rented crowd, of cause, they will get money from the incumbent government.
They collected the money but their commitment remains with RMK any day any time.
The government officials of the day cannot move freely without them being thrown ‘pure water’, being booed. Because people are not longer seeing street lights. Road that were done by RMK and lighted had gone bad. Children are not longer being fed. The free education RMK introduced in Kano is no longer there.
How would people be happy? They have failed the people, they have failed Kano.
Q: Do you believe there is going to be a level playing ground for all presidential aspirants on Saturday?
ALHAJI ABIOLA I want to pray that the National Working Committee of our party will make sure there is a level playing ground so that the best emerges. And the best, we believe is RMK, because he is the only single person who can beat and defeat President Buhari.
If the ticket goes to any person other than him, I assure you that would no longer be possible.
In fact, the present government will start to celebrate the moment they know the person who gets the ticket is not RMK.
I wish to tell you that the delegates in Osun are enlightened; they are going to vote for Engr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Q: In the event that RMK failed to secure the ticket, what would happen? Will he leave PDP or support whoever wins?
Alhaji Abiola: Our man, our principal is a good party man, a committed man to PDP; he will follow whoever emerges as presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Alhaji Abdullateef Abiola Abdussalam is still the Special Adviser working for the emergence of RMK becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
www.sojworld.com (c) October 5, 2018
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