By Ishaya Ibrahim
A former second republic lawmaker and a chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Junaid Mohammed, has accused his party’s leaders of collecting money to endorse the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari.
Junaid, in a telephone interview with TheNiche from his base in Kano, said the SDP he joined no longer exists.
“The SDP that I joined was not the SDP which is currently led by the likes of Chief Olu Falae and an opportunist like Jerry Gana and others.
“I joined the party which promised and was committed from the very beginning to be ideologically driven. At the moment, what I now see from people who are in the party, they are using the party’s name for trade, and anybody who has the money to pay the price either openly or under the table, they are prepared to ask people to vote for that person.
“That is a very disappointing spectacle by people who claim to rely on ideology. There’s nothing in Buhari and this has nothing to do with Buhari personally, there is nothing in the APC which gives the impression that they have anything to rely on ideology.
“APC and PDP are two sides of the same coin. How anybody should now come and endorse anybody else. It’s unfortunate,” he said.
Junaid said if the endorsement were based on what Buhari does or what he stood for, he wouldn’t have a problem with. “But what they did at the moment was to do cash and carry politics,” he said.
He said the shenanigans in the SDP is what is playing out in the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) which fielded Oby Ezekwesili as its presidential candidate.
“Her own case is a lot worse because clearly, she opened several bank accounts without the formal knowledge of the party. This means that she wanted to behave like a trader, collect money and keep quiet about it.
“Now that she is being exposed by her party, it is alright with me. But I consider it wrong that the party went and endorsed somebody.
“It is this same charade that happened during Abacha’s years when everybody was coming to endorse him, and all the parties organised one million man march and they said all of them accepted and made Abacha their own candidate which made democracy itself a farce. This thing became a joke until God in his mercy took him away,” he said.
For the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, he said he is much more reckless than any of the 72 presidential candidates.
“He has said openly that he wants to sell all the national assets. He doesn’t have ideology or ideas. What he has is a commitment to strip national assets and give it away to his friends. It is a tragedy not only for democracy but for the country because, under the circumstances, it could lead to the collapse of the country and that is what makes Atiku much more dangerous than Buhari,” he said.
