By AbdulSalam Muhammad

KANO— Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida has said he has no plan to defect to the ANPP, describing the purported plan as a speculation.

General Babangida stated that he has no quarrel with the leadership of the party for jettisoning the zoning formula enshrined in the party’s constitution as long as they are satisfied that the objective that led to the rotation and zoning arrangement in 1999 has been achieved.

Babangida who was in Kano to commiserate with the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero over a recent attack on the Emir by a 19- years- old man however, explained that he expected the party leaders to meet the members and tell them the new position in the interest of ‘equity, fairness and justice’.

If in the end the PDP annulled the zonal arrangement what is the alternative for you?

IBB: First of all I am a member of PDP, secondly the PDP designed a zonal arrangement which means it is a party that believes in fairness, it’s a party that wants to make sure everybody participate in the political process of this country, if on the other hand they are satisfied that, that objective of fairness, equity and justice have been achieved by all means I see nothing wrong in jettisoning the zonal arrangement.

There are speculations that you are plotting your exit from PDP to ANPP, how true is it?

IBB: It remains a speculation, you people have a very fertile mind, the media think virtually about everything, but the bottom line is that it remains speculation.

Do you believe that PDP has achieved the fairness that prompted it to adopt zoning formula in 1999?

IBB: I am a loyal ordinary card-carrying member of the party, we have leaders and if our leaders in their own wisdom decided that they have achieved what was set to achieve in the first place by all means they will come back to us and say forget it we have achieved what we wanted that there is fairness and everybody can be on his own, that is politics.

In event you participate in the presidential election and by the end of the day the result is annulled, how will you feel?

IBB: (general laughter) I want you to understand two things. This time, my dear sir, we are playing democracy, government of the people by the people and for the people using political parties, using the rule of law,  I can not see it annulled by a democratic society, don’t forget I ran a military government and that is the difference.

What is your mission to Kano?
IBB: There was a story which many of you carried in your papers that the Emir of Kano escaped assassination attempt. The Emir of Kano is very dear to us in this country, the rarest human being that we want to see well and living well. So for those of us who are close to him and those of us who know him, we showed concern and it is out of this concern that I am here to pay my respect to him and pray for his well being. The Emir has disputed that the press exaggerated the attempted assassination bid, it is not what happened that was reported.

If in the end power shift to the north, don’t you think it should be zoned to the North West where the late President hailed from?

IBB: You probably might have read the whole zoning arrangement upside down, the agreement was between the north and south, and did not define it further between north west or north central or north east or south west nor south east.

Will you be comfortable if the power structure of the PDP shift or zone the position of President to the North West?

IBB: if you understand what I said, the present chairman is trying to get the party back to the people and not the party back to the elites, and I also suggested that anybody who feel he has possessed the quality to lead the country should go to the people and tell them he want to be elected for certain political position.

Then the electorate will scrutinize him and determine whether I can be president or Governor, local government chairman.  When I say you, I mean the people, because I have come to you. because I have come to you and for now nobody has come to you yet and you say I want to be your governor, nobody has ever subjected himself to questions why he want to be a Governor or what he intends to do with the position, and that is the type of politics I want the media to encourage.