By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Maccido is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation. He represents Sokoto North Senatorial District on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party. In this interview, he describes the All Progressives Congress as an opposition that the Peoples Democratic Party has to overcome in the North. He also speaks on why he may contest election on the platform of APC and other national issues. Excerpts:

What is your opinion on the defection of key politicians in Sokoto State from the PDP to APC?

This is democracy and everybody has the right to join any group or party as far as he has the conviction that that is the forum that best meets the wishes of his people. Defection of politicians in Sokoto is a normal thing. It is the same everywhere people have the right to make the choice of a political party. Therefore it is nothing new. We have seen it before and l am sure it will come again. But as far as Sokoto is concerned, we have never had this kind of situation. I believe being the ruling party we have had a lot of challenges earlier and we will continue to have challenges. There will always be opposition in politics.

*Maccido

Sokoto is not different but we have seen challenges and we are handling them maturely.

Did you see the defection of Bafarawa from the APC to the PDP as posing some challenge to your position in the Senate?

I don’t see it that way. It is a good omen that he joined the party. Being a seasoned politician, any party he happens to be I am sure he is going to contribute positively. And we have received him well knowing the value he is going to add value to the PDP in Sokoto State.

Considering your pedigree, do you have any fear that you may not have political persuasion if the APC eventually becomes the dominant party in Sokoto State since you are still in the PDP?

There are two ways to look at this. One you will have to look at me as an individual playing politics in Sokoto. But there is a bigger picture which you have to look at. I come from a leading family in Sokoto State. No one can afford to play politics without my family. What I did was to add to what I met. My family has been received well by people in Sokoto for the past 200 years. This particular family is deeply involved, not just in Sokoto but in Nigeria and West Africa at large.

So if you look at it from the institutional perspective, that is the Sultanate, I don’t think the Sultanate can fade out overnight in the politics in Sokoto and Nigeria as a whole and in the community of Muslim Uumahh.

As Mohammed Maccido playing politics, all l did was to add value to what l met on ground. It all depends on how l play my politics, if l play woefully, people will look at it and disassociate themselves from me but, as far l am concerned, l have done well and my constituents can attest to that. They appreciate the little service that l am able to offer at the National Assembly and I appreciate that from my people. So l can’t fade away.

If your people want you to contest election in 2015 under another political platform, how will you respond?

You realise that it is not for me to decide. If my people decide today that l must contest on another platform other than the PDP, l would have no choice but to continue to serve them.

It is speculated that Governor Wammako will contest for the Sokoto North senatorial seat which could dislodge you.  How do you intend to maintain the status quo?

That would have to play out first. As far as l am concerned, l have not heard that yet, he has not personally told me that and nobody has come to tell me Wammako is going to vie for my seat. However, it may not be taken for granted that he is considering that, he is a politician, he has the right to contest, but when that time comes, if he chooses to contest, nobody can stop him because it is his right to contest. I don’t have that right to stop him, if it comes to primaries, so be it. We play politics, that’s all.

Having served for some time now, what strikes your mind most each time you reflect on your tenure as a senator?

That will be very difficult because there are so many of them especially because all my life as a senator l have served under appropriation and you would have observed that we have a very busy committee which does not necessarily give time to reflect on issues other than matters on appropriation. I have been the vice chairman of the appropriation committee in the sixth National Assembly and the bulk of the work had been on my neck. Now l am the chairman, my whole time is consumed by issues on appropriation.

But if l am to pick a particular instance l would say the best time is when my members and colleagues in the committee stand up and appreciate the work one does as the chairman of the appropriation committee. That’s the time l cherish very much because it is a vote of confidence  that you have done well and we appreciate that.

Following the spate of defections in the North, do you see the APC as a serious threat to your party in 2015?

Every single opposition could be a challenge. You can’t underrate anything. Even a single individual that opposes you on a particular principle you may have to sit down and examine that issue because it could create a problem which you may never have seen. We have seen examples where you underrate your opponent and at the end of the day he becomes the winner.

The APC is becoming, l don’t want to say a threat because it is a stronger word, but it is an opposition that we will have to be overcome, have to reckon with, an opposition that PDP can’t afford to overlook . We have to sit down and re-examine the way we do our things as a party, we have to sit and re-examine the way we deliver service because there are grievances that have to be looked into. Really, it all boils down to service delivery to the people because if you deliver, obviously the opposition will have nothing to say about you.

We must re-examine where we went wrong. But I believe we will come out the winner, God’s willing. PDP is still strong and is growing stronger.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, recently defected to the APC following the allegation that the culture of impunity, among others, reigns in the PDP. What is your take on the allegation?

That’s why opposition is opposition. The opposition always tries to highlight issues in a way that it would become alarming to the people. I will not want to call it culture of impunity but l know that there are things that have not been done well like issues of negligence, non-inclusiveness of members, there is no cohesiveness, leadership tends to override decisions, things like that are rampant, they have been there in PDP for quite some time but we are going to look into them. God willing, we will overcome them. But the question of impunity? l don’t want to call it that.

Some politicians seem not to really mean well for this country going by their campaign of sensationalism. How could this be corrected?

What you have said is true. Some people are out to destroy because of their personal ambitions. They don’t care if Nigeria is destroyed so long as they come out winners. That is not politicking, which is about service to the people and the nation. All that should matter in politics is how you would serve your people, not destroy them.

Politics of do-or-die should not be in our society, it is not in our life and we should not start it now.  It is just like Gandhi said ‘an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind’. If you say because some person said something and you too have to reply, we will just be killing ourselves and at the end of the day we may not have a country, God forbid!

We do not wish to have that. What l will like to advise our politicians is to, like the late Waziri Ibrahim used to say, “ siyasa ba da gaba ba” (politics without bitterness), copy from others if we have to. We see how it is done in the US and most of our official life was copied from the West; unfortunately in matters like this we tend to overlook what they do. They don’t do this kind of killing: don’t maim because of politicking.