Senator Musa’ud El-Jilbrin Doguwa was the Senator that represented Kano South between 1999 to 2003.
He was also a former Kano State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among several positions he has occupied. He defected to the APC in 2019, just after the presidential elections. Recently, he ended his marriage to the APC and returned back to the PDP.
In this interview, he gave reasons he returned back to the PDP and offerred insights into his relationship with Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the leader of the NNPP and Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He also commented on the crisis surrounding Nyesom Wike in the PDP.
But most importantly, he outlined steps on how Atiku and the PDP can reclaim the Presidency of Nigeria come in 2027. Excerpts:
You have just renounced your membership of the All Progressives Congress, decamping to your original party, the Peoples Democratic Party. What are the political issues that informed this move?
My journey to the APC started after the party dissolved our leadership of the PDP in the state. I was the state chairman of the party as at then. In fact, I was the one who went to Kwankwaso’s house, out of respect, to re-register him back to the PDP . But immediately we registered him back to the PDP, the national secretariat of our party took a decision to appoint a caretaker committee and the majority of the caretaker committee were members of Kwankwaso’s faction of the party. What made matters worse was that during that time, nobody cared to call us – myself, my executive and a large population of my followers to explain to us the reason behind the decision to nullify our leadership of the party at that time. To us, it was obvious that the leadership of the PDP as at that time was less interested in us and just interested in receiving Kwankwaso at all costs. And so, we decided that the only option left was to move to the APC. When we decamped to the APC, we worked assiduously to make sure that the party wins the elections in 2019. With the boost of our coming to the APC, they had the confidence that they would win the elections that year and God’s willing that happened. Ganduje was returned to office for the second tenure. However, as time went by, we were confronted with a lot of challenges in APC. You see somebody like me with a lot of political experience and followership should be carried along by his own party. If you failed to manage him, if you refused to give him what is due to him, if you failed to assign him with political and party duties and responsibilities that can make him relevant, then there is no way he can be fulfilled in your party. That is what happened. That is why at some point in time; we said to ourselves, let us go back to where we belong, especially as Kwankwaso and his faction, who are responsible for our exit from the PDP have also parted ways with the PDP. In brief, that was what happened.
From what you have recalled, can we agree that your stay in APC was wasted political years, without any fulfillment for you and your followers?
Even if you had stayed in your house all those years and did nothing, you cannot say they were wasted years. They would not have been wasted. So, our stay in APC cannot be rightly termed as wasted years. They respected us to a certain level, but what I am saying is that they undervalued our political worth and contributions to the growth and success of the party. You see, like myself I was a Senator of the Federal Republic for Kano South, the first Senator of my area in this Republic and I have a lot followership in my Senatorial district up till date. But they did not accord me the political respect. I have a huge network of friendship and associates that cut across the country. For you to relegate me to a local political player, who plays at the state level, you are not being fair to me. The APC simply denied me the political visibility and recognition that was due to a former senator of my calibre. The sad truth is that we were in APC as a party by mere name, we were not there by action or activity.
Let us honestly look at the PDP that you joined and its chances of fulfilling your political expectations today. The PDP in Kano State has been gravely devalued, almost to a zero level especially by the Kwankwaso-inspired Shagagi’s faction, which painted the party with several litigations, only to pull out to the NNPP at the last minute. Do you see PDP as a party that can make any impact in the politics of the state anymore?
Yes! Absolutely yes!! Don’t forget, and I encourage you to go and take statistics of the membership of both the NNPP and APC in this state. Anybody that you can count to be worth in the Kano APC today was a member of the PDP. Anybody that you can count to be of worth in the NNPP today was a former member of PDP. They were all previous members of the PDP. It was the PDP that gave them the leverage to become what they are today in politics. So, I feel that all what the PDP needs in Kano State and in the nation in general is simply confidence building. The PDP simply have to build back confidence in the minds of the people and the people would return back home to their old party. People don’t throw away their roots. They actually leave because the roots is unable to cater for their momentary aspirations. But can easily comeback if the root is ready to accommodate their dreams. At the moment, do I need to tell you that APC has a lot of challenges with the Nigerian people? Saying this is stating the obvious. Even the blind can see that APC has already ruined their contract with Nigerians. You also know that NNPP administration in the state has a lot of challenges with the people of Kano already and …
