 As the 2023 elections inches closer, with every passing day, many political parties are jostling to make arrangements that would ensure they clinch power at different levels of government. The new Nigeria people's party is one of those. While addressing the defections into the party, Dr Boniface and Nia Bonham, pioneer national chairman and founder of the party said that the development is a manifestation of divine intervention towards giving Nigeria the right leadership, and he also added that new entrants were on a mission to rescue Nigeria from the poor leadership it has suffered over the years. The party also announced the shifts in dates for the year's senatorial and governorship primaries of the party, while welcoming former candidacy, Governor and Senator Ibrahim Shakral to the party. Wel, joining us to discuss these is, I beg your pardon, Mr Agwar Major. He is the National Publicity Secretary of New Nigeria People's Party, NNPP. Thank you very much, Mr Agwar, for joining us. Thank you. We're in Nigerians. Thank you. Let's start by looking at the NNPP. The NNPP has been in the news more lately because of several people who have moved into your party. We're talking about Kwankwa Siw, we're talking about Shakral, and then, of course, there are many more people that the party is saying that they're receiving. But then let's start by looking at what the NNPP think it has that can upstage all the other parties, and when I say the other parties, I'm talking about the two major political parties, especially as the NNPP has identified itself as a third force. Wel, that's a very good question. Let me start this way by saying that the New Nigeria People's Party, as we all know, has been the party for the youths, the party for the women, the most ordinary people-friendly party all this while, so that we are attracting big wins, you know, the likes of Kwankwa Siw, Seneddw Kwankwa Siw, the likes of Seneddw Shakral and the rest coming in. It's not a surprise to us because all along, over the past one years, we've stayed on the side of the ordinary people who stayed on the side of the women, as a party on the side of the youth. So, with full compliments of the youths and women, where these issues actually are, we are sure that we have made serious progress, very tremendous progress, and we are sure that this election that is coming, we are the party to beat. So, it's not a surprise to us, we've always expected this, and like you rightly have pointed out, we expect more Nigerians to join in the next few days, you know, at the end of the day, we will be the party to beat. Talk to us about these progress that you made, that you say that you have made over time. Because one of the first things that people will ask about the NNPP is, where are your roots? Do you have your party represented in all the local governments across the Federation? That's number one. Secondly, what is your party structure in those local government areas? I ask this again because we are looking not at the smallness or the bigness of your party, we're looking at the capability and the structure that your party has. Does it have any of that? And how widespread is it? How strong is it for the average person who you are trying to get his or her votes? What exactly or how exactly strong are you in those areas? Well, if there's any of the political party in this country that is the political party, the NNPP, we've, before now, even before the entry of these big weeks we are talking about, as a party, we've ensured that we've maintained our structures across even up to the world level, you know, what we have in our constitution is replicated through the zones, it's replicated through the states and it's also replicated through the local governments and the world. So, if, for instance, at the national level, the NWC level, we have about 30 something offices, if you go to the states, you go to the zones, that's what you would find the six geopolitical zones. If you go to the 36 states of the Federation and Abudia, you find something, you go to any of the 74 local government councils in this country, you find the same thing, you go to any of the words, you find, so we pride ourselves as a party, as one of the parties, in fact, I can tell you that even our roots are deeper than that of the PDP, our roots are deeper than that of the APC, because like I said during my opening remarks, we've remained on the side of the people and the power is with the people and the people are at the grassroots level. So, from the beginning, in the past 20 years, what we tried to do was to ensure that our structures are kept alive at those lower levels. So, what you, the entry of the likes of the Stingwys and Ito Pancersol, Stingwys and Ito Shakaraw and the rest, is only now helping to strengthen it, strengthening it in the sense that their own structures, which they have built and kept over time, is now coming into a sort of marriage with that of the NNDP. So, we are on stock, you know, well-ground, I can assure you that, and I can also tell you as a matter of emphasis that we are more and more and more deeply rooted in the APC that have controlled power since the return of democracy in 1999. Let me out about that. I'm curious, many people have referred to your party and some other parties, including those that have been recently deregistered by the Independent National Electrical Commission, INEC. Many say that some of these parties, yes, they would say they have, you know, structures in every local government area of the state, but then when it comes to walking the talk, many say that they only come alive when it's close to election because of the monies that they receive. What would you say to that? Again, there has been a rumor, just hold on, I'm going to land. There's also been, you know, talk about the NNPP having to form a merger with another party, the Labour Party. How true is this? Well, from the first question, the first poser you raised, if that were applicable to us, we would have gone down like the 774 political parties went down, you know, after the 2019 election. The position of our laws in this country is political parties are established, registered by INEC, and the sole objective is to field candidates for elections. And the same law goes for that to say that at the end of every electoral cycle, if a party is unable to win seats, the party has to go down. That's why you saw that in 2020, early 2020, I think there were... Mr Major, are you still there? I think that we have lost that connection with Mr Agwell Major, but we will quickly try to get that connection back. Mr Major, can you hear me? Yes, I'm hearing you. Perfect, we lost you for a second. Yes, I will revert. What I was trying to say that if we were one of those parties who would have gone down like the 74 that went down, because the position of the law is at the end of every electoral cycle, if a political party is unable to win at least one seat in the state's legislative level, the party would be registered. That's why you saw some four parties go down in one day. If we were one of those without structures, if we were one of those that failed to win at least once, it would have also gone down. So the fact that... But could you also have been that Senator Cwankwaso helped you to dodge that bullet by moving to your party... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And moving with the Cwankwasio movement to your party. No, no, no, no, no. Distinguished Senator Cwankwaso, we didn't respect him in 2019. As of then, Cwankwaso was not a member of the party yet. So if we were operating like the other parties, we would have also gone down. So the fact that we didn't have an issue, we knew what we were set out to do as a political party and we stood by our words, remained on the side of the people and were able to win seats. If I start to give you statistics of what we did in Bouchi, you'd be very surprised, you know, the rest is history. Of course, you know the way elections are conducted in this country. But I can tell you that we got virtually everything in Bouchi, including the senatorial seats, which was taken away. The rest is now history. So we are not one of those that are just there, you know, coming alive only during elections, like you just rightly said. If we were, we would have gone down. That's the first leg of the question. The second leg is that we're taking a back this morning, you know, when we started reading that NMPP is one of the several political parties that came together to adopt Labour Party as their major platform. That's not correct. I can't remember at any point in time if any of our officers from the National Chairman, even the founder of the party of Tobonifes and Ebonam, the leader of the party, distinguishing it from Peso, I can't remember at any point they had called us together to say, look, this is the direction is what we're going to. So when we saw it this morning, as I talk to you now, who are still in the office, the National Chairman is here, the National Secretary is almost all of us are here, we're putting us together. We have done at the preliminary level, we've tried to get Nigerians to understand that we're never part of that and we can't be part of that. But we're going to come out with the full press statement between now and tomorrow morning, you know, it's associating ourselves from that arrangement because we never at any point met with them. And you don't just wake up and say, I have met with them and this is what we agreed when we were never there at all. So to summarise on that, I can tell you that we're never part of that, we won't be part of that, we can never be part of that. Let's talk about your internal party democracy. Now we know that you announced a few days ago, announced a shift in the date for your senatorial and governorship primaries for the party. What could have led to that move? And of course, we also know that you recently, like I mentioned earlier on, welcomed the former Spanish state governor, Senator Brian Chakroud to the party. How does the internal democracy of your party work? Again, is it just the former senator that is going to be your party flag bearer or are there others who are vying for that position? Again, as to the other officers that are being run for what they'd be senatorial or governorship, how do we see it play out within the party? Because we've seen the APC and the PDP go back and forth on the issue of a consensus candidate, whether it be in direct or direct primaries and there's been some form of deadlock, and it's still leaving a lot of people guessing. But when it comes to the NNPC, what are the steps that you're taking to make sure that your move to get all of these positions filled is free, fair and credible? When you talk about internal party democracy, you check through the reports, even if you have the time to go through reports that are being put together by the election monitoring body that is there. You would have said that NNPC is one of those parties that is non-traditionally for very effective. One of the things we have going for us as a party which has united us for this whole 21 years of our existence as a political party is our stricter parents to the principles of internal development. For us as a party, the power is with the people. Once they take their decision, nobody changes it. The power resides with the people and that has guided us and it has kept us united as a family. And that's why 21 years of existence, you haven't heard of anybody's mandate being stolen within the party. Clearly it relates to processes of selecting candidates for general elections and all of that. You hardly hear of somebody being shortchained. You hardly hear somebody won election. The mandate is taken away and all of that. What would be the mode for your primaries? What we are doing depends on the situation on Brown. In some places, we would be having indirect primaries. In some other places, we would be having indirect primaries. In places where we don't have more than one candidate buying for a position. Of course, we don't need to go through the rigours of getting people to get involved in indirect primaries and all of that. So in some places where we have more than one candidate running for a position, of course, we would allow people to be able to exercise their franchise and all of that. We are doing a combination of two to ensure that people live the process happy. That is what I can say about the mode of primaries. Then on the issue of internal crisis, like I was trying to say, that's one great thing we have going for us. And that's why the party has been united for the past of one years that has existed as a political party. You hardly hear of anybody's mandate stolen. You hardly hear of anybody being shortchained and all of that. So we are known for that. We've seen a lot of accolates, a lot of praises for being one of the parties that has maintained strict adherence to the principles of internal democracy. One of the things that use the political party very fast is lack of internal democracy. And we have been guided by that, sure that we don't fall foul of that. Then on the issue of us having just one presidential candidate is, yes, at the time, the sale of forms for the presidential has not closed. Only one candidate came forward to buy the form. And that's his excellency, distinguished senate for Rabu Mousa-Colpasol. And as he stands now, he is the sole candidate for the party. OK, great. What's the guarantee that the average person will not be shortchained? You have said it's easy to talk when you don't have big weeks and big money bags in the party where everybody seems to be on the same level and there seems to be some mutual understanding. But can you say same for now where you have more people with more money and then maybe a few people with more money and more people with less money who may not necessarily be on the same level with the new money bags that you have within the party, can you still boast of the fact that there will be a level playing ground for all? May not be for the presidential because you have just won presidential candidate. But for the other tickets, whether it be governorship or senatorial houses of assemblies, will the story change or will you stick to this story down the line? No, no, no, no. Like I told you, one of the things we don't play with as a party is to ensure that the will of the people prevails always. We have been guided by that. This party, mind you, has existed for 21 years. You haven't heard of rank up. You haven't heard of disagreements. But did you have the kind of people that you have in the party today then? No, it doesn't matter. You see, when you're taking people, you also adjust the workers of us. You adjust your ability to bring them in and the ability to also contain them. We're not just taking these people. I'm sorry, Mr Mayden. You're telling me that having money bags, I'm sorry, my choice of words, the big weeks in your party will not make certain people or certain party members be at the wings and capricies of these people. You're telling us that you, as the NMPPs, can guarantee us as Nigerians that there will not be people who will be extensively influential on your party and the decisions that are being made because of the level that they actually have or hold. Not at all, not at all. You see, the party has its code of conduct that guides its oppressions and activities. So does everybody think it's a party? It is a union of light minds. So when you are coming in, first, we need to extract the commitment from you that you will be guided by the code of conduct that guides our oppressions as a party. You will also be guided by what we believe in. And what we believe in is unity of purpose and understanding as one family. So we're not just bringing these people in. We are bringing them in after a series of discussions, after a structure of commitments that they would have adhered strictly to what has kept the party united for the past two or three years. So with that level of commitment, we are very, very sure that they won't commit to do anything that is to the contrary. We believe that they are in and they are in for good and they will be guided by what has kept us united for the past two or three years. We don't have any problems about that. We have also adjusted our short-term purpose to be able to take in because, you know, you can't be completely sure that you would get 100% what you want. There will be dissidents. There will be one or two people who would want to do something funny. But our shockers of us are sharp enough to be able to take care of all of those challenges. I can assure you that. So for Nigerians, what I can tell them is they won't see anything from us that would look like people in short chains or that would look like people are necessarily taking advantage of the party because I don't know of that. Well, all that remains to be seen. Agwa Major is a National Publicity Secretary of the New Nigerian People's Party, NNPP. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We wish you all the best. Thank you so much. All right. Well, that's all for tonight on plus politics, but before we go, how tired are you as an Nigerian? I'm wondering, are we tired enough to the point where we can make our leaders responsible and accountable to us? I need you to chew on that tonight. I'm Marianna Clin. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great weekend.