 The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Dumebe Kachiku, has accused some persons within the ADC, describing them as criminals. Kachiku was reacting to the ADC's endorsement of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obe, and his running mate, Datty Baba Ahmed, for presidency. According to him, the party is being divided into three groups and received money from other political parties. The endorsement came on the heels of a grand coalition for the UB Datty presidency. Joining us live to discuss this is Ahmed Buhari, his vice presidential candidate of the ADC. Ahmed, it's good to have you join us. Good evening. Hi, good evening. Great. Again, we're here talking about issues within your party. A few months ago, your then chairman of the party had issues. He had taken a few members of your party who had said that they were deposing your presidential candidates and taking the ticket away from him. And here we are again, a faction of your party is going the way of the PDP and one is going the way of the Labour Party. What exactly is going on in the ADC? I mean, this is just a few days to the elections. So you didn't add that one other party is going with the APC as well. So a faction endorsed the PDP on Saturday. Another faction endorsed the APC on Sunday. And the last faction endorsed the Labour Party on Monday. And this is what we've been talking about for months. Now, I remember you and I on this station had a few conversations with regards to our feelings about what might happen at the end of the journey. And exactly so, we're beginning to experience what is happening. But you know, as much as it comes as a, as much as it doesn't come as a shock, and then it's funny to have so many parts of the party endorsed in different political parties. I think the most important thing that we must realise here is, is the way I feel pity for these men within the party. This is what they've always done. They've positioned themselves in this party to always come to this point of an election year to negotiate with candidates who will give them money. And I think it's poverty. I've met with these men, I've sat with them and the bottom line to all their problems is how much money can we make from this process. And that is why I keep talking to people that regardless of the fact that you want to effect change through politics, make sure you have a day job. Now that day job is important for you because at the end of the day, that is what you will rely on, not on politics money. For these guys, this is what they've always done. It is hunger as it is. I also try to tell people that INEQ has been complicit in all of these issues that we've had just from day one. We started writing INEQ for regards to the writings on the world that we could actually read at that time to let them know that look, the tenure of this National Working Committee has expired. We need to have a national convention that will help us elect new party officials. And INEQ decided to turn a deaf ear only until 10 years ago. INEQ invited myself and all the trustees, chairman, Senator Awashiki with all the members of our party to have an arbitration where they invited the, of course, the faction, the industrial party to say, you know what, let us resolve our differences outside ports. Because already, the Justice in Yakuza port served us, also, the legs up for our victory on the 20th of December, where all our prayers were granted under our council chief, Mike Ozakome Chambos. So I think what is important here is, even at that arbitration, even though we're sitting on opposing sides, during the break time, we see how people from that other side, of course, this faction that went to endorse a liberal party, come over to me to say, can we get something out? What can I find? I need to turn myself back to where I came from. So it's just poverty, and we need to really stop this from happening. Because it's beyond Kachiku and Ahmed Buhari. We have senators, we have people who vote for us as governors, we have people who vote for us as red members, and as their companion around the country or around their constituency, they're just getting to find out that the supposed effects body of the party has gone to endorse somebody else. How do you want them to feel? If you know that primarily you are going to endorse somebody else from the beginning, why cell forms? These are people who have sold forms in the millions. They were about 10 presidential candidates, buying forms up to 5 million Naira each. We had Gobernatorial candidates from all the states, we had House of Rep members, and you put all of these monies together only for a plan to endorse a bigger candidate at the end of the day, so that you stage one, cell forms, stage two, you look around and see who is the candidate that can likely pull a campaign and keep milking him to get to a point where he cannot give you anything anymore, and then stage three, you go ahead and endorse a political party that was going to give you money. The main fact that I saw them endorsing PDP, APC, and Labour, I can tell you categorically that it's the same block of people sharing themselves around to see how much money they can get from around. And so anybody who is dealing with these people and Ainek keeping quiet at the same time, it comes as a shame to me. I'm really wondering what you want Ainek to do now, because of course Ainek has his job cut out for you, but then I have a question. Just hold on, I'll let you get to that. But I remember when this issue first raised its ugly head, I did ask you at the time when you were saying, oh, the chairman of the party had held sway for 17 years plus or something like that. And I remember asking you before you and your principal picked this party to run on its platform, how much background check did you do? Because this again goes to tell if this was done hastily, out of desperation, or there were conners that were being caught. So again, it points back to you. I want you to answer that question that I asked you a few months ago. I'm not going to respond to that question, but I'm going to tell you why Ainek is important in all of this. Ainek is the custodian of the constitution of our party. Ainek has a constitution that guides all the political parties. And it is based on that constitution that you can tell if a party chairman has exceeded his time in office. Ainek's decision to turn an eye to that makes them part of this whole deal that has been going on for 17 years. Now back to your question, would you ask if we do this hastily or not? I would tell you once and for sure. Maybe we didn't do our duty just properly. Maybe we are calling Mugu, like they say. Maybe we've been stunned, like everybody talks about it around this area. But the truth still remains that this was a party that had things to move along. This was a party that had party to me. This was a party that had, at one point in time, people of a beach trying to be part of it. You understand? And this was a party that had to maybe catch up with money and through the big boss process, to maybe catch up with a march. And some people might say, how did you maybe beat all of those people? Well, I'll tell you one thing. Did they be playing the politics like they should be playing? How do you play the politics? Make yourself available to the people. I remember during his campaign to win the primary. He made himself so available that the people built that confidence on the fact that this is somewhere that indeed we can still relate to. And most of his support at the top was from Northern Nigeria. Because then with me, I was able to work around to see that the northern part of the delegates were going to make him a march. And so did he. Importantly, I want you to understand that whether we've been stunned, whether we didn't do good diligence, it's important for Inez in his part as the umpire to say, you know what? If we're getting letters from these people, saying that they fear that this party is going to negotiate in an era where we're trying to build our democracy, then indeed they should have stepped in long before 10 days ago when they were asking us to have an arbitration outside port. Interesting. I want to go back again in time, because you see these conversations are all coming back to me like a flood. You talked about the fact that your candidate did do due diligence. I remember the last time, the first time I had this conversation, I had a spokesperson for Kingsley Mogalu who alleged that your candidate had given monies, had bribed his way to the top being that he wasn't even the top five for the running for this ticket. And he came out of nowhere and became the presidential candidate. Talking about also how untrustworthy members of the board of trustee of the party were at that time. And here we are months down the line, you're making almost similar allegations of the fact that, oh, you probably have been scammed. Oh, you did due diligence. But what do you think would be going through the minds of Kingsley Mogalu and Moe right now? Because these are some of the same allegations they made about how crooked, allegedly, some of the members of the party leadership were at the top. So I will tell you very clearly, yeah, I remember that interview I had with you on this station. I remember the connectivity from my own and you don't let me have the conversation, especially to tackle the allegations from the spokesperson from Kingsley Mogalu's camp. But what is most important is Kingsley Mogalu far to tell me and everybody who feels pain which regards to whatever transpired in this party should understand that we've always been on the same side. And for them to keep thinking that maybe it's their problem, it's a wrong assumption. Because indeed, maybe it had no issue with anybody, maybe it came into the race. And like I told you, one of the critical things that he did was to make himself available and let me tell you something. As much as we keep talking about this leadership problem in this country, there's a huge followership concern and the followers are constantly looking for individuals that they believe they can penetrate, which is why some of us are parading, half-working men as candidates for major political parties because the belief is that if we have those kinds of people, then indeed we can manipulate them. Ahmed, I think that we've lost connection with you but if you can hear me, Ahmed, can you hear me? I think that we've lost that connection. So the more you make yourself available, the people will laugh at you and don't... Go ahead, go ahead. We lost the connection with you for a second, but go ahead. Yeah, I was trying to tell you that indeed, most of the people within the party will tell you at that time that, oh, he still be like you, but he was speaking too much English. The people want you to come down to that level. And that is the only way that someone like to ship at you, they don't imagine that he's... Just for clarity, what does it mean by coming down to their level? Because again, I heard that people took as low as $20, allegedly, at the party primaries from your candidates... The problem... And that other candidate used to pay his enemies and I'm wondering if this is what it means because the others were speaking grammar but then your candidate was a bit open-handed. Could that have been the case? So I'll tell you something, yeah? I can hear you, go ahead. Go ahead, I can hear you. Ahmed, we can hear you, just go ahead. I think that we have also lost that connection again. Ahmed, but if you can hear me, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. All right, yeah, go ahead. I really want to hear what you mean by coming down to the level of the people. In politics, a few things are very pushed up. People want to see that available resources can drive a campaign. But most importantly, and I keep telling politicians, what the people really want is somebody that is available, somebody that can communicate with, somebody that's going to take your phone call, somebody that's going to be present for those few meetings, somebody that is going to probably pick you up as they're leaving meetings and say, I'm going to give you a ride home. I remember I saw somebody who said, the reason why I voted for the MediCatch was because on a particularly after our meeting, as he drove out of the meeting area, he saw me and he opened his G-Wagon vehicle for me to enter. That was the first time I entered a G-Wagon. People have different reasons for supporting an individual. But fundamentally, the drive is almost around how open you are to them. And remove your mind from these money issues. Because indeed, things can go that way, may transverse to these people. And that's why I'm saying, and those are evidences you've heard that they actually get money along the line so that it could be voted for during the primaries. Okay, finally. I hope you didn't miss me there. Yes, I did it. Finally, with all of these things that have happened on the ending issue. You don't want to talk about it whether it is true that he gave money? Oh no, I remember when we had that conversation. His spokesperson had said that the party asked him to give a certain amount of money that all the candidates were asked to give a certain amount of money so that the primaries would hold. And it was for also for daily... That is outconstitutional. He would not oppose that. Again, I'm not going to be here to hold brief for Kingsley Muggler because it's not here to respond to that. Now that I have a direct connection, you can invite his spokesperson and we can talk about that. But I cannot be holding brief for him. So because we don't have time, I want to move quickly to other matters. Now with all of these unending issues emanating from the AEDC and knowing that we're a few days away from the election, how do you convince, how do you hope to convince the average Nigerian to vote for the AEDC? Because now you have put, because you have put the credibility of the members of your board of trustee on the line right now. A lot of people are questioning how credible your party is and if it's going to even be able to stand till the election day. I mean, we still have the governorship and other, you know, tickets to you. Can you hand me Mary Ann? Go ahead, please. I think what is important here and what you're not paying attention to, I told you the courts after judgment, granting all of our prayers and sacking these men their parade themselves as members of the National Working Committee to start with, those guys were imposters. There are nowhere on the party platform to start with. Now, anybody who's given them money did that at some peril. But most importantly, it is because of me, Kajipa and myself, like I told you, we have people running, we have people contesting. As much as we're on the ballot, what is most important for us to do is to stand firm for all of those people. The woman sent me a message earlier today. It was a long message telling me how she feels bad that she has spent so much money to campaign, she has spent so much money to buy the farm, wrap the whole store in the storehouse. Of course, you know, place different levels on her over the months, only for them to go and endorse another candidate while she's in Delta State contesting and campaigning. I tell you one thing, we all have to work together to ensure that these kinds of things are stopped in our policy. The only way we can give hope to the people is for small parties like this to get there and work together and truly go into those projects with the intention to win and not to double around the people's minds and resources. Okay, well, but I said this way than any other way, but I want to say thank you. Ahmed Buhari is the vice presidential candidate of the ADC. Always a pleasure to have you join us. Thank you. All right, and that's the show tonight. Don't forget you are to make sure that you show up at your polling unit on Saturday, the 10th of Feb, to cast your vote, but what must you do and what must you know? Now, don't forget, several people still are yet to understand where their polling unit is. Just go on our next website. Use the information, your voter identification number, imputed, and then you can find out where your polling unit is. So that way you know where to cast your vote come Saturday. Don't sit at home. Don't sit on the fence. Use your PBC because that is your passport to a new Nigeria. I'm Mary Annaclone. See you tomorrow. Good night.