Dr Umar Ardo, governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Adamawa State, was a four-time guber aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview he speaks on his role in the victory of Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and why he will challenge Governor Umaru Fintiri’s re-election at the tribunal, among others.

You were one of those close to the outgoing president before he was elected in 2015 to replace Dr Goodluck Jonathan. What strained your relationship with him?

After Jonathan was declared winner of 2011 presidential election, Buhari said he would not go to Tribunal, yet he went to Tribunal. Who among you journalists have investigated the formation of APC? Yes, El-Rufai was part of those who did the paperwork, but I was the one doing the strategic thinking and driving between 2011 and 2013. Who was ahead of me in the intervening period of two years? Nobody. But the very day Buhari was declared president-elect, he turned his back on me, even for me to see him and congratulate him was difficult. Most of you press men don’t know how Buhari became president. But I know. Tinubu has said he made Buhari president. Yes, but all Tinubu knows started when Buhari approached him and asked him to let them form a merger between CPC and ACN. Tinubu agreed but said the thing should be made open to all; the more the merrier. Then, APC was born and it took a life of its own. But Tinubu did not know what happened before Buhari came to meet him and offered him the vice-presidential candidacy.

Despite all you have said you did for APC and Buhari, why did you think you were shabbily treated? Did you try to find out?

I did it not for APC or even Buhari; I did it for the country. Buhari just fits in at that point. Under Jonathan, the country was drifting. I am from Adamawa State. I had my university education in Maiduguri, but by 2010, I could not go to Adamawa because Boko Haram had almost taken over. Suggestions on how to resolve the problems were rebuffed by the Jonathan government. He declared a state of emergency in some affected areas, but did not do the proper thing. We were left with no other option but to see that he left office. Buhari happened to be the only one that could fit in when Jonathan was to be removed. All Buhari needed was a good strategy. He tried it once with what they called the Cambridge Initiative, a strategic group of Cambridge graduates around Buhari like Abba Kyari and others. They did it in 2003 but did not get it. In 2007, they repeated it and still did not get it. Then the Harvard group of Nasir el-Rufai came in 2011 under CPC. Again, they did not get it. Then, I brought in the Maiduguri Initiative which is also called the UNIMAD Initiative and Buhari became president.

Tinubu is by the will of Almighty Allah today the president-elect. Let me say for a fact that the nucleus strategic trajectory of this reality is a seed sown way back in March 2012 when Buhari approached Tinubu with a proposition for a merger between CPC and ACN to form a new political party under which the former and latter were to respectively vie as presidential and vice-presidential candidates in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election, a proposition which Tinubu accepted, modified and helped organise. After inherent turns and twists, the outcome is the formation of the APC in July 2013, Buhari becoming president in May 2015, and Tinubu now becoming the next president of Nigeria on May 29th, 2023.

You said the country was drifting under Jonathan and hence he had to go. In eight years of Buhari, do you regret the fact that insecurity has festered under Buhari who came in with the reputation of a military general with capacity to secure the country?

Certainly, it is regrettable and the reason is because when he became president, he took the body of APC and left the soul.

How do you mean?

I am the soul of APC. I conceived the idea and when I did, I convinced Buhari and after that Tinubu was brought in. When I was conceiving the idea, I had the plan on how to operate the administration. My idea was not simply how to get Buhari in, but also how to run the government in a form of an adviser to see that things are resolved. But the very day Buhari was declared president-elect, he stopped seeing me. APC took a life of its own after the strategic thinking I offered for its formation. I remained in PDP while I was doing all this and I ensured I pinned PDP down to pave the way for APC to win. I even went up to the Supreme Court in my suit challenging the eligibility of Jonathan to contest. The Supreme Court on November, 2014 threw out the case. So, I did all this and what happened to me after. Buhari betrayed me. I did not do it because I wanted to get something from him, but my first priority was how to get things working in the country. We felt that Buhari, as a former governor of Northeastern state, would have a good insight into the area and resolve the insecurity there.

Why do you think Buhari treated you this way?

I wonder myself. Probably he has an agenda that is different from my own. He is just being deceitful. It is either what I am saying is the truth or it is a lie or Buhari is something else. And I know that what I have said is the truth and therefore it means it is Buhari who is something else.

Do you regret supporting Buhari?

Not really. If for anything, at least, the fact that I brought a superior strategy that worked wonders. My only regret would be that Buhari has not been able to fix the country. I brought Buhari and the country deteriorated under him.

Do you see Tinubu demonstrating the capacity to fix the country?

I knew him as Lagos State governor of Lagos State. I was a special adviser to the vice-president on states and local government between 1999 and 2003 when Tinubu was in his first term as Lagos State governor. Then we had sufficient interaction. I see him as a very strong-willed person who has objectives and is determined to achieve those objectives. I see him as a very serious-minded person. I am not talking about his personal life, background and so on. But in terms of identifying the needs and working to address the needs, I think he can fix the country. The only thing that can remove the personal baggage on Tinubu is for him to perform. If he performs, nobody will care whether Tinubu has a father or not, whether he went to school or not, whether he has classmates or not. People will only see the results of his leadership if they affect their lives positively. Therefore, it is all dependent on the sincerity of purpose for which he seeks leadership. Is he sincere to seek leadership for public good or is he there to seek leadership for personal benefits?

One of the best things on earth is to have noble objectives and I seek political power to implement the objectives for the good of society. It is the greatest thing and you will even go to heaven if you do this as a leader before the man who goes to church or mosque every day. But you are also the quickest to go to hell, if you go there and do what is wrong and do not lead with fairness and justice. As a Muslim, this is what my religion tells me. So, I think Tinubu will do well. He has no option but to do well.

Buhari has apologized to Nigerians if they did not consider his best in eight years as good enough for the country…

After being elected, Buhari forgot all about what I did and turned Machiavellian. And it made sense to believe that it is the central reason why he failed in leadership because it rendered his politics soulless. If he had taken me even as a political adviser, the very service I rendered him in the first place, he would have had no cause to be apologising to Nigerians today because as a direct beneficiary of my political advice and craftsmanship to get to power after three unsuccessful attempts, I would have also helped him to succeed in governance as well. But as they say things happen for a reason. I thank Allah Almighty for His Mercies and pray that the end of it all will be in the best interest of our country and our people.

Are you in agreement with those who say Nigeria can’t be redeemed through elections?

Nigeria can be redeemed through elections. Look, I am now preparing to go to the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the governorship election in Adamawa. It is not that I have practical evidence. There are general complaints all over the state that infractions were committed here and there. But I have not gathered any evidence. But I can get the evidence, because it is provable through technology. Three things can help in this regard: get the BVAS machines and subject them to inspection, to know the number of people the machines accredited in a particular polling units and look at the result sheets and compare and contrast. If there is a discrepancy, that will show and the election will be gone. Secondly, we will have to authenticate the votes themselves through forensic analysis of the ballot papers to check if the thumb prints are the same or different. We can determine whether there is multiple voting or vote allocation through this.

So, if we are sincere as a country, technology has made it in such a way that elections can bring the necessary change. If we can deepen transparency in election, Nigeria can change through and we can get good people into offices. I see myself as a good man and went throughout the state, campaigning and seeing all interest groups. I did mobilisation and campaigned on the best manifesto in the state. I extracted commitment of support from virtually all these groups. Even if it is one quarter of them that commited their support on election day, I would have won the election. But they did not and I ended up getting 6,800 votes in the election. The reasons are very clear. There was complete sabotage from my party, SDP. The party had been bought over before the election. While I was working, others were working on me, especially APC and PDP. Two days to the election, the party leadership showed clear betrayal. Where I had 100 votes, they would give me one vote there because our agents have been bought over. Most of them collected mobilisation but did not go to the polling units and those who collected the money and went colluded with the other parties. Only a very few agents stood firm and they are the ones who brought me the 6,800 votes. I am going to the tribunal to establish the truth. (Sunday Tribune)

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