BBC NEWS GOES ONE ON ONE WITH ADC LEADER, ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR

BBC News Interview His Excellency, the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON (Full Transcript)

BBC Correspondent: I've been talking to Atiku Abubakar for Newsday. I asked first about those accusations against the electoral commission.

Atiku: Well, we are accusing them of, first of all, misinterpreting the law, even though it's not their responsibility to do that. The courts have already interpreted the law. And then, of course, we also accuse them of bias.

BBC Correspondent: And the bias that you're accusing them of is what? To continue the rule of President Tinubu to keep him in power?

Atiku: For sure.

BBC Correspondent: And just talk me through how you think that's happened. What is it you think the commission has done that's trying to maintain the status quo wrongly, in your view?

Atiku: The commission has not acted according to law because we have a number of cases decided even by the Supreme Court, that the internal affairs of political parties are not the prerogative of any agency other than the political parties themselves, but they have ignored the ruling, even of the highest court in the land.

BBC Correspondent: I understand you're saying that they've not abided by the law, but in what way? By doing what?

Atiku: By doing what they have done. They ought not to have removed the officials of the ADC from the National Electoral Commission portal. They ought not to have done that.

BBC Correspondent: And you've talked about the enthronement of a dictatorship. You describe what's going on in those terms?

Atiku: Yes, we use dictatorship because we have seen evidence of government interference in the electoral process, as well as even the judicial process in the country.

BBC Correspondent: So you're seeing your role in this as to safeguard the country's democracy?

Atiku: Absolutely, because it's been four decades that I have been involved in trying to make sure that democracy is established in this country. I fought the military and we succeeded. And after just less than three decades of democracy, then political party is trying to completely overthrow what we have been able to achieve.

BBC Correspondent: What would restoring democracy look like? What would need to happen?

Atiku: Free, fair elections without government interference and making sure that you have an impartial electoral empire, basically.

BBC Correspondent: You've also criticized President Tinubu's administration over security. Set that out for me in more detail.

Atiku: Well, Nigeria is a vast country, admittedly so. But we also have, in terms of manpower, what it takes to have enough resources to be able to counter terrorism and other illegal activities going on in the country. It is quite ironic and surprising that Nigeria cannot mobilize its armed forces to be able to counter these activities.

BBC Correspondent: So why do you think that's not happening?

Atiku: We suspect that there is collusion.

BBC Correspondent: In other words, you're saying the government wants there to be terrorism and insecurity?

Atiku: Around the country, they use terrorism to intimidate people, particularly farmers, businessmen. You cannot travel. There is no security. Everywhere in the country is absolutely uncalled for. A country like Nigeria that has a huge population and a number of young men who are educated, that can be employed in the security services to protect the country, but that is not happening.

BBC Correspondent: How would the government benefit from promoting terrorism and violence in this way?

Atiku: Well, they scare people and they do what they want to do.

BBC Correspondent: You've also talked about corruption. Some people going back to President Obasanjo’s regime, your involvement in that regime, would say how could you be the person to say Nigeria needs to deal with corruption? What do you say to that?

Atiku: Very, very interesting question. I took the president to court 11 times and I won. There was never a time I was convicted of any corruption. Absolutely not.

BBC Correspondent: And what about the idea that people say we need a new set of politicians in Nigeria to take the country forward, not faces from the past?

Atiku: I quite agree that there is need for a new generation to take over from my own generation. But what is disappointing is that the shock of the new generation is that they have not even fared better. So I mean, we have searched very well to make sure that even among the young generation we have people who have credibility. Not all politicians have credibility as you can see. We have governors changing party simply because they are being protected from corruption charges.

BBC Correspondent: So you're saying yes, it will be a good idea to have younger politicians, but there aren’t sufficient credible young politicians around?

Atiku: It looks like that. You know you can have deliberate leadership training, to bring up credible young leaders in the country.

BBC Correspondent: Are there leaders you already identify? Or perhaps people that have been taking part in the protest, that you think might be future of Nigeria?

Atiku: Certainly, yes.

BBC Correspondent: Can you give me examples on who you mean?

Atiku: No, I don't think it will be fair.

BBC Correspondent: Let’s talk about the flight of young people across Nigeria. What is the big challenge confronting their lives, and how will you address it?

Atiku: Of course unemployment is very very prevalent today, there is no basis for that. Nigeria is big enough, it has enough resources to ensure that we have minimal per annum employment, but we have vast unemployed young men and women who are going about. And therefore there is tendency they go into crimes.

BBC Correspondent: So there is unemployment which is driving people into crime? What would you say the answer to that would be?

Atiku: Well, to ensure that there is enough investment in the private sector, or incentives is given to the private sector to create jobs as we did during our administration. I mean these are some of these things that are lacking today. Nobody cares about anybody except about themselves. I can do it because I headed the Economic team during our administration and we performed extremely well. Records are there for everybody to see.

BBC Correspondent: I understand you're talking about your record in the past, but I was wondering more what your diagnosis is on the problems now. What's going wrong?

Atiku: I have already enumerated some of the things going wrong, I mean there is insecurity. When you have insecurity there is no way you can provide jobs.

BBC Correspondent: What are your expectations? What do you think will happen?

Atiku: What I think will happen this time, is that Nigerians will elect the right people.

BBC Correspondent: How long do you want to run Nigeria for, because we talked a bit about the fact that you have a long political career. How long do you see your involvement being?

Atiku: Not long, not too long. But just like a transitional period to make sure that we bring in younger more credible leaders into government.

BBC Correspondent: Transitional period of how many years?

Atiku: Maybe four, maybe 8.