The National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, LAI MOHAMMED, recently spoke with newsmen in his Kwara hometown, where among others, he stressed that the political parties involved in the coalition against PDP over the next election have resolved their differences and set to achieve their aim. He also explained how ACN came about the choice of Rotimi Akeredolu as its candidate for Ondo State governorship. Our Reporter, DELE MOSES, was there. Excerpts:

The House of Representatives has issued notice of impeachment to the President, alleging haphazard implementation of budget. What is your position on the issue?

My position and the position of my party is that, yes, the National Assembly might not have been living up to expectation in certain respects but this cannot take away powers that had been conferred upon the members by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It's irrelevant, whether the House is enmeshed in scandal or not, it is still the only House we have that is charged with the responsibility to act as a check on the executive arm of government. Therefore, those who are saying it is money they want have missed the point. We should ask ourselves, has Mr. President actually been able to respond to the yearnings of Nigerians in the performance of his duties? Has he been able to keep his electoral promises? Is it true that the budget is less than 30 percent implemented? These are the salient issues. It is irrelevant whether the man who is asking it wants money or not. And I think that this is where we should focus.

The National Assembly still remains the National Assembly. They are determined to actually perform their function as the check to the executive arm of government. The members have said that they are not unmindful of lies being peddled by the Presidency. They said that there was an understanding between them and the Presidency before they passed the budget that he must implement it to 80 percent or 100 percent, and that they have seen that the Presidency has not kept the promise and that they are resolved. We are not an interested party in the sense that, though, it is true that a member of the ACN moved the motion, he must have been speaking the minds of other members with the motion.

Do we need creation of more states, as some suggest?

Honestly, my party is of the firm belief that already there are too many states in the Federation; that today, over 80 per cent of the states are not viable. A lot of things that politicians do are politically correct and emotionally correct, but in terms of practicability, it may just be in smokescreen. Today how many states can survive without the statutory allocation? I will be surprised if one quarter of the states of the Federation can survive. Now, this same statutory allocation, the source of the allocation is nothing but the petroleum resources. And we learnt that we lost over N2 trillion a year to petroleum theft. The only truth is that this country is broke. It has been said by those who know. Do we now create more states and bureaucracies? It is not that if we create more states we will create more centres of production; rather we are going to create more drainpipes. And in a plural society like ours, it is my sincere belief that if we practice federalism the way we ought to, we don't need the number of states that we have today. So, the position of my party is that it is not the priority of this country at all. Restructuring of the country does not mean creating more states. Restructure of the polity probably means devolution of power to existing states. As a matter of fact, there are some schools of thought that say we may even have just the six geopolitical zones as political units. So I don't think more states is a viable thing.

How prepared is ACN for 2015 in Kwara State?

Wherever and whenever people ask me how prepared ACN is for 2015 as they asked me in 2011, I say it is not ACN's problem. It should be the problem and the burden of the people of Kwara State. They should ask themselves if they are happy or satisfied with their lot today. They should ask themselves if this is the kind of government they want. What we have today, I hate to say this, is government by proxy. Decisions affecting the states are taken far outside and not taken by those elected to take such decisions. So, if you ask me how ready is ACN I think it should be how ready are the people of Kwara State to change their fortune? If they are happy with what is going on, then there is no business in changing their government. But if they are not happy and I am sure they are not happy, then they should vote them out like what happened in Edo State. They should go all out to vote for government that can make a difference in their lives. And fortunately, they are surrounded by states like Ekiti, Osun and Oyo where they can see what good governance is. They should go out in next election for the ACN and also protect their mandate. What Edo people had showed us is that where people are determined Federal might is impotent, guns are impotent and money is meaningless. Until people of Kwara wake up, their fate and fortune are in their hands not ACN. The party is just a platform. We are ready to provide the platform for them to make a change for the people of Kwara State as we have done in every other place.

There is this insinuation of friction between you and Dele Belgore. What do you have to say on it? 

We know the source of the stories. The government has become insecure and now wants to distract people and make mountain out of molehill. For the avoidance of doubt, there is absolutely no issue, no rift whatsoever between MD Belgore and me, absolutely none. The government should face the issue of governance and stop making headlines out of non-existing stories. The question is what impact does my rift have with governance?

Do you subscribe to call for state police?

There is nothing called state police. What you have is community policing. There is no alternative to community policing. What is the argument of those who don't want community policing? They say it can be abused by politicians to persecute their opponents. Even the Federal Government today is using police to persecute opposition political parties. Policing is about security of lives and property, preventing my house from being set on fire or preventing my children from being raped, preventing my property from being stolen. In other parts of the world, there is an arrangement that you cannot use state police to persecute your political opponent. In US, you have the FBI. Certain offences are even outside the jurisdiction of state police. People are feeding fat on the centrally allocated funds for policing and it suits the Federal Government to use police to rig elections. Otherwise, how do you expect a policeman from Maiduguri working in Oro to detect any crime? This is somebody who does not understand the language and does not know anywhere. Most of the successes of police are from the information given by the community. But I can't go and approach a man whose language I don't speak. If you have community policing, you will take policeman as your next-door neighbour. Here, we know who lives next-door, who does not go to work, who smokes Indian hemp. So, there is no alternative to community policing. The earlier we do it, the better for all of us.

How far is your party's coalition with CPC and other political stakeholders in forming a formidable opposition against the ruling party come 2015?

Let me correct an impression. Actually what is happening is not just talk between political stakeholders in the country like ANPP, CPC, and the rest of them, all of the political parties that are dissatisfied with government, even PDP are looking for a Noah's Ark to rescue them. So, make no mistake about it. It is the reality, it is going to happen and it will sweep PDP out of power. They say they tried it 10 years ago and it didn't work. Why are they afraid if it won't work? They should leave it to us. By God's willing, it will work. We have resolved all our differences and that new platform will sweep PDP out of government and sweep our people out of misery.

How did you come about the choice of Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as Ondo candidate of ACN for October election?

We used the most democratic system. We had about 35 aspirants and they were all called to a meeting and we asked them that, 'you are all from different senatorial districts of Ondo State' and we asked 'if there is a zoning system' and they all said, 'there is zoning system'.

We also asked them what's the zoning system all about and they said that 'it started with late Chief Adebayo Adefarati from Ondo North, to Chief Olusegun Agagu from South, and to incumbent governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko from the Ondo Central' and therefore the slot should go back to the North. That was the sum total of what we got from what they said during the meeting with them.

At another meeting with the aspirants from the Ondo North, we asked how many groups made up north senatorial district and they said, three: Akoko, Owo and Ose. The last time that governorship came to you, who took it? They said Adefarati from Akoko and therefore it should go to Owo. By the time we got to that point, it was only people from Owo and Ose that we had to pick from and we used our judgement to say, of all these people here, the best person to present is Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). Is there anything more democratic than that?