He said the things I should go and do and I did and, after that, I told some people about him, also for the same reason. I said I didn’t want people to mismanage the information even if he wasn’t a prospective candidate, as I have told him because of our past relationship. Anyway, we are still close. I tell people that I am still a member of the TBO (The Buhari Organisation). We are pioneer members, but I don’t really see a problem, as long as it is not mismanaged. I am not going to allow anybody to mismanage it. Yes, I am going to contest. I don’t know whether he will contest or not but, whether he will contest or not, it will not stop me from contesting, because I don’t just see any problem there.

Sir, why APC? Why not any other party?

PDP is totally out of the question. I don’t believe in the same things that they believe. I’m sure if there was no merger, I would have contested on the platform of the CPC. But of course the merger has come. I don’t know whether it will be fair to say I was the first to start talking about the merger, both privately and publicly — I had written about it in articles, about why opposition parties must merge. Now Nigerians believe that APC should win; now APC can win. Anybody who told you that CPC, Action Congress of Nigeria or ANPP would win the presidency was joking. So I have always belonged to this platform. Though I was in CPC, I was also very close to almost everybody in the ACN, and I was probably one of the few people on this platform who were not fighting with this person or fighting with that person.

Your party’s congresses have barely been concluded and they have crises in some state chapters, and party members are anxious. They think there should be a platform that should give PDP a very strong run for its money, that the APC seems to be falling apart, and that some members are joining the other parties. Are you anxious too?
No, no no. I am not. In fact, you said APC is falling apart. No, no, no, APC is not falling apart at all. I agree with you that, with what is happening now, some people are going back to the PDP. All the crises are being resolved. It is usual in a normal setting where human beings are involved, but I don’t see it as a threat. I cannot call it a threat. There are challenges we must face, because three and more parties or so came together from different backgrounds to fuse. We are not going to sit and pretend that there will not be challenges. But so far, APC has done very, very well. Yes, there were issues from the congresses but everybody is determined to solve the problem. We are solving the problems.

Sir, looking at your background, education, age, no office baggSir, you are a Christian from the northern part of the country and you are part of the group people believed to belong to another minority. Do you think this will work for you in this race?

First, I have never seen myself as a minority in any way. I have never, as an individual. If you call yourself a minority it connotes some disadvantage. Since my childhood, I have never seen myself as a minority because there is nothing that I wanted to get that I did not work hard to get and, trusting God, get it. So I don’t see myself as a minority because of the place that I come from. I am not contesting this election as a Christian candidate or as a northerner; I intend to contest the election for the President of Nigeria as a candidate of the APC. I am a Nigerian who happens to be a northerner and a Christian.

Nobody can define me through those terms. I feel comfortable that way, maybe it is because of the way I was brought up and I have friends everywhere. I was born in Minna, my primary school was in Kaduna, secondary school in Kaduna. I went to the University of Ife, I went to Ondo State to do my youth service, and so on. I joined Pfizer, stayed in Lagos for some time. So I have never seen those things as issues and I hope that people will listen to what we have to offer. People will understand that the situation we find ourselves in the country now, we have to get out of it alive. And all those sentiments – ‘you have to vote for me because I am a Christian’ or ‘you have to vote for that other guy because he is pagan’, or you want to vote for him because he is a Muslim – those things have taken us to these problems in this country. Those things do not mean anything to me, but that does not mean I am not a proud Christian or northerner. No.

For many years now, you have maintained a regular column on the back page of your newspaper, LEADERSHIP. Some people believe that you are using that column to attack the leadership of today much, that the tone of your column is somehow too harsh on the government of the day, starting from the days of Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, and now to President Goodluck Jonathan. What can you tell those with this belief?

Do you think with the kind of thing we have on ground now I need to respond to those people? Do you sincerely think so? The question should be, Why am I not harsher? Look at what is happening in this country: there is nothing I have said from Obasanjo’s time that has not come to pass. Those that are saying that, ‘Ah, Sam, you are too harsh,’ I pity them. You can’t hate yourself that much. See what they are doing to your country and you are saying I am too harsh. In fact, I can tell you, 85 per cent of Nigerians — and foreigners – are thankful for that. Now as I speak, many foreigners come into the country and they call and want to see me to ask these questions because, according to them, I saw these things a long time ago. I mean it is clear, but there are still a small number of people – maybe less than 1 per cent – who say that Sam is harsh. Though they are few, but can somebody hate himself that badly? Look at what has happened to this country.

In all of this, what is your biggest aspiration for Nigeria, if elected?

In fact, if elected we intend to make Nigeria a First World nation in five years. That is very big aspiration. Yes, but I can tell you, like I have always said before, if countries that have no means to achieve this – like Singapore – do, why can’t we? Singapore had nothing but they did it because they had a prime minister who exhibited leadership and was serious, committed and not stealing their money. If Singapore can achieve it, we can achieve it with good leadership. If India can do it, we can do it too. It’s a question of having a visionary leader.