Buhari’s Mid-term Scorecard Unimpressive -Senator Ben Obi

Senator Ben Obi is a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a one time Special Adviser on Political Matters to former President Goodluck Jonathan. In this interview with ONWUKA NZESHI, the astute political heavyweight reflects on the crisis in the PDP, the scorecard of the All Progressives Congress (APC) after two years as well as the agitations for the revival of Biafra in the South-East

On May 30, the Indigenous People of Biafra and other pro-secession groups ordered a sit-at-home and effected a lock down in the South-East. What is the significance of the declaration and the level of compliance it received from the people?

Biafra is in the spirit of every Igbo man and the way those of us from the South- East are being treated by various governments since the end of the war, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

There is no reasonable person that will support or allow himself to be deceived by whatever excuses this present administration has put forward as its reason for the marginalisation of the South-East region.

A few days ago, while I was in Port Harcourt for the golden jubilee celebration of Rivers State, one of the top leaders in the state drew my attention to the back page of a newspaper where my good friend and brother, Senator Chris Ngige, was commenting on the state of the Igbos.

What he was literally saying was that, the people get a government they deserved; that since the people preferred Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari, then the Igbos should lick their wounds as they are the architects of their own misfortune.

We were quite many there when this leader showed me the publication and I laughed.

That is indeed very unfortunate. Of course, you have people from the South-East in the APC.

In Anambra you have Ngige; in Imo, you have Okorocha; Abia, you have Orji Kalu, you go to Ebonyi, you have Ogbonnaya Onu, who was the National Chairman of the ANPP.

Ngige was one of the founders of the APC, George Moghalu, the same thing, the National Vice Chairman of the APC on the South-East is one of the leaders in their own rights and they all founded the APC.

If their presence cannot create good positioning for the South -East, they should use their tongue to count their teeth and it is unfortunate.

Such comparison does not work in politics.

Ngige himself knows that when you go to a place where you are not liked, as a politician, your duty is to go back there to impress them so that you can take them along with you.

Now IPOB and MASSOB have shown total and complete dissatisfaction with the APC government and their reasons are quite obvious – that we are not being carried along.

The number one Igbo person we have today both home and in Diaspora, is the President General of Ohan’eze Ndigbo; he is now the automatic leader of every Igbo man, which, of course, includes woman.

Since his elections, he has said so much about how we have been sidelined. So why won’t Igbos react to the sit down as directed by these young men?

Our leaders must be very careful the way they make utterances on how things are going.

For me, there is absolutely nothing strange about the shut down we witnessed in the South East on May 30.

There is no Igbo man whose spirit does not carry Biafra inside it; it depends on how it is pursued.

Each day, you hear Nicholas Okwadike, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, saying how this administration is forcing Igbo people out of Nigeria.

You hear elder statesmen like Dr. Dozie Ikedife who is almost 90 years old and so many others saying the same thing. So we must be careful. What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander.

The people who called for this sit- at -home said they were remembering those who lost their lives in the Nigerian Civil War. What is the significance of that exercise?

They were marking the 50 years anniversary of the declaration of the state of Biafra. My state governor, Governor Willie Obiano, had done a symbolic burial for those who passed on during the Civil War

. These young men, 95 per cent of them doing thus today were not born during the war. They didn’t know what happened, but they are asking themselves one simple question – what have we done?

They see themselves looking for job and finding none; they see their classmates from other zones as ministers; they see their classmates as special assistants, special advisers, ministers of state, chairman board of directors and you want them to just fold their arms?

A land where there is no justice does not know peace.

With this solidarity, are we looking at the resurrection of Biafra or is it like a signal to the Nigerian government to look for areas to make amendments to accommodate the Igbos in the system?

Even the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for all he too did against the Igbo man, has recently said ‘dialogue with these youths.’ A word they say is enough for the wise.

This thing will continue to snowball until it becomes a thunderstorm.

One day, people like us may not even be in a position to even call them to order. It will get to a stage where people like us will call them and they will see us as traitors and that is why we have said again and again, let us dialogue with these young men.

Most of us have said we want a one big united Nigeria, but we want a united Nigeria that is based on justice, equity and fair play, where there is a level playing ground for all ; where the law that is governing the country accommodates all and where you do not have two laws for the same country.

Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, was at the World Igbo Congress in Enugu, where he openly advised IPOB and MASSOB not to go for secession, but rather for a restructuring of the federation. Do you share this view?

Those of us who experienced the war; those of us who have mingled with our brothers across the zones; those of us, who are in politics, believe the country needs to be restructured.

But like I told you earlier, these young men were not born when the war was fought and they cannot understand why they can’t get anything and they say we are all of the same country.

If you were in their shoes, how will you feel?

As they say, we only live life but once and, of course, you cannot continue to oppress a people forever.

You are a member of the Peoples Democratic Party and you have played very important roles in the party, how do you feel about the status of your party today?

It is unfortunate that we have found ourselves at this very disturbing state in the party but the truth is that the party itself created its own problems.

Sixteen years in government is a brilliant record, but we lost it when we began to abuse the trust given to us by the people; we became very reckless in our utterances, there was impunity, obvious lack of internal democracy as people were being imposed on the party.

People who had no followership were being given positions of authority against those who were liked by their people.

All of a sudden, the party abandoned the zoning process and people were screaming and shouting that this would hurt us but we failed to listen and at the appropriate time, we paid dearly for it.

When a party in government for 16 years loses election, except it has a very strong leader that can immediately take control, what happened to us was bound to happen. But now, the way we are going about the issue is quite encouraging.

We have tried reconciliations, we are in court and we are going through the last phase of the court process.

Whatever happens at the Supreme Court will bring us to the situation to know which way to go but whichever way, the spirit of the PDP will rebound; the vision, mission of the founding fathers will come out strong soon after this judgment of the Supreme Court.

The last major effort at reconciliation was the meeting held at the Yar’Adua Centre, where former President Goodluck Jonathan presided. Are you satisfied with these peace moves? Well, there is nobody who would not be interested in reconciliation except somebody who is not in his sane mind.

Reconciliation is always better because it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war, but we all saw what happened at the meeting, which was convened by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Unfortunately you saw what happened, how the Sherriff group reacted.

We decided to keep our calm and allow the people to decide on what they saw. So for us, we have no reason to make any further comment on that; let the people decide on the kind of leadership they will cherish.

When you talk about the people, are you talking about your party members or Nigerians?

I am talking of PDP members and Nigerians at large. Nigerians are the ones who vote during elections, so they will vote for a party that has focus, a party that has credible men and women of integrity and honour.

We have come out to apologise profusely to Nigerians for taking their trust for granted.

A lot of people don’t know that Nigerians appreciate all these things, I know the number of times people come to me to say Please keep it up, God, will bless you, we need people like you. You will not know that they are watching your activities, utterances and all of that, if they count.

Do you think the PDP will be able to heal itself, rebound and be in a position to contest for power in 2019?

Soon after the Supreme Court judgment, whichever way it goes, the mission and the vision of the founding fathers of this party will rebound and you will see how things will turn around positively.

Do you think that the few governors you have in the states today are doing enough to rekindle people’s trust in your party?

I think a good number of them are doing well. I have been able to visit a couple of states to see what they are doing and I am very proud that they are doing well.

I have been to a couple of PDP states and I am quite impressed with the commit ments of the governors. The states I have been to are all doing very well and as a PDP member, I am extremely proud of their efforts.

I was in Rivers State recently during the 50th anniversary of the state. Governor Wike specifically invited the PDP Caretaker Committee to come and see everything that is on ground.

I had the opportunity of staying back when the other members had gone and he and I toured all the ongoing projects. As I speak to you, projects can be commissioned in Rivers State continuously for one month.

How he is doing it is miraculous and that is why even the Vice President and now Acting President, tagged him ‘Mr. Project’.

Everywhere you go, there’s a project going on and the manner with which he speaks the truth as it comes from his heart is unbelievable and that is what has attracted him to his people. People want to hear him, they see him, and they ask him questions and he responds directly.

He brings the commissioners face to face with the people and says look at what this citizen is asking and he is entitled to it.

People are so attracted to him, all my period of staying with him morning, afternoon, night until 2am all the leaders of the state were there.

The energy with which he has thrown into this government in these two years is quite commendable.

A few days ago, the country celebrated Democracy Day. How would you rate this government in terms of their midterm scorecard?

In terms of the fight against insurgency, terrorism, Boko Haram and on the issue of security generally, one will gladly grant them between 85 to 90 per cent success.

On the fight against corruption, I cannot grant them 30 per cent. I will give them roughly between 25 and 29 because they have lost all the cases they took to court and that is clearly because proper investigations are not being carried out and to make matters worse, virtually all the security agencies are fighting amongst themselves and there is clearly no coordination.

Recall that I served in the Office of the National Security Adviser as an adviser from 1999 to 2003. How can you achieve results when you are not coordinated?

How can you achieve results when there is in fighting among security agencies?

Obasanjo’s administration recovered lots of loot because it was handled with apt and professionalism.

Are you not impressed with the loot recoveries made by this administration?

A lot of recoveries have been made but what about prosecution? We don’t have the details of it, people have been calling to know what is happening but nobody is telling us anything.

What do you have to say about the economy, after two years of the APC government?

The economy too is very poor. When you don’t get your politics right, you can never get your economy right.

I am not an economist but I know in the days of Obasanjo, he had a very strong economic team, Jonathan did the same thing and even Umaru Yar’Adua too did the same thing. If you ask me, who and who constitutes the economic team today?

I cannot say but I think the Acting President is trying to do something about it. On the scorecard, it is nothing to write home about really and the reason is very simple – it is because the man who is supposed to be in charge unfortunately is faced with some health challenges. If it were the Buhari that we used to know, it wouldn’t have been like this.

The infighting among the security agencies would never have happened and the fight against corruption would have yielded better results.

Are you laying the blames squarely on ill-health?

Yes, that is why everybody is doing things without coordination. People just sit there and issue directives and want us to believe it came from him.

I know President Buhari personally as a personal friend and I have utmost respect for him. Remember, when they sacked the Shehu Shagari government on December 31, 1983, and they started on January 1, 1984, they launched the War against Indiscipline.

Buhari was not on the streets, Tunde Idiagbon was not on the streets but nobody could litter the streets with pieces of paper. I am not saying that he is perfect, but there are certain things that you can say he focused on and he delivered on them at that time. I know him as a man of his words.

Recently, we had this coup scare coming from the Chief of Army Staff; how did you see this coup story?

I saw it as a very reckless statement coming from the Chief of Army Staff. If you say politicians are influencing your soldiers, which means you must have had one or two of your men involved in that matter.

So what has happened to his Quarter Master? What has happened to his court martial? Which of his men has he placed on court martial?

That is treason isn’t it?

Let him tell us the politicians that are involved. This is a serious issue; it is not an issue you just raise. Now you can see leaders have been saying that they will oppose it. Up till now, he has not been able to come up with any fact as to who is doing what.

These days, we see politicians going about with soldiers; that is where he should curb the coup threat first, to make sure that soldiers don’t go hobnobbing with politicians.

Soldiers have nothing to do with politicians either as orderlies or bodyguards or ADC, except you are the President. I think it is only the President who goes with soldiers, governors and vice presidents go with police.

So what is he talking about? I found that absolutely reckless, that is not the way to go. He still has to tell us more because it is not just enough to put a carpet over it and say he just said it. The Ministry of Defence cannot tell us to forget it; that there is nothing like that and it ends there.

With all the campaigns about restructuring do you see Buhari going back to 2014 National Conference report so that we can address some of these issues impeding progress in Nigeria?

If you leave it to him the way he is, he will show no interest and more so with his lieutenants and advisers also showing no interest, but I must say, what is important is that those who are committed to it should continue. This is a democracy and they say in a democracy, minority will have its say; majority will have its way.

So as long as people are determined and they are saying that there must be restructuring and it is reverberating across the zones, at the end of the day, they will be forced to look into those books. They are only postponing the D Day; that D Day will come.

As long as we are all in this country and we want this country to be one, restructuring must come; it has to come.

Source: New Telegraph