The post-election prize Jonathan deserves – Abubakar Audu

Even though he is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, he still sees good in what outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan did on the heels of the March 28 presidential election. According to him, had Jonathan behaved like some Africa leaders and refused to concede defeat, Nigeria would have boiled. But his swift telephone call to the winner of the March 28 presidential election, now president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to congratulate him even before the results were officially announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, brought peace. For that, a former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, amongst other things in this interview, says Jonathan deserves the Nobel Prize for Peace. Excerpts:

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

The presidential and National Assembly elections saw your party, the APC, in clean sweep of the three senatorial districts and a good number of seats in the House of Representatives even though you are not in charge in Kogi State. How did that happen?

The secret of any success is hard work and that has always been my contention. We worked very hard and time will virtually tell the story and time has told the story. People were given the opportunity to compare and contrast between my administration and the successive administrations of the PDP since I left office. I governed the state between 1999 and 2003 and PDP rigged me out using all manner of forces that have never been seen in any democratic sector. They brought soldiers from the air force and the barracks in Lokoja which harassed and killed. For the first time I saw military personnel carrying ballot boxes. That was how they rigged us out in 2003. They brought in a governor that spent 9 years and has not commissioned one single project.

It is where I left Kogi in 2003 that Kogi is up till this moment. It is not political rhetoric neither am I praising myself. You can confirm this from any Kogi man. After spending 9 years instead of 8 years as stated in our constitution another PDP governor took over and I don’t think he has done much again. I leave everything to the electorate to judge. This time the electorates said it is time we bring Audu back. If you are a regular visitor to Kogi, at the Kontokafi bridge, you will see a billboard where the masses are crying, saying ‘where is Audu? So, as far as I am concerned it is the first step to bringing me back and convincing me to come back. That is why you see those changes in Kogi state especially in the electoral system. We won all our Senate seats.

We won about six or seven of the nine House of Representatives seats and out of accredited 400,000 voters in Kogi for the presidential election, we won almost 300,000 and you know we are not in government in the state. Even a councillor, we don’t have. But now people have been placed in a position to know the difference between the good, the bad and the ugly. So, they have spoken and God in His infinite mercy has exonerated me. That is the secret of the success we achieved in Kogi state because people want me back and they have seen what I did for them in four years that I was in office. They have been given the opportunity to compare and contrast and this is the first step of the 1,000km journey and, by the special grace of God, we shall arrive there safely.

What is your impression about General Muhammadu Buhari’s victory after three failed attempts at the polls

                            

FILE PHOTO: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (L), and President-elect Mohammadu Buhari shake hands under the eyes of Chairman of the Abuja Peace Accord former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar (C), after signing the renewal of the pledges for peaceful elections on March 26, 2015 in Abuja.. AFP PHOTO

Let me tell you, my history in politics is similar to his. In 2003, that was when he fired the first shot. He contested and won but he was rigged out. In 2007 and 2011, they robbed him but, in 2015, all the robbers went to sleep and God took control. Everyone knows the kind of person Buhari is; a very disciplined and gentle man, a man who is highly principled, a man of proven integrity. I am not singing his praises but it is exactly how he is and everybody that knows him knows he is like that. The economy of this country has been battered. Look at the unemployment rate. Look at the decay in infrastructure, and look at the security aspect, insurgency, kidnapping and all sorts of notorious things. We need people with experience, people that have the ability, people with the right intellectual capacity to save us.

This is why God directed the electorate in Nigeria to bring him in because there is nothing they didn’t do to ensure that PDP rigged the election but there is nothing God didn’t do to make sure that the truth prevailed. It is the handiwork of God. God wants to salvage Nigeria from total devastation that befell Nigeria under the 16 years rule of the PDP. So we have every reason to thank God and celebrate without any atom of doubt. Yes, the expectations are very high. Both Muslims and Christians voted for him, even the traditionalists voted for him, men and women voted for him and that is why he recorded landslide victory. Therefore, the expectations are very high. Mark you that Nigeria is a very resourceful country.

Nigeria is one of the richest countries in Africa if not the richest in terms of natural endowment but has not been lucky with managers of our resources. We haven’t been lucky with leadership. It is the first time that we want to know what is meant by having the correct leadership to lead the country because we don’t have any business with poverty. It is a very unfortunate situation but, with the right leader in democracy and democratic norms, we will work towards that goal and Nigerians will have the opportunity to compare the four years of the first tenure not even talking about second tenure, with the 16 years of PDP. It is God’s time to change the position for us. So I congratulate you young men; all the pains you have gone through in Nigeria will soon be a thing of the past by the special grace of God.

Talking about high expectations, how do you advise Buhari to go about meeting them so that he will not disappoint the youths and teeming Nigerians who came out to express their confidence in him?

A square peg in a round hole is not the answer. Have the right people on the right job; people who been loved and accepted by the people of Nigeria and consider the people of Nigeria who have been wallowing in abject poverty and the drive to alter that situation. Secondly, people of integrity who are not clamouring for positions because of the dividends that come from it most be in this government. In my case for instance, I worked in First Bank Nigeria for over 25 years and I left as Executive Director. I was General Manager at Standard Chartered Bank in London and New York. I was a training officer in London; if you compare me with a school leaver and someone who is doing that job for the first time, you will know that there is no basis for comparison.

This is why it is good to bring technocrats into government, those who know and have the love of Nigeria at heart and those who will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. I am sure General Buhari is going to do that because during his military rule when he was Head of State, there was some measure of improvement in virtually all the sectors in Nigeria because discipline. You can never achieve anything without discipline. You can only enforce discipline if you are disciplined yourself. You must be able to enforce discipline on others if you are disciplined yourself. And you know that he is a very disciplined man, so, once again, Nigeria is lucky and Nigeria has taken the right decision to have voted him in and this is the first time after 1999 election that our electoral system has been judged as free, fair and credible and therefore it is peaceful that is why there is less acrimony. But we have witnessed in this country a situation where someone didn’t contest for any election and he is declared a winner. What worked for him was the ability to carry ‘Ghana must go’ bag to the villa at the end of the day. Those days are gone forever in Nigeria.

Your party is sharing offices? What is your advice?

We believe that if we want peace to prevail in Nigeria, the winner-takes-all syndrome should be very minimal; it should be all an embracing government.

Every segment of Nigeria should be given a role to play. We are not going to run on exclusive government but an all-embracing government and, so far so good, based on newspaper publications, you will see that most of the positions that have been shared out have even spread. Even where Buhari didn’t get votes, he has given them a position, a very powerful position, all with a view to making sure that, at the end of the day, peace prevails and everyone is given a good sense of belonging.

Let’s go back to the internal politics of APC. Sometimes managing success is more difficult than getting it. How is APC going to manage this success that it has achieved?

It is more difficult to manage money than to make money. Just as you said, it is more difficult to manage victory than achieving victory. Now, once you have the right persons in position, all these things are no problem. Having the right leadership, people with balanced outlook, people with balanced judgements, people who have the fear of God at the back of their minds has always been a problem in this country. And if you talk about that, Buhari will score a very high mark if not the highest mark in the entire country. I try not to exaggerate; I try not to embark on political rhetoric but on the fact of the situation.

Given the sit-tight syndrome of most African leaders, would you commend President Goodluck Jonathan for reacting the way he did, calling Buhari to congratulate him even before the results were officially announced?
I don’t want to pre-empt what Buhari can do but, as far as I am concerned, President Jonathan deserves to be recommended for the Nobel Prize for Peace. You know what has been happening around Africa that once a leader is in position, he wants to stay put. They don’t like to relinquish position. Look at what happened in Ivory Coast and other places. We have seen a lot of maturity and love in him. He said it is not worth shedding any blood for the position of the presidency. How many people in Nigeria, in Africa, in the third world reason that way? They want to perpetrate themselves in power and, for the mere fact that he has shown the difference, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. But for this maturity, trouble would have erupted in Nigeria.

Mark you, so many years ago, America predicted that, in 2015, Nigeria will disintegrate. Have we proved them wrong or not? Even Nigerians themselves, before the election, a lot of people left their business areas to retire to their villages saying if they should die, they will not like to die in the town, they will like to die in their village because they predicted the aftermath of the election to be very disastrous, but Jonathan has proved such prediction wrong. So, I take off my cap for him. He is a good leader and he should be given special recognition by recommending him for Nobel Prize and considering what has being happening in Africa to set a very good example for other leaders to emulate. Look at what is happening in Zimbabwe?

Are you comfortable with the influx of persons, especially PDP members, into APC? Would they not pollute the party?

They are coming here for a purpose and, as far as we will separate the chaff from the wheat, no problem. But democracy and politics being a game of numbers, we are not going to reject anybody but we will receive them with caution. If you are coming with good faith and with a view to contributing your quota to the development of Nigeria and the party, we will embrace you with open arms. With all our heart, we will receive you but if you are coming there with a purpose of sharing money or bringing corruptive tendencies, we will treat you with caution.

Many people feel you are arrogant. Have you learnt your lessons now that you want to go back to power?

Instead of me learning any lesson, they have learnt a lesson that the accusation heaped on me was unfounded. I will tell you the offence I committed and this is why the Kogi you know in those days is not the Kogi you know today. I have a background of private sector concept of efficiency and prudent management in managing available resources but the people I met in the political arena said no! That this money isn’t meant to develop the state; that it is meant to be shared and I said I didn’t have that background and they said if you don’t have that background, we will show you the exit road and we will deal with you’. You can’t convince anybody in Nigeria that I am not development oriented, that i didn’t develop the state because even the PDP government gave me seven awards out of 12, courtesy of the media tour headed by Professor Jerry Gana, the then Minister of Information and National Orientation. I was known as the best performing governor in Nigeria and my own people said they didn’t want that.

They wanted to ridicule me but God has ridiculed them because, look at what is prevailing in Kogi; it is so pathetic. Today, without any iota of exaggeration, Kogi is one of the most backward states in Nigeria. During my time, they described Kogi, again, courtesy of the media tour, as the fastest developing state in Nigeria but you see now because they say I am very arrogant. Some said that what have I missed that I am going back to the Government House to take? What are you talking about? My baby is sick. I was one of the pioneers of the state and the way the state is now is very pathetic.

It is a shame to all of us who knew that state when I was there. So that is why there is a huge cry from the masses that I should come back and govern them. Some say i am old but I am not older than the present governor. I am not older than my predecessor. So, what are they talking about? At 72, God bestowed leadership on Buhari so that he will take Nigeria out of the woods, out of the pains, out of total devastation, out of the ills that pervaded this country for 16 years. Experience isn’t something you go to the classroom to read and people have natural ability. If you don’t have that ability, there is no way you can measure up. I don’t want to praise myself but I have given the opportunity for people to see and differentiate between me and my colleagues.

source:Vanguard