WE’LL DAZE BUHARI IN 2019
— 11th November 2017
•Says APC founders have since deserted the ruling party
In 2015,
many thought he was going to challenge former President Goodluck
Jonathan, even Jonathan saw him as a potential rival, but former Jigawa
State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido did not run. He told Saturday Sun in
January this year that running against Jonathan at the time was like
passing a vote of no confidence on him.
Today, however, Lamido has left no one
in doubt that he would be seeking his party’s ticket for the 2019
presidential contest. In this interview with ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, held at his home in Kano last Saturday, Lamido declared that Buhari was no threat to the PDP, come 2019.
He said: “What is my business if they
endorse him or if he runs? Buhari came from a very small party called
the CPC. Without the influence of the ACN and the governors who left the
PDP, there was no way he would have won because he came from a very
tiny party. If those who came together to make him what he is, are no
longer in the party, then he has my sympathy for failing to understand
this. Look here, Buhari is no threat to the PDP.
“In PDP, we do not give a damn on
whoever the APC presents for 2019 because we are more than two-third. We
know that as a party, we have made some mistakes and we apologise to
Nigerians. If the likes of Tinubu and Atiku feel concerned about what is
happening in APC and those who were originally in PDP leave, what will
become of him? He would only be left with his tiny CPC, I don’t know how
he would do it, but that is his problem, not mine. In any case, the
Buhari of today is not the Buhari of 2015. “The Buhari of today is fatigued; he is
faced with what you call political party management in a democracy. It
is not where you give orders; here, you have to build some consensus.
You can see he cannot even relate well with the Senate President of his
own party. So, the Buhari of today is not the Buhari of 2015. Before
2015, he was Buhari the puritanical. Buhari, who they saw as the only
man at the helm of 20 million people that Nigerians in the APC were
ready to surrender their trust, their reasoning, their honour and
everything because they are so lazy. Look at what (Professor Itse) Sagay
said about the APC. He said they are all thieves. So if they are
calling the PDP thieves, their own man is saying they are all thieves.”
Few days ago, you wrote the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) a letter where you analysed the situation in the
country and said the party must take the lead in rescuing the country.
What informed the approach that you took?
A political party has its own kind of
authority and by my upbringing and culture, the party is very important.
We need to pull Nigeria out of despondency and the first thing that I
chose to do was to intimate the party faithful that I am offering myself for
the job should the party consider me worthy of flying its flag because I
believe that it is time that we share the same concern for our country.
PDP is the only party that can set things right in this country.
If you compare how things were in the
country three years ago to what it is now, you will appreciate why
things have to change. Many others may likely join the presidential
race, but what is important is that in whatever we do, we should ensure
that we share the same dream and aspiration and put Nigeria first.
Whoever will emerge after the primary should be a PDP candidate who
knows PDP very well and who is popular with the people and who can tell
Nigerians this is what we are offering you. If the party brings a very
good person with a common understanding, it will be very easy to make
progress. We either do things right, or by 2019, there would be some
problems in Nigeria and PDP is the only party with the capacity and
passion for Nigeria. We have been there for 16 years and we stabilised
Nigeria.
There are speculations that some of
your party members that left are likely to return and some of them have
presidential ambition; for instance we hear the former vice president is
likely to return but that he wants the party to assure him that when he
returns, he would get the ticket of the party. How true is this
speculation?
Those governors who left the party at the
time first raised the alarm that there was something wrong with the
PDP. We went round the country and we saw other political leaders. We
said then that what we were going through may likely endanger Nigeria’s
stability and security in future, and we felt that the problem was even
beyond the PDP. The guidelines and constitution of the party clearly
states that the party must meet at least quarterly, but for a whole
year, the party never met. We wanted the party to meet so that when the
key players are gathered, we can push for the party to do the right
thing. It was our efforts that caused things to be narrowly corrected,
but in the process, five governors, some key players and some
parliamentarians left the party. To me, that was a big mistake because
the party you formed and you campaigned for and people gave you their
trust in the rain and sunshine because you were part of the party,
should not have been abandoned like that. But that is history now. They
left because at the time, they felt that they were not happy about the
prevailing situation, but I believe that you should not let your anger
and personal mood affect your leadership position. So, it was the mood
and feeling in them that made them take that decision. Having gone to
where they went, have they found comfort there? Have they been consoled?
Have they been rescued from what they were running away from or have
their problems compounded? So naturally, they would want to come back
because they are more agonised and pained where they are now. This is
where naturally they belong; where they share a common history with
their friends before they became what they are, and they are most
welcome. They built a house, which is APC, but now, they are coming back
into their home, which is the PDP and we are ready to welcome anyone
who wants to come back for whatever reason.
In that house, ACN, CPC, ANPP and some
parts of APGA came in, but now, that house cannot give them what they
are looking for, so they want to come back to their homes. No matter
where the likes of Saraki, Wammako, Kwankwaso, El-Rufai Ribadu and all
of them who left go, the political blood running in their veins is that
of PDP. No matter how much they try, you cannot really run away from
your own soul.
About the issue of giving conditions, I
do not think that my brother Atiku would give any condition because he
knows that no one can give him any guarantee because the party is not
owned by one person, it is owned by the people. If the people say that
they want him and find him worthy of picking the ticket, then so be it.
All of them are very welcome back to the PDP where they are cherished,
loved, admired and on which platform they became what they are
politically. It is better than where they are now, where they are
humiliated every day. Every now and then Lai would abuse them calling
them PDP thieves and they are there watching where they are being abused
and they cannot even defend their honour. No matter what you say about
the PDP, we are in charge of the APC government because it is the PDP
that got APC corrugated. If you take away the PDP from the APC, the APC
would collapse.
In 1999, 2003 and 2007, they tried so
hard to get to power, but they couldn’t, it was only when PDP members
joined them that they succeeded. I am sure that by now they are tired of
the situation. It is just like running away from your family to run
into another person’s family, then the members of the new family reminds
you of how all the members of your family were thieves, crooks and
rogues. By abusing your former family, they are also abusing you. They
ran into APC for comfort; they were frustrated and were looking for a
shelter, but they are being insulted every day. This is because by
insulting the PDP, they are also insulting those who moved from the PDP
to the APC. I’m happy that they have been there and went through what
they went through in that party, so, they should come back to where they
are loved because they are part of us.
President Buhari has not announced
his intention to run, but some within his party have already endorsed
him for 2019. Does the PDP have what it takes to defeat Buhari?
What is my business if they endorse him
or if he runs? Buhari came from a very small party called the CPC.
Without the influence of the ACN and the governors who left the PDP,
there was no way he would have won because he came from a very tiny
party. If those who came together to make him what he is are no longer
in the party, then he has my sympathy for failing to understand this.
Look here, Buhari is no threat to the PDP.
In PDP we do not give a damn on whoever
the APC presents for 2019 because we are more than two-third. We know
that as a party, we have made some mistakes and we apologised to
Nigerians. If the likes of Tinubu and Atiku feel concerned about what is
happening in APC and those who were originally in PDP leaves, what will
become of him? He would only be left with his tiny CPC, I don’t know
how he would do it, but that is his problem, not mine. In any case, the
Buhari of today is not the Buhari of 2015.
How do you mean?
The Buhari of today is fatigued; he is
faced with what you call political party management in a democracy. It
is not where you give orders; here, you have to build some consensus.
You can see he cannot even relate well with the Senate President of his
own party. So, the Buhari of today is not the Buhari of 2015. Before
2015, he was Buhari the puritanical. Buhari, who they saw as the only
man at the helm of 20 million people that Nigerians in the APC were
ready to surrender their trust, their reasoning, their honour and
everything because they are so lazy. Look at what (Professor Itse) Sagay
said about the APC. He said they are all thieves. So if they are
calling the PDP thieves, their own man is saying they are all thieves.
If you pick the ticket of the PDP, would you describe the state of the economy today as an added advantage to you?
There is no gain if a government makes
mistakes because it is the ordinary people that would bear the
consequences of the mistakes. So, do not celebrate a government’s
economic mistakes because you would suffer the consequences too. I am
not in any way celebrating APC’s failure in government. This government
is Nigeria’s government, but unfortunately, the APC got into government
unprepared and because they were unprepared, they kept on churning out
lies to mask their own failure.
During the campaigns, they invented lies
about PDP; they called us thieves, rogues, evil and all sort of names.
Now that they are in government, they failed to metamorphose from a
political party seeking election to a party in government where the
culture is different. Also, because they do not have that sense of being
a government in power, they keep repeating the same thing they were
saying while they were in the opposition. I am a Nigerian citizen by
right and not by the political party that I belong to, therefore, the
government of Nigeria is my government. Unfortunately, by the apparatus
and culture of the APC, they have so demonized Nigerians such that if
you speak, you are mocked. For the first time in this country, we have a
government mocking its own citizens. When you complain, you will be
called a wailing wailer. If people are wailing because of what they feel
is wrong, what a responsible government should do is to find out why
they are wailing.
As a father, if your children are crying,
you don’t say, ‘look, why did you steal some of the money I gave you
for feeding? Shut up’, and then you start abusing your child. The APC
justifies irrationality. They are suffering from ignorance of
leadership. They think that you are a citizen of Nigeria by privilege,
but you are a citizen by right.
Some of those in government now, what has
been their contribution to the development of Nigeria? Nothing! But
today, they mock Nigerians. Today, the culture of lies has become an art
of governance. When Buhari was in London for treatment, Lai Mohammed
and other aides kept telling Nigerians that he was perfectly healthy but
when he returned, the President himself told Nigerians that he had not
been that sick before in his life, but his aides were saying another
thing.
It is very sad. Buhari is Nigeria’s
president. When Yar’Adua was ill, the opposition wanted to know
everything about him. They accused the then government of hiding the
true state of Yar’Adua’s health. Now that they are in government, they
are playing a far worse role than the government of Yar’Adua played.
They are so overwhelmed and do not know what to do because of the power
of falsehood and manipulating people with lies. Again, we are Nigerians
and we have the right to talk; don’t demonise, abuse or mock Nigerians
when they talk because they are asking questions that are very
pertinent.
For instance, they made allocations of
billions of naira for Aso Rock clinic, yet they say there is no syringe
there, but if you complain, APC would say you are a wailing wailer.
Aisha Buhari wailed like me, which means she is also a wailing wailer.
When you wail, it is because things are being done wrongly and that is
why you are wailing. PDP has been wailing, they are wailers and even
some in APC have become wailing wailers too, so we are now a wailing
nation.
The PDP is preparing for its
convention in December, would you say that the party has learned any
lesson from the crisis that rocked it before the apex court came to its
rescue?
We are going into election year and the
chairman that we will elect now will be symbolic. He cannot have his own
authority because the election is about the will of the people where
there are key players. People are not voting for him on account of his
own instructions. He cannot go to Sokoto or Jigawa or Oyo and give
instructions on account of his own personality; it is something
collective, a family affair. Even the election of a president is only a
symbol because he is going to work for the entire country. In electing a
chairman, we are going to ask what the person in his own standing can
do for PDP. The earlier chairmen like Solomon Lar was very symbolic
because he was part of those that formed the party, but those who came
after, like Audu Ogbeh, what was he? We have come a long way and by now,
the election of a chairman should be less personal in our affairs over
the leadership of the party. No one should say it is going to be A or B
or C, because ideally, all those big names in PDP should not align with
any aspirant. No stakeholder in the party should be seen taking any
aspirant to anywhere, we should allow aspirants to go round and meet
leaders. Bode George and Gbenga Daniel came to my house to ask for my
support, and that is how it should be. If we decide that for the sake of
harmony and stability of the party, we decide that we would have a
consensus and support Mr. A or B, we can only do that if we are standing
on a high moral ground as not been seen to align with anybody. What we
want is a party chairman, whom when he wins, will be the chairman of the
party in the entire PDP family and we would all give him our support.
As far as I know, there is no crisis in the party.
You were in Kaduna recently to inspect
your campaign office, and by the next day, we heard that there was
crisis involving your supporters and some hoodlums. What really
happened?
I decided to come from Abuja to Kaduna to
see the level of development in the office and I went there not to
campaign or open the office but to inspect it. While addressing the
young people, I told them that we, who are their parents and elders in
government, have made some mistakes. I told them that some of us
exploited their innocence and their age to manipulate them and because
we are their parents and they trust and believe us, they supported us.
But now that some of us have failed them, they have every right to be
angry. I told them that in the next 30 years, those under 30 will be 60
years; I asked them what will be their future? Do they want to end up as
street hawkers or barrow pushers? I told them that in the next 30
years, people like me and Buhari may or may not still be alive, so I
left. After I left, I saw a story in one of the national dailies written
by someone who was not there at the event. When I read it, I knew that
the story was not true because nothing of such happened.
It is believed that Kaduna is the traditional home of President Buhari and you went there…
(Cuts in) No, it is not his home. Kaduna
is the home of all former northern governors; and all former leaders of
northern extraction, it was the center of the administration during the
time of Ahmadu Bello. No one can appropriate Kaduna as his home because
it is for all northerners. From 1999 till date, northern elders have
been meeting in Kaduna and at one point or the other; all our elders
were abused by these youths. Even El-Rufai has been abused by these
youths on several occasions, so, it is our failure as northern leaders
because we allowed our heritage in Kaduna to be turned into a theatre of
hooliganism. Every northerner should feel worried about this trend.
Elections take place all the time there but somehow, the youths do not
see any effort on our part as leaders to address their needs, future and
frustrations. We need to restore these youths to the right path and
guide them properly.
All the Mallams, pastors, political
leaders and elders have a duty to guide them because in the next 25
years, if these youths are not properly guided, we will be in trouble.
It is dangerous for us because the youths are disappointed; they are
aggrieved because they feel that they have been shortchanged by their
leaders. The first thing leaders should do is fashion out a way on how
to restore the innocence and honour of our youths; exorcise the seed of
evil in them and plant a seed of integrity and honesty. So
my concern is not about campaigning for 2019 but how to restore the
future of our youths. I watched a video of a nine-year old boy who was
brutalised by cultists just before this interview and I almost shed
tears because it shows the increasing rate of cultism in the country. If
that boy as little as he is, was literarily brutalised, then where is
the love we the parents ought to give to our children?
What are the plans of the opposition to put the economy on the right track if it wins the election?
The human mind is wired to confront
challenges. I have seen people create something out of nothing through
their ideas. Ideas create wealth and that is why countries like South
Korea, China, Japan and other countries are prospering every day. Even
if you have a thriving economy on paper, you cannot grow any economy
because our chemistry is terrible. This is a country that is not stable;
here, people do not have rights and the government does not have
respect for its citizens. In the last two years, how much investments
have entered Nigeria? Nothing! A country like Angola has been able to
attract a $16 billion investment; even Egypt and Rwanda attract
investments all the time because there is stability in those countries.
Prosperity is not built on wars, but on love and concern for human
beings.
In Nigeria, what you get depends on what
you can give the political party in government and this is a breach of
the oath of office. The government must make everyone feel that they are
dignified citizens of their own country; they should show that they
love their citizens and they believe in them. When you see that your
government is protecting your rights and giving you all that you
deserve, you will support it and stand by it because you know that your
government is there for you. So, it is not about economic theories
because we have so many of them in this country. Prof. Itse Sagay
recently said that the ruling party is a party of thieves and corrupt
people. Now, if this is the testimony of someone who is part of this
government, who will come from Europe and invest?
SULE LAMIDO SAYS NORTHERN ELDERS HAVE FAILED THIER YOUTHS. READ HIS INTERVIEW WITH ISMAIL OMIPIDAN.
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Saturday, November 11, 2017
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