2023 Elections: Nobody Should Underrate The G-5 Governors – Hagher

What are the chances of your party,the PDP  returning to the presidency in 2023?

Our way to the Atiku Presidency 2023 is simply to show Nigerians that under the PDP, we rescued Nigeria from collapse, heedlessly caused by decades of military dictatorship. Nigeria was a pariah state, its economy had collapsed, the quality of life had degenerated and inflation was hitting the roof while the military promoted the country into endemic corruption. All these situations are back in Nigeria within the APC rule in seven years. Our campaign is showing Nigerians that Atiku is the best presidential candidate because he was at the apex of that PDP exceptionalism that restored the nation’s integrity, rescued it from economic collapse and grew democracy. The last seven years of the APC government is nothing but an unmitigated disaster. Many civil wars are taking place in Nigeria, separatist agitations have become rampant and governance is characterised by impunity, nepotism and a civilian dictatorship. The quality of Nigerian life is pitiable as 20 million Nigerian children are out of school and the university system has collapsed. The Naira which was 160 to the dollar is now N800 to the dollar. Corruption is virulent and operates in a pervasive and ubiquitous manner. Nigerians are fleeing Nigeria in alarming numbers.

How exactly did the PDP rescue Nigeria from collapse and how does the PDP intend to rescue Nigeria now?

In 1999, the PDP returned Nigeria to democracy after decades of military dictatorship characterised by lack of national cohesion and Nigeria was a pariah nation to be avoided by the international community.  The PDP set up a very lofty agenda for this country to bring unity so that every Nigerian citizen will feel at home and every part of the federation will feel truly federated in freedoms, quality of life and equality of opportunities before the law. The PDP’s 16-year-rule enhanced the quality of life of all Nigerians by running a transparent government based on the rule of law. One of the first things the PDP did was to make the country viable again. The PDP government negotiated favourable terms to end the suffocating debt burden and unsustainable thread-mill debt trap. No country that is heavily indebted can take care of its citizens when debt servicing is out of proportion to the national development needs. The PDP did a great thing; exiting the colossal debt burden, took diplomacy and high levels of financial management to have Nigeria exit the $30 billion debt to the London and Paris Clubs. The servicing of these loans alone was gulping over $3bn yearly. The APC has borrowed a harrowing $3.3 billion from the Export-Import Bank of China. The debt conditions are opaque and the money is being wasted by the APC administration.  The noose in the debt trap is choking Nigeria to death as the government is actually getting more loans to pay salaries now.

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Are you suggesting that the APC government is corrupt?

I am not suggesting. I am stating as a matter of fact that the APC’s manifesto and posturing on corruption is a huge joke. Globally, any country where endemic corruption sets the agenda of governance has put the citizens at risk. The APC government is responsible for widespread treasury looting and allocation of billions of stolen money to its top functionaries. The massive stealing of over $25 billion oil money has exposed the APC as an administration that has foisted poverty on the hapless citizens.  Except for the PDP, corruption would have continued to be celebrated.  It was the PDP that set up the anti-corruption infrastructure: the ICPC, the EFCC and all the others. Today these bodies have become instruments of political oppression. Corrupt officials hurry to join the APC so as to be condoned and forgiven while the citizens reel in poverty.

Are you not afraid of interruptions in our democracy as these weighty allegations gain momentum?

I believe like Awolowo that the worst civilian administration like the APC now is better than the best military government. The fact is that the PDP had earlier professionalised the army and got rid of the bad eggs and the coup making mentality. Nepotism has eaten deep in military appointments and retirements. If the military takes over power now, it must be at the invitation of the failed APC junta. In the first six months of the PDP in 1999, the PDP dismantled the coup-making architecture of the Nigerian military.  The PDP actually enthroned democracy. President Jonathan did not go to court like the APC would have done. Instead, the PDP allowed a rabble-rousing APC, hurriedly constructed purposely for wresting power from the ruling party. President Jonathan was amazing and he achieved for Nigeria, a bloodless first time successful transition from a ruling party to a party that was not even one-year old, a hatched opposition political party.

In other words, does the PDP hope to coast to victory merely on the poor performance of the APC in the last seven years?

The battle is already won; the election is over. The best campaign for the PDP is the score card of the APC. Nigerians are sick and tired of the APC government. So, this election is actually a referendum on the bad governance of the APC, which should be punished for our suffering, insecurity, manufacturing poverty and their total disrespect for the lives of the Nigerian people. They should be punished for the loans which they have kept taking and for which we have seen nothing except unfinished roads, rails, refineries and development of other countries, other than Nigeria.

Deep inside every Nigerian’s mind is, let’s give the PDP another chance.   Atiku Abubakar happens to be the most senior of the PDP politicians because he was our vice president when civilian rule was re-established and we could sing, dance and sleep. We need to return to the base; return to sanity and development. We need a return of Nigeria back to Nigerians because Nigeria was stolen away from us for seven years.

Do you really believe that the APC set out to deceive the public and destroy the country?

No, I don’t think so. I think the APC harvested from a break up faction of the PDP. They not only sold the country a dummy, they were ill prepared for power. I am sure they were shocked when their game plan worked and they were declared winners in 2015.

The APC was not really prepared for power. I know that they did not seek out to destroy the country. They were just ill-prepared for power because when they finally won, to appoint a Secretary to Government took months. To appoint ministers was almost impossible and the president even before he appointed them, expressed disdain for cabinets. He said he’ll prefer to use permanent secretaries.

The campaign by people are degenerating into insults and mockery of the candidates. How do you see the issue of attacks on the person of Tinubu by PDP spokespersons and personal attacks on Atiku by the APC?

In this campaign, some of the attacks are inevitable.  When you see a candidate visibly cannot articulate his movement or his joints and seems in every eye that there’s something physically wrong with such a candidate, then it is inevitable to draw the attention of the public. It is people who believe that you don’t need a healthy and strong president but a cabal who lock the president up in some hospice and establish the rule of the cabal. Our youth need their country back to the competent shoulders.

The APC  are still insisting on governing Nigeria through the candidacy of Bola Tinubu despite his alleged frailties. Are you comfortable with this? And also Peter Obi, don’t you think his coming into the contest and his appeal to the youths would likely jeopardise the chances of the PDP?

Not at all. Peter Obi is an asset because the young people, the millennials following Peter Obi have already voted against APC. And therefore, nationwide, they are going to take the votes from the APC and deny them the votes. There are two consequences. There are two ways by which you can win elections: either the total number of votes tallied or the number of states that you make 25 percent, at least in 24 states. So, Obi is going to deny Tinubu of making 25 percent in 24 states. So, first Bola Tinubu is restricted. He’s ethnic-tied. His choice of a Muslim running mate is unacceptable.

Every Nigerian has a right to be president but it is only God who knows whose turn it is to be president. The perception Nigerians have of Tinubu is that he has no desire to serve but the desire to own power.

Governor Ortom called out Atiku as a Boko Haram sympathiser. How do you reconcile this with your lofty and rosy picture of Atiku?

Governor Samuel Ortom has since apologised to Nigerians for his lamentation outbursts. The Fulani herdsmen (transnational terrorists) have killed so many people in Benue State in the last seven years of Buhari administration. Benue State has almost a million people displaced from their ancestral lands. The governor is in distress and has emotional trauma. His public outbursts must be understood as the wailing of the bereaved. We should expect no melody in the wailings of the bereaved.  But Ortom has since apologised for his hateful outbursts.

I can give a different testimonial of Atiku. We lived next to each other in Apo village in 1994-95, during the National Constitutional Conference. He is a Nigerian with open arms extended to all Nigerians. I welcome him as a Fulani but also as a Tiv man. If there are personal misunderstandings with Governor Ortom, they will be resolved. Atiku will win more votes in Benue State than Tinubu and Obi.

In your party, five governors under the umbrella of G5 are aggrieved with happenings in the party. If these five were to pull out of the party, don’t you think it will affect the PDO’s chances of winning the 2023 elections?

If these five governors and all the voters in their states do not support the PDP in the 2023 elections, it could lead to the PDP losing elections. I’m afraid that even if we win, it will be by the slimmest of margins. These five governors are extremely important and nobody should belittle them in any way. And I know their importance because at the top of the hierarchy of these five governors, is a young man by the name of Nyesom Wike who apparently has an inexhaustible political war chest so to say, money. I think that in losing elections, different people react differently to it. These five governors must reconcile with the PDP candidate and the party and move forward. Nobody should belittle them because a similar ‘head must roll mentality’ took place before the PDP lost the 2015 election to the APC, when Dr.Saraki and other governors decided to give Jonathan an ultimatum. History does not clone itself, so the five governors could lose out big time, and be remembered by history merely for their saber rattling and beautiful dances.