He lauded the conduct of the primaries, which threw up Buhari saying it was a victory for Nigerians.
Excerpts:
How has it been politically?
So far, so good. Though sometimes, I feel disap¬pointed.
As an advocate of Buhari presidency, how do you feel now that he will fly the APC flag?
It is a good choice. What is left now is for him and APC to work hard so that he can win. Nigerians have longed for Buhari to lead them but some people who would never do things right are against Buhari presidency. It is time for him and the party to accommodate other interests. I’m happy APC has shown the ruling party that we are transpar¬ent by conducting what is believed to be the most transparent, freest and fairest presidential primaries in the history of Nigeria. You could see that the other aspirants congratu¬lated and embraced Buhari contrary to the wish of PDP that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and others who failed to win the ticket would decamp or won’t accept the result if they didn’t win. It is not in the law of APC that the winner must take all. Rather, positions would be evenly distributed.
The country has been held cap¬tive by the Jonathan administration. The recent happenings attest to this fact. As I talk to you, Nigerians don’t know how many barrels of oil are sold daily. Jonathan encourages his brothers, the ex-militants to con¬tinue to steal our oil. Late last year, this government approved over N50 billion to purchase stove and our military is under-funded, hence, the reason they have not been able to crush Boko Haram. The latest is that Nigerians should be ready for more hardship, according to the gospel of the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala. Jonathan is set to introduce austerity measures. This bad gover¬nance cannot continue. Corruption is legalised by the present; if not, tell me why nobody has been arrested for oil theft?
Today, Nigeria is in debt after Obasanjo secured debt relief for the country and some states are no lon¬ger stable. The sovereignty of this nation is being challenged because part of this country is no longer in Nigeria. Some people have taken over those places in the Northeast. The nation is in a state of war and to my surprise, this does not bother the President as he goes about his re-election bid as if all is well. Jonathan never deemed it necessary to ad¬dress the nation on how he intends to solve this problem. He has forgot¬ten the Chibok schoolgirls who have been in the Boko Haram den for eight months now. And his followers never see anything wrong about this hence they have adopted him unop¬posed as their presidential candidate. What a shame. People are dying like flies and he goes about dancing and campaigning. He wants to continue to suffer us but that won’t be pos¬sible because come February, Nige¬rians will vote out PDP. If it were to be in other countries, their president would declare state of mourning and the flag flown at half-mast. This shows that our moral value is gone; the present leaders are not patriotic. What Nigeria needs now are people that can bring about change.
Northern governors recently asked Mr. President to declare total war on Boko Haram in the Northeast, what is your take?
We are already at war. Part of this country is not in Nigeria any more. Is it not the duty of Jonathan to secure the country as Commander-in-Chief? Does he need to be told to declare war against Boko Haram? Already part of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states are gone. Before you know it, God forbid, these insurgents may enter other states. Right now, Jonathan is President of Nigeria and Commander-in Chief minus eight local government areas in the Northeast.
When Chukwuemeka Odumeg¬wu-Ojukwu declared war in 1966, the area in which we fought the Biafra/Nigeria civil war was not as big as the areas being controlled by Boko Haram. And the Federal Government then mobilised the armed forces and crushed Biafra. So, what we expect from Jonathan is to mobiliise the army, recruit more youths into the military and equip them fully so that we deal with insurgency once and for all instead of playing politics with the security of the nation. Only newspapers are counting how many days the Chibok girls have been in captiv¬ity, taken away from their parents. Jonathan and PDP kept promising us that the girls will soon be back. Any president who cannot keep or fulfill his promises to Nigerians is not worth re-electing to govern us for another four years. If we must save Nigeria from total collapse, we must kick out PDP in 2015. He has no business seeking re-election because he has reduced the office of the president to mockery. Since he declared state of emergency in the Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, what has hap¬pened? I have respect for some of my colleagues in the Senate but they have not done enough to keep the President on his toes. Thank God that some are bold enough to call for Jonathan’s impeachment. It is long overdue. He has committed a lot of impeachable offences. The Senate President, my leader, I also have respect for him but, having fought the war to keep this country together, I expected more from him as the leader of the National Assembly to save this nation. There is a conspira¬cy against the North by the Northern governors because if Jonathan can’t declare war in the affected states, why can’t they come together to protect their states.
The court says Tambuwal cannot vacate his seat as Speaker for defecting to the APC, what is your reaction?
The Constitution of Nigeria en¬courages free association including political association in line with the article under the fundamental prin¬ciple of state policy. This particular section because of its importance, says you cannot pull Tambuwal out unless you amend it with three quar¬ter majority. And if you are to amend it, you need three quarters. So, the people who drafted the constitution see the importance of freedom to as¬sociate. The constitution also made it clear that if there is a problem in the party, which everybody knows that there was a problem in PDP, a mem¬ber can leave the party for another. So the court ruling in favour of Tambuwal is victory for democracy.
Was PDP in crisis?
Yes, there was and it is still in crisis and would remain in crisis as long as this set of people remains in the party. If PDP is not in crisis, where are governors Rabiu Kank¬waso of Kano, Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers, Wamakko, Sokoto, Ahmed of Kwara, Al-Makura of Nasarawa states. Where is Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, National Secretary of PDP just to mention, but a few. If there was no crisis, they would have been there. So, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that PDP is in crisis. The bottom line is that the constitution allows any member to leave his party if
Source: Sun
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