2011: Why I doubt if Jonathan will win in Plateau, by Kwande

How do you view the current presidential campaigns across the country? I would say that I am really very happy with the awareness as politicians are getting to the grassroots and people can judge who is doing what and who is saying what. It is good for the country. It is good for those who […]

How do you view the current presidential campaigns across the country?

I would say that I am really very happy with the awareness as politicians are getting to the grassroots and people can judge who is doing what and who is saying what. It is good for the country. It is good for those who are looking for the seats and it is also good for the electorate, because they can now compare and contrast. The only thing is, when something is too much it is as bad as when it is too little.

Some of them, I can say, have gone beyond the ordinary awareness and wanting to enlist the support of the grassroots. I can strongly tell you that the campaign by the President is too much. I don’t think he can mount such a campaign if he were not the president. We praise him to some extent that we are now questioning him. How is it that he can do it? Otherwise, I would have said, good, if you want to lead people tell the people what you want to do for them.

As far as I am concerned, the campaign is going on well, the only bad aspect of it is the violence that is being introduced to such extent that members of the opposition are being killed. That is not good for us, people are watching Nigeria. They want to know whether this time we would do it right.

People are not just waiting for results to be declared. Every aspect of elections should be measured. I know we started very badly in the PDP when we did not have direct election, the imposition of delegates, and the changing of delegates at the spur of the moment. To me, that was bad, but we are learning.

I believe that in future we have to correct it. We started by giving the governors power of life and death over primaries but it has been done. I used to calculate and get it right but this time I cannot see any of these contestants winning the election without a re-run, if the crowd I see behind them is something to go by.

Recently, one of the Presidential candidates alleged that the President expends about N100m in a day in his campaign.

I have already said it. When I talk about Jonathan being the President, his wife is also a President. Being the First Lady is also part of the presidency. If you put together their campaign for the presidency and what has gone under, that is what I said is too much. I said too much of anything is as bad as too little of it. You cannot campaign without money; you can’t invite people without them spending money or without you spending money on their behalf, whatever way it is, I believe it’s too much.

The display of wealth in the campaign in terms of dresses of women is making our wives at home miserable; it is making our families miserable; more so  families in the rural areas who are carrying their hoes and axes into the farm, see these wives of the leaders as not humans. They look like angels from heaven.

I don’t know what they are trying to tell the people. The President and his wife are supposed to be a modest family, but the leaders, the President and his wife, governors, ministers and their wives seem to appear as if they are living in a different world. Please, tell them our wives are miserable from the glittering things they are displaying in the campaigns they are not helping the modest family in this country.

On the other hand, doesn’t it appear as if other parties are not doing enough?

They are doing well. They are going round and you can also appreciate the type of crowd they also have. They are doing their best and I don’t think their campaign will be as expensive as that of the President. Somebody was trying to respond to the complaint. I was surprised when he was trying to explain it away that when the President is travelling somewhere there must be police to guard the personality, there should be a plane to take him, there should be security on the ground. We are not talking about that. Let the president cut down a little bit.

What happened to the suit you filed against President Jonathan over the zoning formula in the PDP?

What is happening is that we went to court. We didn’t go to court because we do not like Jonathan. We went to court on principles and people are misunderstanding us. They misunderstood us now and they are still misunderstanding us. We are not saying that President Jonathan, as a citizen of this country, has no right to contest an election. But we oppose him contesting on the platform of the PDP, where all members of the PDP agreed that there will be rotation and sharing of power, of which he was a signatory. That is all we said.

We do know that northerners were contesting. If we succeeded in getting a northerner to represent the PDP, he will be contesting against another northerner. Buhari would have been contesting, Ribadu would have been contesting, Shekarau would have been contesting. People misunderstood us as if we were saying all southerners have no right to contest.

At the time we went to court, we were too early. We were too quick to go to court, because at the time we were protesting his candidacy, he wasn’t a candidate and the court said so. Now that he is a candidate, we decided for peace, particularly with what we saw in the primary. We decided not to go further, and more so, when our own consensus candidate said he will not take the president to court. On whose behalf are we going to fight? So, we let go, so there is no case in the court that I am part of now.

What is the position of the Atiku group concerning the Jonathan candidacy now?

The Northern Elders Political Forum, which I am a member, had G4. Now it’s G3 since one of us has joined the Jonathan group. Then, we have G15 of which I am a member, too. You have other groups, and then, you have a bigger strata of northerners. We are in dialogue, you read already. The President was humble to have gone to see our leader, Adamu Ciroma, and since then a committee was set up to look into the possibility of moving together, since we are also loyal members of the PDP. Despite all the quarrel over power rotation,  we still want the PDP to win. There is no question of us jumping out to go, just because you are a northerner, to make you win against our party. We are talking. A decision was not taken, only because something happened. The Secretary of our Forum was arrested, and even the day we were to take decision, that offended us. We didn’t know whether the government was interested in us reaching a consensus. But, we have not abandoned the dialogue.

What basically are you looking at?

Most importantly, the target is not to break Nigeria and the target is not to bring crises in the country. Our opposition should go towards uniting this country and having a peaceful election. If we are going to give and take, we will go along. It is not the question of personal hatred, we are not enemies, and we are just opponents in principles.

We learnt there is an offer of  ministerial slots to each of the northern leaders, if they support  Jonathan.

I am not God. How do I know that he will win, anyway? How do I know? If we begin to talk about ministerial appointments, then we would have defeated the principle we stood for in fighting Jonathan. If only we are to talk about the material benefit, it will be disgraceful.

If, of course, we agree on certain things for peace to reign,  which is the most important thing, and he feels there are people that could help and he draws them to give them appointments to support him, it won’t be a surprise.

In any case, even now that we are fighting, part of us are with him. What is he going to give us more than that? We are talking on principles.

Should this scenario continue, how relevant will Atiku be in ensuring that the PDP wins the presidential election?

Atiku is a wonderful man. You don’t read him looking at him. He is deep, people don’t understand Atiku. Look at his countenance on the day they said he was defeated. He accepts fate and I believe God is wonderful. God creates situations. The situation is that he was defeated even though we did not agree on the method and the happenings in the arena. Atiku is always relevant. If this dialogue is work and the agreement reached, he will be in the forefront to execute it for the benefit of peace of this country.

At the state level, you were seen appearing in Labour Party rallies, while you are a strong member of the PDP. How do you reconcile that?

 

I am in PDP and a very loyal person in PDP and PDP started with me and you know even when Obasanjo was contesting here in Jos, my house was the headquarters of activities. I am like that, but I am an elder statesman on the Plateau. I don’t like what happens when people were divided. I went there to show my daughter (I have blood relations with Pauline Tallen) solidarity. She is contesting for the governorship.

I wanted to show myself that, morally I was with her. In Plateau  today, if anybody tells you that the candidates are political party candidates, tell him he doesn’t know Jos. We are now going on personalities.

In the past, a follower of a political party will not care who was contesting on his platform. He will say where is our political party? Where is our symbol? He would be looking for the symbol of the party to cast his vote. He will not be looking for who is contesting on the platform. That is not the case today in Plateau. What we have are individuals, independent candidates who are assessed on the strength of their personalities. If Pauline has been in the PDP, I will do the same, if she had been in the ACN, I will do the same. I only went to pray for her and to show her that I am with her. Praying for her, as a blood relation to win the election, that is all.

What you are saying is that your support is for the Labour Party?

No, my support is for Pauline Tallen.

Earlier you made a prediction of a possible re-run at the presidential level. Looking at the scenario in Plateau state, how do you think it will be?

Plateau is worse in that sense. Before, we thought Jonathan was going to sweep the whole place, with the assistance of the governor. But since the governor is now struggling to win, that aspect is also now another question of another analysis. I wouldn’t be able to now swear that I know a particular candidate that would win Plateau, I wouldn’t.

What would be your advice to the people of Plateau in respect of the forthcoming general elections?

Let them conduct themselves peacefully. But we should be allowed by the security to choose those we want. I believe, compared to other states in Nigeria, we are a civilized people. We have suffered enough of violence. Election is frightening people. Let us try and show people that they are wrong and we are people who like peace.

I am advising my people to really help us, come out, cast their votes peacefully and go back home.