Jonathan afraid of Buhari? New York Times is wrong – Professor Alkali

You are the special adviser to the President on Political Matters. This seems to be the fiercest election in contemporary history of the Nigerian politics. How has it been facing the fire this time around?I’m sure you have been following events around the country. But let me tell you this. Honestly, we did well. Mr […]

You are the special adviser to the President on Political Matters. This seems to be the fiercest election in contemporary history of the Nigerian politics. How has it been facing the fire this time around?
I’m sure you have been following events around the country. But let me tell you this. Honestly, we did well. Mr President did well. The party did well. The Campaign Organisation also did well. You know when we started this campaign, time was not on our side. As a country of 36 states and Abuja, the impression then was that it was very difficult to cover this country, considering the terrain in a short while.
But the moment we made up our mind, with the leadership of the President, we were able to do one of the most difficult things. You know one of the most difficult things to do is to reach the people in their various locations, talk to them and let them know how far this government has gone in terms of changing the face of the Nigerian economy and the society within the period he has been the leader, including myself, who has been part of the party and government in one form or the other. We never know that we have marvelous programmes.
Indeed, there are a number of places we went where Mr President asked “I promised that I will not disappoint you. Have I disappointed you?” People were say no. I think that says it all.
One of the things that distinguished our rallies from others is that many people do not know that on the surface, you will see that there is no huge rally. For other political parties, people were moving around the stadia. You can see that the PDP rally was very slim and mature. One, as a policy, we do not insist that states should mobilize other neighbouring states to come and fill space. We want to have a true picture of our supporters in every state we go. We don’t want to rent any crowd from anywhere. We do not encourage anybody to rent crowd for us.
Also, we want to know exactly what we have on the ground, even the president’s entourage is very slim. Everybody is asked to go home to contribute his quota. For this simple reason, you find out that our rally is very mature, much organized and composed. We are able to see everybody clearly. It is not the kind of crowd where you see small boys, who are not eligible to vote or be voted for, may be to fill the space.
We don’t want our space to be filled. We want our own men and women. I believe many people don’t know this.   

The New York Times said the president is afraid of being defeated by retired major general Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate. So, the election was shifted. If you are to respond to them, what will you say?
You see I don’t know how much they understand about Nigeria. In any case, if you dig a little bit further, you may also find out may be some of the information they received is coming from Nigerians. Some of these Nigerians may not necessary be neutral. Everybody has its own interests. For example, if the reporter of the New York Times happens to reside in Lagos area, he may be influenced by attitude and behaviour of Lagos. You remember that Lagos also has strong PDP people. Whether the person is aligned to the APC or the PDP, we don’t know.
If he is aligned to the PDP, he won’t say that. Many people are doing this deliberately. I believe the Americans know the value of democracy more than any nation in the world today because they also a colony before. They fought for independence. They got independence. They fought civil wars before they were able to consolidate their nation. Today, they are models of democracy in the whole world.
They are models of development. Therefore, I believe they will aspire to see Nigeria grows in the same vein so that side by side Nigeria and the United States of America will be able to collaborate in various fields of endeavours.  I believe those who do not understand Nigeria should take time to understand Nigeria morefought civil wars before they were able to consolidate their nation. Today, they are models of democracy in the whole world. They are models of development.
Therefore, I believe they will aspire to see Nigeria grows in the same vein so that side by side Nigeria and the United States of America will be able to collaborate in various fields of endeavours.  I believe those who do not understand Nigeria should take time to understand Nigeria more

Do you think the president is not comfortable with the Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari?
You asked me why the adjustment of the timetable. It’s not even postponement. Normally, when you draw a timetable, the dates cannot be sacrosanct if it is outside what the law states. There are dates that you cannot shift the elections any more forward because there are minimum days before you swear in an elected candidate. That is a constitutional limitation. But there should be no issue where there is a gap, because in 2011, the elections were held in April. May be there are reasons why the INEC fixed these dates in January last year before it was released in October last year. So, the president did not sit down and say INEC give me a particular date that will favour me. I don’t think he will do it. And I don’t think the PDP as a political party will do that.
You know it appears now that the propaganda is the essence of the thing; the way you continue to paint white in black and black in white and you make profit out of it. But it doesn’t make sense. The reality is that the PDP has been on the ground longer than all the political associations that we have. The APC is the granddaughter of many mothers; from the Alliance for Democracy (AD), to the Action Congress (AC) and the ACN, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC). This amalgamation is just like the Igbo kolanot with many parts. If it’s not well-handled it can break and disintegrate. I believe if they are not careful the way they are handling the Nigerian politics, they may not go too far.

You are from Gombe State. Your state recently witnessed what we call a black weekend because of the attacks by the insurgents which were unprecedented. Before they used the Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs). But this time around, they came in a long convoy. Do you consider Gombe to be one of the states under the threats of insurgency?
First of all, I want to commiserate with our people in Gombe State and indeed in all the states that have been affected by this crisis over the past few months or years. It is our hope that this will come to pass. But what really attracted my attention and I found very unacceptable in a popular democracy was the statement issued by the spokesperson of the APC, Lai Mohammed, that those things were done by the PDP to chase people away from elections. I think that was one of the absurd things I have ever heard. I know the APC and its other variants have become so low.
I think what they do is lower than lowest. I’m thinking that they would have time to commiserate with our people. They would have time to show concern. They will have time to reach out to our people, governor, Emir and a lot of people in the region to show concern. But to reduce it to issue of voting at elections is very unfortunate. In our community, if somebody cries about fire in a house, by the time people come, they will ask the person how it start. So, the person, who is screaming now, may know something we don’t know.
There is something that the APC knows about this crisis which we don’t know. Because for something to happen now, and almost immediately, you issue a statement linking it to another political party. It means they are thinking far ahead. May be there is something they know which the PDP does not know or we do not know. But they should spare our people from this kind of trauma. It’s unfortunate we that we have it being circulated in the local community that this is what they have been saying. It’s very tragic that people should try to reap profit from the misery of others.

Don’t you think that the APC was talking about the leaflets distributed by suspected Boko Haram members?
I will answer that question. Where does he stay? He stays in Lagos. How many times does he go to Gombe, Maiduguri, Yobe? What does he know about our people? He doesn’t know anything. May be because of the coincidence that the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) has joined the ACN, they pretend to know each other. But they don’t know each other. He doesn’t know the region. The reason is that he has not been following the development in the region. If he has been following it, then it means he is following it with a lot of sentiments. You cannot see it in the way and manner it is supposed to be. I have been saying it that all those aspiring to lead this country must also know that there is a limit to what they can say and what they can do.

One of the most dramatic things that has taken place in the preparation for this election is the former Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman of the PDP Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, openly ordering the tearing of the membership card of the PDP. How did you take that incident?
I’m sure the party must have issued a statement on this matter. I’m not too sure I will like to join the controversy. In politics, whoever does something, there must be a meaning. We have to take time to know the meaning and the purpose. May be by the time we get the clear picture of what it is all about, one will be in a better position to comment. I have always insisted that our leaders are our last hope for teaching the values of our dear nation because they are the ones who have been known by the international system at various times.
If somebody succeeds them and he is serving his terms, what is required is encouragement, support and prayers because they say soldiers come soldiers go but the barrack remains. Nigeria is the barrack. We don’t have to destroy the barrack. We don’t have to destroy the structure, the institution and the system. Even in moment of anger, there is a need to have sober reflection. I think there is a need to urge people, especially those who have opportunity or aspire to have opportunity to be in leadership position to exercise a lot of diligence and rationality. We don’t want our country to be seen in the way and manner that we ourselves don’t like.                                                         

Are you worried that somebody like former president Olusegun Obasanjo is leaving the party?
I will not comment now on that matter because tearing the card is one form of leaving the party. May be writing a letter to the party secretariat might have achieved the same objective. So, we want to know what will follow next. For now, I want all our party men and women to remain calm and focused. We have our duty to continue to campaign for Mr President, the Vice President, our governors, members of National Assembly and State House of Assemblies. Therefore, there is huge task before us. That should be our primary concern now. It’s not the drama being played around.