Jonathan Surrounded By Bootlickers, Sycophants On Pretence Of Loyalty –Lamido
Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido is a strong force among the seven aggrieved governors in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, in this interview with journalists, speaks on the crisis in the PDP and his optimism towards the resolution of the crisis, President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, PDP’s disciplinary committee, and the speculation about their planned defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC. JAMES DANJUMA reports.
You see, the crisis has a history, which we identified and we listed our resolution as to which we are meeting. So, obviously, if all the issues raised are met then we would have no moral authority to say we would fight again because the fight is on principle, the fight is the desire in us to ensure that we remain the winning party; a winning party must have discipline; beyond making money and industry out of government.
There is something we call service and service can only be rendered by people who can make sacrifices, by people who have elements of human dignity and human decency.
The way the party is being run, it is being run by people who want to prove that they are loyal – that is the problem. It is one huge contest to deal with in PDP, between those who don’t want to prove a point to anybody and those who have to prove a point to somebody.
Now, people like Bamanga Tukur, within them, with the president, he would remain after 2015 and therefore, he is clinging on Mr. President’s ambition.
He is helping him. People who had no input in making the President are now brought on board and therefore those post- election characters have to prove that they are loyal to him and therefore they must play sycophancy, they must bootlick, they must praise-sing and they must say he is the best human being on earth. They would say anything because they have to prove to him their loyalty.
Don’t you think there is need to prove your loyalty to Mr. President with the way things are?
In my own case, my proof is him (the president). He is my proof because he knows, more than anyone knows, what I was to him. So, I cannot be competing with people like Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati, Bamanga Tukur, Ahmed Gulak and the new people who are now brought on board and who had no idea of what happened before he became the president. They are now there and the place is filled with bootlickers and sycophants who are working hard to prove their loyalty.
Should I be competing with them? Should I go to his house and say Mr. President, you are the best man in this country, your head is beautiful. Must I say so? Must I say you are very powerful, must I even say so? Because he is mine! Together we got to where we are with him (Jonathan), from nowhere to somewhere.
Therefore, I don’t have to prove anything to the president because he is my proof. Others have to because they were not there before, so they can prove they are loyal to him.
This is what I call loyalty of opportunism because in that same office people were there who they sang their praises. During Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, people like Ibrahim Mantu (former Deputy Senate President) and many others sang the same song.
Under Babangida, they sang the same song. And it is one huge industry today. Our attention has been taken away from issues. Like I said, Obasanjo was there before and if you look at the personality of Obasanjo, it is something else. Babangida was there before, so also was Buhari and Gowon at different times.
These are people who were coming from huge institutions and yet Nigerians were able to prevail on them – they left office and Nigeria is still there.
So my worry is, this thing you are doing is upturning the PDP; ignore all these sycophants – these bootlickers because they are vultures pecking on what they think is a rotten flesh. Behind all this noise, would these things get us there in the next election? That is the bottom line. If it will, fine, we will keep on fighting. If it will not then I think we should be sensible enough.
With the crisis in the PDP, do you consider yourself leaving the party for the All Progressives Congress?
It is true there are changing dynamics but in spite of everything, we gave a condition and these condition are on issues bothering on PDP’s interest, not on individual interest. And the PDP is a family – a collection of a number of interests all over the country, therefore, we see that we are losing direction and that is why we said no, apply the brakes because we are not preparing for 2011, 2011 is already ours now.
We are saying let us work and see if these vultures can keep eating in 2015. That is all! From 2011 to 2015 is not an issue; it is something we did long before 2011 and therefore we are looking at the next level – how do we come back as the ruling party at the next election, united to be able to address the issues in Nigeria?
This is because after the stability of the nation between 1999 and 2011, we should be able to now focus on the next level – human development, which is the most difficult thing.
Now, are you saying this crisis that we are in is what would give Nigeria development? ASUU has been on strike for about five months, a lot of students have been denied the right to be able to be focused; they have distorted views. There are a number of things begging for attention much than the APC going around to see me or see anybody else.
Are you considering the APC overture?
Like I said, in our party, we met and a committee was set up by the president. It was made up of former President, Obasanjo as the chairman, elders of the party like Babangida, former party chairmen like Bernabas Gemade, Ahmadu Alli and others. We discussed these issues thoroughly and they were itemised and given to the president.
Now, we have not fully exhausted these issues yet, so the issue of where I go would only come in based on the outcome of this kind of demands we made.
They are not personal demands; they are demands arising from worry and concern of the party we know damn too well as the vehicle for this country at the moment, which is being hijacked and they see it as an industry more than the issues. So, when these issues are viewed either way, then from thereon we would know what to do.
How about the demands of the G-7 governors?
No! No! No! When we met for the second time, in principle all the demands were acceded to. First, restoration of Adamawa party structure; two, recall Rotimi Amaechi and give him his structure; three, sacking of Bamanga Tukur; four, new convention – election of new officials who have been shut out.
Then because there has been so much impunity, restoring the party to the path of legitimacy and legality as per the laid down rules has become difficult. In principle, all these were accepted.
Now it is only the pronouncement we are waiting for because there was a committee which was set up by the president, headed by me and we made a submission, part of which was that Adamawa structure should be restored to Murtala Nyako.
So, really that one is conclusive, so it only needs a pronouncement to bring it into being. That is all! Amaechi, because he went to court they said there should be a procedure, therefore, the chairman of Board of Trustees, BoT, would go and meet Amaechi and the others and then all cases pending in court in Rivers State would be withdrawn and that will also be restored. So, in principle, all the terms given were agreed to. It is simply the implementation that we are expecting.
So why is the implementation becoming difficult?
Ask them. But in principle, it was agreed.
With disciplinary committee in place and APC visit, doesn’t your group risk expulsion?
As journalists, I know where you want to delve into because it gives you the kind of excitement you want in terms of news making. I understand that but I would disappoint you.
You see, it is part of the aberration. Look at the committee headed by a very senior elder of this country, Umaru Dikko. Now when you are talking about discipline, you are talking about people who are part of a party who know the party culture and will be able to understand the breaches and see in the course of the offences so committed what and what do you think is wrong.
Umaru Dikko was not part of PDP. He is a personal friend of Bamanga Tukur and also a good brother to me, because he has been coming here.
So, you could see the approach is so laughable. When you put up a committee to discipline a governor of the PDP, Umaru Dikko has no idea of the sacrifices that the governors made.
He needs to have the understanding of some circumstances by which things occurred, so by the time you want to make a judgement you can be just and fair. Now Tukur is aggrieved whereas he is the principal problem of the entire crisis and he is creating a committee to discipline people. It doesn’t make sense!
Do you have any regrets on President Goodluck Jonathan’s choice in 2011
This is the thinking of a typical younger generation, because they allow the heat of the moment to judge their instinct. A single second under this circumstance, I have no regret for supporting Jonathan because I feel in my own judgement I was doing the right thing for Nigeria’s stability, for Nigeria’s continuity. That whatever sacrifice he made, we made it because doing otherwise would introduce other dimensions.
After supporting him, after winning the election, it is now up to him to earn my confidence for the next level if he wants to go there because at that time the reason was mine, the feeling was mine and the concern was mine and the analysis was mine. Now it is up to him to vindicate me.
What about threat from the PDP to treat some of the so-called dissidents like you as criminal?
There is a legal language and raw language. Look, in language, language should be legal as per definition of the law. So, what you consider crime in Nigeria is something understood in our statues books in law.
There are political parties in Nigeria and there are 60 parties with each having its own constitution, a breach of PDP constitution is not a breach of ACN constitution, a breach of PDP constitution is not a breach of Nigeria’s constitution. But then the word crime is defined under our laws.
The question is this who is the criminal between my son and his (Tukur’s)? His son made some money from fuel subsidy fraud, he is now in court on bail. My son was arraigned and convicted for having in his possession US$40,000. So who is the criminal?
Any end in sight to PDP crisis?
There is end in sight. I’m really kind of amused. Here is a political party that was formed with some kind of ideas and belief with the primary role of always capturing power to run the country.
It’s in crisis because the people who now claim ownership of the party have no idea of what is called party management and therefore would go to court and seek relief from the court to compel members of the party to stand by the party or use police to enforce followership of the party.
Now, this is a very primitive party culture. And there is just no political wisdom which is governed by political party managers and operators when they have crisis we are having.
What would it translate to on election day? Would the crisis make us win the election or lose the election? And then from these, take your own position. If the crisis would make them win the position in the PDP so let them continue with the crisis, but if the crisis would make them lose the election, which is the ultimate in political party formation, if we are going to lose the election through the crisis then it means that should be enough warning.
Do not go to the police, do not go to court because on election day, the court would not be there, the police would not be there. It is going to be the voters who are going to be there and there is no way the court would say this voter being a new PDP has no power to cast his own vote, or say this is a sycophant of the President who has been bootlicking and should not vote.
What should worry us in the current crisis in the party is that; at the end of the day, on election day, how would it not affect us? If we think we would win by the crisis, then we should continue with the crisis because what we want is to win the election. So, will the crisis win the election? But if we are going to lose the election by the crisis then it means we would apply a brake to it. It is as simple as that.
How viable is the Dutse airport?
You know if you have got a healthy growing baby, if you leave her after a month, you will find she has grown bigger, so Jigawa is a growing baby and has about 4.5 million people being the father, all working hard to develop it. The airport is not meant for one event affair per annum.
It is an airport which was conceived by the PDP government during the campaign, and therefore, Dutse would be so designated as a zonal airport for exporting agricultural goods outside Nigeria to the rest of the world. Primarily, it is going to be a cargo airport but it is going to also be an export centre for agriculture. And part of the plan is to build huge cold storages around that area to be able to preserve most of these perishable agricultural goods for exportation.
So, in term of concept, it is not really like what you said, so there is no fear. It is going to be a very busy airport if the commitment is given. Based on the earlier idea of building the airport, if there is commitment from the Federal Government, it is going to be a kind of hub for goods in Nigeria.
Recently, you held the Jigawa Economic Summit, how far have you gone with the implementation of the summit’s blueprint?
Even as presentations were going on, I saw the difficulties ahead. Mine is just the desire, the political will, the commitment. But beyond that you know there is also the reality. This should be something on the ground.
There are a number of things which have to be there and I know on the infrastructure we are doing very well. On power, I hope the Federal Government, through its own effort would be able to give us power.
But fortunately, there have been a number of what I may call memorandum of understanding signed. We signed about 11 of them or so with Dangote and many others. They have been coming here and there is a committee, which I called advisory committee on the economic conclusions of the summit.
They are working very hard to ensure they know all the MoUs signed and the requirements we have gotten now. We have gotten a one-shop facility whereby as an investor you come in there and get all the information on land, on taxation and on whatever.
They would try to minimize the difficulties of the entrepreneurs coming, get this information for them to be able to really come in. It is difficult but we’re working very hard and I think we have the commitment to overcome the difficulties.
Your state has been free from the menace of Boko Haram.
Let me say here that we are very lucky we have been praying and God in His own mercies has been able to secure our people. I think the phenomenon of Boko Haram, I cannot begin to simply boast and make any claim.
I’m just lucky, people of Jigawa State are also very lucky and I thank God because He also knows our own heart that we are genuine, we are sincere, we are God fearing and because we fear God, that is why God is protecting us.
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