Chief Ishola Filani, former national vice-chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, (PDP) south-west zone is concerned about the
pervasive indictment of the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration by the
main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and
certain chieftains of the ruling party .
In this interview with Sunday Sun, he enunciates the achievements of the present administration and expresses confidence that the ruling party will retain the Presidency in the forthcoming general elections.Excerpts:The main opposition party, the APC, has always dismissed the Jonathan administration as clueless, with no concrete achievements to flaunt before the electorate. What is your take on this unsavoury assessment?
It is definitely wrong, a wrong assessment and in any case, you have to understand the APC—it never sees anything good about the administration. They are never objective, they use every issue to propagate falsehood and it is always in favour of themselves. So, you can see that it is very unfair for somebody to describe Jonathan as not performing.
He is a quiet man and you need somebody like him to rule Nigeria, you need somebody who in all things that he does, sits down, thinks very well and assesses the situation before he reacts. If they say because he does that he is slow or ineffective, I think they are making a mistake.
If you look at all the problems we have in Nigeria, we need a cool headed head of state like him—he is a very brilliant man and one thing you notice about him, is he doesn’t read speeches and in any case you remember where he is coming from, the academia and that’s having a lot of impact on whatever he does.
He has achieved a lot in a difficult terrain like Nigeria and like I said earlier on, the way he met Nigeria after Obasanjo and after the late Yar’Adua was messy, and it took him as a level headed gentleman to be able to ensure unity. In some other countries, the issue surrounding Yar’Adua’s health could have led to war, but he was able to bring Nigeria together before he started doing things that we now can see.
Look at all our utilities, our airports, our transportation system, particularly the railways. The roads, the south-west, east roads—the Benin/ Ore road, several roads in the North which were unaccountable, and the rehabilitation of the busiest road in Nigeria, the Lagos/Ibadan express road.
These are pointers to the fact that he believes that movement is part of welfare and these have been extended to our seaports, airports and so on. Apart from these, he has been able to play a leadership role in Africa, and earned us respect of the international community; he has been able to place himself in such a way that he is one of the mediators, an international mediator— there is hardly any conflict in the sub-region or around the world that he isn’t invited to have a say. Take Burkina-Faso for instance, where the military struck which is an aberration, against democracy and rule of law, Jonathan was the main man that ensured peace was restored.
You just talk about his trouble-shooting efforts within the sub-region and Africa. But that Nigerians aren’t impressed with . They say, yes, here is a leader who is mediating in crisis spots in Africa, but certain parts of his country are at the mercy of insurgents. The opposition party has even alleged that he is indifferent to the situation in the North-east, because the affected states are under the control of the opposition party…
Jonathan has done a lot of things, taken a lot of steps as far as the issue of security is concerned. He has sponsored a lot of bills to quench whatever is happening in those three northern states. He has deployed the military, he has sought foreign assistance, when he saw that the situation was getting out of hand.
One thing that is phenomenal about this Boko Haram thing is that it started as a religious uprising and in any case, you must remember that this thing didn’t start during Jonathan’s administration , it started during the tenure of Yar’Adua. You know it is the way a disease afflicts you that will determine what cure you will seek.
Everybody until recently believed that Boko Haram was a religious thing until it took the dimension of the kidnap of the girls and that was when it dawned on the Federal Government that it has taken a more dangerous dimension, other than religion and all efforts have been made to counter the insurgents. Foreign assistance has been sought and the thing is coming down.
Did you say it is coming down? Are you aware that some major towns in Adamawa have been taken over by the insurgents?
Yes, but there are indications that even where the insurgents haven’t taken over, the fact remains that progress is being made. The point I am trying to make is that if the APC accuses the Federal Government of neglecting those states, because they aren’t controlled by the PDP, at the same time I want to tell you that there are security reports that linked the APC with Boko Haram.
How do you mean sir? Why is it that only the three states in the North that are controlled by the APC are having this problem?
Even where they aren’t the cause, there is evidence that they are fuelling the problem and that’s where the issue of patriotism, issue of a political party wanting the country destabilized, disunited, all because you are looking for power exists! One thing they don’t understand is that, those particular states, at one point in time or the other were controlled by the PDP
No, sir. PDP has never won governorship elections in Borno.
But at least two of them…
No, PDP has never won election in Yobe State; those two states, Borno and Yobe states were controlled by the defunct ANPP, one of the parties that coalesced into APC…
Well, it has been in control of Adamawa and it is still in control of Adamawa. Do you think the PDP would want to destabilize a state where it has government? The problem in Adamawa is an invasion from Borno and Yobe. One can make a logical conclusion that the problem in Adamawa is an extension of what is happening in Borno and Yobe .
So, what we have to do is to now start talking and stop shifting blames, saying that it is the ruling party, because one party isn’t in power in one state or the other . It is for us to go into the root cause of the problem .
There is no doubt that political issues form one basis or the other-whether you are in APC or PDP, the best thing for us to do is to look at how this insurgency is solved. Insecurity is pervasive worldwide, it isn’t peculiar to Nigeria. When you look at other nations, all over the world, I don’t want to start counting one after the other.
Yes, it isn’t peculiar to us. But if you look at the way and manner we address it here, can you say the government and the security agents, are actually taking proactive measures to contain the insurgents, to the extent that Boko Haram is now hoisting flags in ‘conquered territories’ ?
Yes, they are. You see, the insurgents can do whatever they like, but what we are saying is that, here is a situation where government must be very, very careful . This thing didn’t start as a war that it is now. It started like a religious uprising and when you want to quench religious uprising, you have to be very careful, because it didn’t start as a war and the Federal Government goes along with it and as the thing worsens , then the federal government gives the appropriate remedy and that’s what they are doing now.
If anybody thinks that the government should go on air, and sea, to quench it as if it is fighting a war, you have to understand that those people the government will be fighting are Nigerians and in any case, this isn’t a civil war—it is an uprising. The way you handle it must be in the interest of fellow Nigerians and you must guarantee their protection. You cannot go and move against your own people, as if you are fighting a foreign enemy. You have to realize the dilemma of the government. The method to be used in fighting this insurgents must show that you still regard those people as Nigerians.
But people are worried that insurgents are pursuing Nigerian soldiers to neighbouring countries like Cameroun and the Defense spokesperson told a stunned nation that it was ‘tactical maneuver.’ The same military with endearing records of peacekeeping operations in the sub-region…
Let me tell you one thing, you are still getting it wrong. Are they hoisting foreign flags? Is that what they are doing?
But they are proclaiming ‘conquered’ territories, and an Islamic State…
You see, this is an internal problem, a religious problem and that’s why… you see, there is a difference between declaring total war against a foreign enemy. They aren’t saying they are seceding.
They are proclaiming a state, hoisting flags and you are saying we must not liken it to the proclamation of defunct Biafra
No, they aren’t, this is religious. They didn’t call it any name. It was when Ojukwu declared a Biafran State that the war started. So, I think I understand the kind of care the Federal Government is taking, because none of them has said, ‘we aren’t Nigerians’. So, whatever Islamic or religious flag they are flying, they are still within Nigeria.
So, must the Federal Government continue to tolerate them?
No. You see, the government is interested in peace and the best method to my mind, is not by declaring a total war and we should praise President Jonathan for doing that. We shouldn’t mar our situation and drag ourselves into the mud the more. That’s the difference.
Former president and former chairman of PDP BoT, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo last week vented a critique of the Jonathan administration and he said the government has performed below average. What is your take on that?
Well, everybody has a way of assessing situations and I want to agree with you that whatever assessment a former head of state gives another administration should be viewed critically. He has done something like this before, in fact, in a more elaborate manner by writing a letter to Mr. President and expressing his views.
I think this is also one of the views that he is expressing. But being an elder statesmen, he should make himself available to say things as he sees them. Whether his approach is acceptable to the generality of Nigerians is another matter. But he is an elder statesman, he has seen it all: he was military head of state and a civilian president and the people in the Presidency didn’t see it the way he saw it and that’s why they replied him the way they did.
But if a former president is taking every opportunity to criticise the present administration; someone who has the latitude to reach the Presidency and the leadership of the party, isn’t it an indication that the PDP is a divided house, few months to an election?
There is no divided house. No, I don’t think there is . It is like in a family, somebody says you shouldn’t have done something. That doesn’t mean that the family is divided. Like I said, he is a former president, a father to all of us at all times, he can criticize and it is now left for the government to accept his opinion or modify it. So, we have to thank him for showing a lot of interest in the affairs of the country.
Finally, how prepared is PDP in the south-west for the 2015 general elections?
Well, the PDP has a programme of preparations for the elections that are coming up in 2015 and towards this end, we have conducted the congresses for the election of three ad hoc delegates, who are going to vote in the primaries. We have conducted the elections of the national delegates, who are going to vote at our national convention, we have conducted screening of our candidates for the state assemblies election, National Assembly and gubernatorial elections and we are now looking up to primaries and the national convention.
In all these, I must confess that we have done creditably in the sense that even where there are minor complaints, which led to cancellation of some congresses in states like Oyo, Cross River and Lagos, we have to give kudos to ourselves that out of 36 states, and the FCT, we had complaints in only about four states. Our machinery gives room for appeal to anybody who feels aggrieved.
Even in those states where the ward congresses were repeated, I am sure you are aware of what happened in Lagos and Oyo?
What happened?
There was fracas and in Lagos, police had to fire live bullets and tear gas canisters to chase away thugs from the party secretariat.
These are very isolated cases…
Isolated? Sir, there is implosion within your party and yet you keep saying you will take Lagos and Oyo states. Is the party not divided?
Please, listen to me. Don’t come to that kind of conclusion. If we are saying, we are going to take Lagos, APC wouldn’t just fold their arms. Whatever we are doing, they will ensure that they disturb us, destabilize us to the extent that we wouldn’t be able to take decisions that would give us the strength to beat them.
Are you insinuating that APC was responsible for what happened at your party secretariat in Lagos?
Let me tell you one thing: what stops them from causing fracas? The same thing in Oyo! Look, if you tell me you are coming to take over my house, I would do everything possible to destabilize you, that you wouldn’t have the strength. A divided house cannot take over government from the opposition.
But let me tell you one thing, they wouldn’t succeed. All these issues at the end of the day are being settled. You know how much we struggled for power in Nigeria. So, the internal struggle for power within the PDP and the external aggression of the APC, not willing to lose their states— you know how important Oyo and Lagos states are to the Yoruba. So, those are minor issues that I want to confirm to you that we have been able to surmount. Come 2015, whether they like it or not, we are taking over the entire south-west, particularly Lagos and Oyo states.
One thing I want you to appreciate is this: but for our inbuilt machinery of ensuring that we have all these things in good order, whatever is happening in Lagos or Oyo, there are clear ways, machinery within the party to ensure that justice is done, to ensure that everything we want done in those states are done and you must applaud us if we conducted screening and congresses in 36 states and the FCT and we are just recording fracas in few states. People don’t talk about majority of states where there is peace. We have cohesion in about 32 state chapters and in three or four states, we are having challenges which we would overcome.
One thing with PDP is that we aren’t dictatorial; we aren’t . Nobody stands somewhere and gives instructions on candidates for elections. That’s what happens in APC.
Is it peculiar to APC? PDP governors are endorsing their successors and simultaneously insisting on picking senatorial tickets in their respective senatorial zones, having ensured automatic ticket for President Jonathan. Can you say with all sincerity that there is internal democracy in PDP?
Let me tell you one thing. There is a difference between the governors and the aspiration of National Assembly members. Each has its merit.
Senatorial districts are created within the states. So, whatever you want to say, it is still within the jurisdiction of the governor and it isn’t out of place for the governor to be interested in who becomes a senator in his state. It is absolutely, not out of place because he isn’t going to pick a senator in another state. For proper and good administration of his state, he has to be interested in whatever is happening within the state.
On the other hand, those people who are saying automatic ticket in the Senate, all they are doing is to ensure stability, to ensure development, within the system like we have in the United States and in Britain. There are some people who, more or less have been there for life and it is because of the experience they have to offer. Even in Nigeria here an example is David Mark, who has been the Senate President for some time now and when you see the way he has been carrying on with this business, he has ensured stability in the National Assembly.
He has been able to acquit himself with his wisdom, experience, background and with the diplomacy he handles everything, he has ensured stability, he has ensured continuity, unlike in the past. There was a time we had not less than four Senate presidents and that was when the relationship between the National Assembly and the Presidency went down the drain. That isn’t what we want in Nigeria.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, he enunciates the achievements of the present administration and expresses confidence that the ruling party will retain the Presidency in the forthcoming general elections.Excerpts:The main opposition party, the APC, has always dismissed the Jonathan administration as clueless, with no concrete achievements to flaunt before the electorate. What is your take on this unsavoury assessment?
It is definitely wrong, a wrong assessment and in any case, you have to understand the APC—it never sees anything good about the administration. They are never objective, they use every issue to propagate falsehood and it is always in favour of themselves. So, you can see that it is very unfair for somebody to describe Jonathan as not performing.
He is a quiet man and you need somebody like him to rule Nigeria, you need somebody who in all things that he does, sits down, thinks very well and assesses the situation before he reacts. If they say because he does that he is slow or ineffective, I think they are making a mistake.
If you look at all the problems we have in Nigeria, we need a cool headed head of state like him—he is a very brilliant man and one thing you notice about him, is he doesn’t read speeches and in any case you remember where he is coming from, the academia and that’s having a lot of impact on whatever he does.
He has achieved a lot in a difficult terrain like Nigeria and like I said earlier on, the way he met Nigeria after Obasanjo and after the late Yar’Adua was messy, and it took him as a level headed gentleman to be able to ensure unity. In some other countries, the issue surrounding Yar’Adua’s health could have led to war, but he was able to bring Nigeria together before he started doing things that we now can see.
Look at all our utilities, our airports, our transportation system, particularly the railways. The roads, the south-west, east roads—the Benin/ Ore road, several roads in the North which were unaccountable, and the rehabilitation of the busiest road in Nigeria, the Lagos/Ibadan express road.
These are pointers to the fact that he believes that movement is part of welfare and these have been extended to our seaports, airports and so on. Apart from these, he has been able to play a leadership role in Africa, and earned us respect of the international community; he has been able to place himself in such a way that he is one of the mediators, an international mediator— there is hardly any conflict in the sub-region or around the world that he isn’t invited to have a say. Take Burkina-Faso for instance, where the military struck which is an aberration, against democracy and rule of law, Jonathan was the main man that ensured peace was restored.
You just talk about his trouble-shooting efforts within the sub-region and Africa. But that Nigerians aren’t impressed with . They say, yes, here is a leader who is mediating in crisis spots in Africa, but certain parts of his country are at the mercy of insurgents. The opposition party has even alleged that he is indifferent to the situation in the North-east, because the affected states are under the control of the opposition party…
Jonathan has done a lot of things, taken a lot of steps as far as the issue of security is concerned. He has sponsored a lot of bills to quench whatever is happening in those three northern states. He has deployed the military, he has sought foreign assistance, when he saw that the situation was getting out of hand.
One thing that is phenomenal about this Boko Haram thing is that it started as a religious uprising and in any case, you must remember that this thing didn’t start during Jonathan’s administration , it started during the tenure of Yar’Adua. You know it is the way a disease afflicts you that will determine what cure you will seek.
Everybody until recently believed that Boko Haram was a religious thing until it took the dimension of the kidnap of the girls and that was when it dawned on the Federal Government that it has taken a more dangerous dimension, other than religion and all efforts have been made to counter the insurgents. Foreign assistance has been sought and the thing is coming down.
Did you say it is coming down? Are you aware that some major towns in Adamawa have been taken over by the insurgents?
Yes, but there are indications that even where the insurgents haven’t taken over, the fact remains that progress is being made. The point I am trying to make is that if the APC accuses the Federal Government of neglecting those states, because they aren’t controlled by the PDP, at the same time I want to tell you that there are security reports that linked the APC with Boko Haram.
How do you mean sir? Why is it that only the three states in the North that are controlled by the APC are having this problem?
Even where they aren’t the cause, there is evidence that they are fuelling the problem and that’s where the issue of patriotism, issue of a political party wanting the country destabilized, disunited, all because you are looking for power exists! One thing they don’t understand is that, those particular states, at one point in time or the other were controlled by the PDP
No, sir. PDP has never won governorship elections in Borno.
But at least two of them…
No, PDP has never won election in Yobe State; those two states, Borno and Yobe states were controlled by the defunct ANPP, one of the parties that coalesced into APC…
Well, it has been in control of Adamawa and it is still in control of Adamawa. Do you think the PDP would want to destabilize a state where it has government? The problem in Adamawa is an invasion from Borno and Yobe. One can make a logical conclusion that the problem in Adamawa is an extension of what is happening in Borno and Yobe .
So, what we have to do is to now start talking and stop shifting blames, saying that it is the ruling party, because one party isn’t in power in one state or the other . It is for us to go into the root cause of the problem .
There is no doubt that political issues form one basis or the other-whether you are in APC or PDP, the best thing for us to do is to look at how this insurgency is solved. Insecurity is pervasive worldwide, it isn’t peculiar to Nigeria. When you look at other nations, all over the world, I don’t want to start counting one after the other.
Yes, it isn’t peculiar to us. But if you look at the way and manner we address it here, can you say the government and the security agents, are actually taking proactive measures to contain the insurgents, to the extent that Boko Haram is now hoisting flags in ‘conquered territories’ ?
Yes, they are. You see, the insurgents can do whatever they like, but what we are saying is that, here is a situation where government must be very, very careful . This thing didn’t start as a war that it is now. It started like a religious uprising and when you want to quench religious uprising, you have to be very careful, because it didn’t start as a war and the Federal Government goes along with it and as the thing worsens , then the federal government gives the appropriate remedy and that’s what they are doing now.
If anybody thinks that the government should go on air, and sea, to quench it as if it is fighting a war, you have to understand that those people the government will be fighting are Nigerians and in any case, this isn’t a civil war—it is an uprising. The way you handle it must be in the interest of fellow Nigerians and you must guarantee their protection. You cannot go and move against your own people, as if you are fighting a foreign enemy. You have to realize the dilemma of the government. The method to be used in fighting this insurgents must show that you still regard those people as Nigerians.
But people are worried that insurgents are pursuing Nigerian soldiers to neighbouring countries like Cameroun and the Defense spokesperson told a stunned nation that it was ‘tactical maneuver.’ The same military with endearing records of peacekeeping operations in the sub-region…
Let me tell you one thing, you are still getting it wrong. Are they hoisting foreign flags? Is that what they are doing?
But they are proclaiming ‘conquered’ territories, and an Islamic State…
You see, this is an internal problem, a religious problem and that’s why… you see, there is a difference between declaring total war against a foreign enemy. They aren’t saying they are seceding.
They are proclaiming a state, hoisting flags and you are saying we must not liken it to the proclamation of defunct Biafra
No, they aren’t, this is religious. They didn’t call it any name. It was when Ojukwu declared a Biafran State that the war started. So, I think I understand the kind of care the Federal Government is taking, because none of them has said, ‘we aren’t Nigerians’. So, whatever Islamic or religious flag they are flying, they are still within Nigeria.
So, must the Federal Government continue to tolerate them?
No. You see, the government is interested in peace and the best method to my mind, is not by declaring a total war and we should praise President Jonathan for doing that. We shouldn’t mar our situation and drag ourselves into the mud the more. That’s the difference.
Former president and former chairman of PDP BoT, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo last week vented a critique of the Jonathan administration and he said the government has performed below average. What is your take on that?
Well, everybody has a way of assessing situations and I want to agree with you that whatever assessment a former head of state gives another administration should be viewed critically. He has done something like this before, in fact, in a more elaborate manner by writing a letter to Mr. President and expressing his views.
I think this is also one of the views that he is expressing. But being an elder statesmen, he should make himself available to say things as he sees them. Whether his approach is acceptable to the generality of Nigerians is another matter. But he is an elder statesman, he has seen it all: he was military head of state and a civilian president and the people in the Presidency didn’t see it the way he saw it and that’s why they replied him the way they did.
But if a former president is taking every opportunity to criticise the present administration; someone who has the latitude to reach the Presidency and the leadership of the party, isn’t it an indication that the PDP is a divided house, few months to an election?
There is no divided house. No, I don’t think there is . It is like in a family, somebody says you shouldn’t have done something. That doesn’t mean that the family is divided. Like I said, he is a former president, a father to all of us at all times, he can criticize and it is now left for the government to accept his opinion or modify it. So, we have to thank him for showing a lot of interest in the affairs of the country.
Finally, how prepared is PDP in the south-west for the 2015 general elections?
Well, the PDP has a programme of preparations for the elections that are coming up in 2015 and towards this end, we have conducted the congresses for the election of three ad hoc delegates, who are going to vote in the primaries. We have conducted the elections of the national delegates, who are going to vote at our national convention, we have conducted screening of our candidates for the state assemblies election, National Assembly and gubernatorial elections and we are now looking up to primaries and the national convention.
In all these, I must confess that we have done creditably in the sense that even where there are minor complaints, which led to cancellation of some congresses in states like Oyo, Cross River and Lagos, we have to give kudos to ourselves that out of 36 states, and the FCT, we had complaints in only about four states. Our machinery gives room for appeal to anybody who feels aggrieved.
Even in those states where the ward congresses were repeated, I am sure you are aware of what happened in Lagos and Oyo?
What happened?
There was fracas and in Lagos, police had to fire live bullets and tear gas canisters to chase away thugs from the party secretariat.
These are very isolated cases…
Isolated? Sir, there is implosion within your party and yet you keep saying you will take Lagos and Oyo states. Is the party not divided?
Please, listen to me. Don’t come to that kind of conclusion. If we are saying, we are going to take Lagos, APC wouldn’t just fold their arms. Whatever we are doing, they will ensure that they disturb us, destabilize us to the extent that we wouldn’t be able to take decisions that would give us the strength to beat them.
Are you insinuating that APC was responsible for what happened at your party secretariat in Lagos?
Let me tell you one thing: what stops them from causing fracas? The same thing in Oyo! Look, if you tell me you are coming to take over my house, I would do everything possible to destabilize you, that you wouldn’t have the strength. A divided house cannot take over government from the opposition.
But let me tell you one thing, they wouldn’t succeed. All these issues at the end of the day are being settled. You know how much we struggled for power in Nigeria. So, the internal struggle for power within the PDP and the external aggression of the APC, not willing to lose their states— you know how important Oyo and Lagos states are to the Yoruba. So, those are minor issues that I want to confirm to you that we have been able to surmount. Come 2015, whether they like it or not, we are taking over the entire south-west, particularly Lagos and Oyo states.
One thing I want you to appreciate is this: but for our inbuilt machinery of ensuring that we have all these things in good order, whatever is happening in Lagos or Oyo, there are clear ways, machinery within the party to ensure that justice is done, to ensure that everything we want done in those states are done and you must applaud us if we conducted screening and congresses in 36 states and the FCT and we are just recording fracas in few states. People don’t talk about majority of states where there is peace. We have cohesion in about 32 state chapters and in three or four states, we are having challenges which we would overcome.
One thing with PDP is that we aren’t dictatorial; we aren’t . Nobody stands somewhere and gives instructions on candidates for elections. That’s what happens in APC.
Is it peculiar to APC? PDP governors are endorsing their successors and simultaneously insisting on picking senatorial tickets in their respective senatorial zones, having ensured automatic ticket for President Jonathan. Can you say with all sincerity that there is internal democracy in PDP?
Let me tell you one thing. There is a difference between the governors and the aspiration of National Assembly members. Each has its merit.
Senatorial districts are created within the states. So, whatever you want to say, it is still within the jurisdiction of the governor and it isn’t out of place for the governor to be interested in who becomes a senator in his state. It is absolutely, not out of place because he isn’t going to pick a senator in another state. For proper and good administration of his state, he has to be interested in whatever is happening within the state.
On the other hand, those people who are saying automatic ticket in the Senate, all they are doing is to ensure stability, to ensure development, within the system like we have in the United States and in Britain. There are some people who, more or less have been there for life and it is because of the experience they have to offer. Even in Nigeria here an example is David Mark, who has been the Senate President for some time now and when you see the way he has been carrying on with this business, he has ensured stability in the National Assembly.
He has been able to acquit himself with his wisdom, experience, background and with the diplomacy he handles everything, he has ensured stability, he has ensured continuity, unlike in the past. There was a time we had not less than four Senate presidents and that was when the relationship between the National Assembly and the Presidency went down the drain. That isn’t what we want in Nigeria.
