APC is in disarray –Sen. Smart Adeyemi

Senator Smart Adeyemi be­lieves that the presidential candidate of the All Progres­sives Congress (APC), Gen. Mu­hammadu Buhari is a dictator who is merely deceiving the electorate about being a reformed democrat.

Adeyemi, former National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), who chairs the Senate Com­mittee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) spoke with some journalists in Abuja and submits that the APC, being an embodiment of corruption, cannot effect any change. ADETU­TU FOLASADE-KOYI was at the session and presents the excerpts:

Nigerians have the impression that your party, the PDP is not ready for the general elections. Is it true that the PDP is afraid?

That cannot be true for a government that is in power; to be afraid of general elections. I think opponents must have something to say to get the attention of the electorate. Be that as it may, saying that the PDP is afraid of the general elections is part of the propaganda and blackmail of aggrieved former mem­bers of the PDP who constitute them­selves into a political party now called the APC. I hold the strong view that Ni­gerians are convinced, now, more than ever before, of the fact that the PDP is actually ready for the general elections. If I may ask you, where is the APC now? After the postponement, they went underground, they are confused, they are in disarray. They lack focus now and they’ve exhausted all their tools of manipulation and propaganda to the point that they have nothing to say about the ruling party any longer! On the other hand, the PDP is forging ahead, more than ever before and the people are now coming to appreciate all the achievements recorded so far in the Transformation Agenda of this administration which cuts across virtu­ally all the sectors and I hold the view that come March 28, the PDP is going to win, not just the presidential election, we will majority seats in the National Assembly. It’s going to be so because, as I speak to you today, barely 10-12 days to the election, the opposition has nothing to offer. As a matter of fact, they are stuck already! They are off the radar. When they came, they came like a wind but now, they’ve settled to the ground. Tell me, where is the APC today?

It could be the APC is warming up for the victory dance…

(Cuts in) Look, in a competitive elec­tion like this, you campaign to the last hour allowed by the law. What I was saying in essence was that they have nothing to say any longer. The propa­ganda, the blackmail, the deceit have been exhausted! Now, what are the major issues at stake which the oppo­sition seems to disturb Nigeria with? To me, they are just two basic issues they’ve been using to blackmail this government. One, they’ve raised issues of corruption and they’ve also talked about insecurity. Now, thank God that the Armed Forces, more than ever be­fore, have woken up to the challenge of the insurgency. As at today, we’ve re­captured virtually all the territories that were under the control of the insurgents some months back. As at today, Bama, which is one of the critical communi­ties, vital to winning the war has been recaptured by the Nigerian Army. So, the issue of insecurity; that the Federal Government was not able to secure lives and property, is no longer there. In months back, it was an issue but APC did not tell Nigerians that there was an international conspiracy against Ni­geria in the procurement of hardware to prosecute the war and because the ammunition were not available, the Army couldn’t fight the war! Today, it’s a different story. A few weeks back, the United States of America agreed to sell some Cobra jets to Nigeria which was critical in winning the war against insurgency. Today, we are seeing the Nigerian Army we used to know; very vibrant, very courageous in executing any assignment given to them…I just gave you a background of why it was impossible for us to have surmounted the insurgency problem over the years. I think added to the international con­spiracy is that when people like Gen. Buhari was Head of State, they never equipped the army. They deliberately didn’t do so that they won’t organise coups against them. Successive ad­ministrations never did what President Goodluck Jonathan is doing now. So, you can see the accumulation of neglect over the years. The other issue which they talked about was corruption. They will talk about that to you; that every­body in the PDP is corrupt. Well, I know that corruption, just like insecuri­ty, is a global problem. Every nation of the world is fighting corruption. There’s no nation where people are extremely transparent; that you don’t talk about corruption. Every responsible govern­ment tries to fight against these twin, interwoven global problems. Again, I will tell you that I do not think that the PDP is running a corrupt government as we’ve been made to believe and I do not believe that every one of us in the PDP or in government are corrupt. But if APC maintains that all of us are corrupt, well, let me tell you to please tell the APC people to line up all their leaders, let them face a mirror, from Bu­hari to the least of them, and then, when they look into the mirror, they’ll see the faces of the corrupt people before them. So, corruption is everywhere but if they say it is not, they should take an X-ray of their leadership.

But Gen. Buhari says he has a history of fighting corruption

Well, having a history of fighting corruption does not translate that Bu­hari is a saint. Buhari is not a saint. Go and check his antecedents in Pe­troleum Trust Fund (PTF); the crop of people who surrounded Buhari, his aides, where did they come from?

Well, I don’t know. Do you?

Go and investigate all the people who worked with Buhari in PTF, his im­mediate staff and the consultants he employed, are they from Ibadan? They are not! They are his people. Some­body asked me the other day why I’m supporting Goodluck when he’s not a northerner and that I’m a northerner and my quick response was that Buhari is not a candidate for the northern re­gion. Buhari can never be a candidate for the northern region in the first place. The north cannot afford to have Buhari as its candidate because he lacks all the qualities of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. In fact, Buhari stands in contradistinction of every­thing that the late Sardauna stood for. He stands in the opposite direction…

In what way is that?

In every sense of leadership. Buhari is not a leader. The fact that you emerged through military might doesn’t translate to or confers on you to being a leader. The only time you can tell me you are a leader is when you are democratically elected in a free and fair election. Bu­hari has never been elected in any free and fair election before and so, he can­not claim to be a leader for the northern region and he can never be.

Why is that?

One, because of his antecedents. Leadership evolves through a demo­cratic system. The fact that you are opportuned to hijack power through military coups doesn’t translate or makes you a leader. In fact, people like Buhari owe the Nigerian people apolo­gies for the atrocities they committed. The military perpetrated corruption in Nigeria. I hope you remember that. It was when they came out with the irra­tional dismissal of top civil servants that those who were left behind in service came to their senses; that if their seniors could be so removed from office, what then, was their own future? That was how corruption graduated from the elementary stage to the graduate level of corruption. It was the military, it was the maladministration of the military which emanated from dismissal of top civil servants who were perceived to be corrupt…At that time, it was not even corruption. It was ethnic cleansing they embarked upon at that time. I won’t want to go into details now. But, the fact is that the purge was not to cleanse the system, it was to reduce the influence of some people, some areas from gov­ernment. Those who were left behind reasoned that, okay, if people can be so dismissed, what is our own future? That was how people started to embezzle money to the point where we find our­selves today. So, people like Buhari and his associates should first and foremost apologise to Nigerians for derailing democratic government in Nigeria.

Do you have evidence to show that Buhari is not a saint?

Well, I put it to you that you need to investigate Buhari. Go and investigate when Buhari when he was chairman of PTF. Corruption depends on how you define it, okay? Anything you’ve done for your selfish interest is corruption, whether it’s monetary or material or by way of trying to command influence, nepotism, it’s corruption. Buhari was not a statesman when he was chairman of PTF. He didn’t demonstrate states­manship. If you say it’s a lie, please, tell him to publish the list of names of his aides, consultants he employed. Let him tell us where they come from. I put it to him that he’s not a statesman and he’s not a saint either. If Buhari says PDP is full of corrupt people, he should line himself and others up and face a mirror and from that mirror, he will see the faces of corrupt people and that they are as guilty, if not worse than they people they are accusing of being corrupt. It’s just manipulation, deceit, misplacement of facts in order to win the support of the people.

You believe APC cannot fight corruption?

The APC is not even in a position to fight corruption! If you are looking for corrupt people, go to APC! The APC is not even qualified to say it wants to fight corruption! How can you give what you don’t have? How can you take away what you are living with? These people are just people who are out to deceive Nigerians, they want to hijack power by any means. Have you taken a look at the composition of the APC? The party is made up of frustrated people who left the PDP, ag­grieved people! Their coming together was not for the interest of the people. Their coming together was basically to champion their individual causes. They came together to build individual fi­nancial empires. Those who constitute APC today, majority of them didn’t emanate from the desire to serve. They gather in order to derail a man who’s focused, they gather together because the man who is there today, President Jonathan, is not subservient to them, he is not doggedly submissive to them. So, to them, the way they can do it is to come together and hijack power and why are they hijacking power? They want to hijack power for their self­ish interests! It would be disastrous, God forbid, if APC rules this country. It would bring Nigeria to the lowest ebb in every facet of life. APC is not a committed party as they are making us believe. These are high-profile busi­nessmen. These are people who are in­ternational businessmen. Their focus is how to get the resources of the country to their own advantage. These are in­tellectual businessmen who have been involved in so many shady businesses in this country before. It’s deceit to now come out with this posture of change! Let them give us the background of every one of their leaders and Nigeri­ans would actually know whether it’s d APC or the PDP. If you tell me that PDP is a bad party, well, that is your own perception but I will let you know that APC is worse than the PDP.

One of the things that gave the APC some sort confidence that they will win the election is that they believe that Buhari is very popular in the North, joined with the popularity of Senator Bola Tinubu in the Southwest, the coast could be clear, especially joined with media posturing and media power. Do you think your party can withstand that?

Winning election translates media propaganda. In fact, the media doesn’t really win you an election. Social me­dia will not elections. What makes people to win elections is the record of achievements. Today, more than ever before, Nigerians have come to realize that this administration, more than any administration in the history of Nigeria has performed excellently well under Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, we had the unfortunate problem of insurgency and insecurity. The insecurity that engulfed Nigeria was one insecurity that we nev­er knew about before. Insurgency was strange to the Nigerian army. There is a difference between the Army and in­surgents. A soldier and a suicide bomb­er are in two different worlds. One is trained to win the war; the other one is prepared to die ab initio. A soldier is not trained to die. A soldier is trained to win the war and for a soldier to win the war, you need to equip the soldier. A suicide bomber has signed ab initio to go and die. He is looking at it based on the misconception they have planted in him. He believes he is going to heaven and he is going to be given virgins. Now, these are two different things. For me, winning elections is all about achievements of the administration and you look at the socio-economic impli­cations that will emerge after that victo­ry. To have Goodluck Jonathan back to office is to ensure that peace and stabil­ity of Nigeria on one hand and forging ahead with the transformation agenda of this administration. Under Goodluck Jonathan, we’ve been able to improve the power sector. Our generating ca­pacity for power, which was at a time less than a thousand megawatt today is hitting about 5,000 megawatts. Today, we have more foreign direct invest­ments into Nigeria more than any other administration. Look at our Airports. They were not as good as they are today. Jonathan has effected massive improvements in all airports. Today we have more openings and opportu­nities for Nigerians. We are expanding the economy. Today, Nigeria is rated as one of the emerging markets in the world. We have more universities in Nigeria now. More than ever before, more roads are being constructed na­tionwide. Lagos/Ibadan expressway is the life wire of economic activities in the country. Today, it’s taking a new shape under Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Talks about the rail sector, the trains are back after almost 30 years of being in limbo. When President Jonathan came, only about 5,000 kilometers of federal Roads were motorable, now we have 25,000 kilometres, his government has added 14 new Universities to expand education. He conducted the most transparent privatization of the power sector in the whole of the world. De­spite insurgency, the number of Dams constructed by this administration cannot be rivaled by any other, then the reforms in the Agric sector, this is massive. Corruption in the fertilizer management system has been wiped out, close to 45,000 ghost workers re­moved from the government payroll;

saving the nation billions of Naira; the Great Green Wall project is address­ing the problem of desertification. He has built Almajiri schools that were never thought of by governments be­fore him and he is not stopping. Lots of his achievements are underreported. I can go on and on and tell you about tremendous achievements of this ad­ministration. But this is an administra­tion that doesn’t make much noise and the opposition hijacked the media to run propaganda and misplacing facts before people. But of course, we have since woken up and where are the op­position today. Nigerians have come to realize that they have been deceived.

Now you talk about the South West and the North and let me put it this way to you; one good thing about the South West is that this is one of the zones that is made up of highly sophisticated and educated people. They cannot be manipulated. The Yoruba by nature is not a race where one person will say go this way. They are not going to lis­ten. The Yorubas are too sophisticated for one man to assume that he is their headmaster. In Yourbaland, there is no headmaster. Whether it is the Yoruba in the Southwest or the Yoruba in the North, one common feature is that no man enslaves the people. Come March 28, you will be amazed that we are go­ing to win the South West hands down. The Yorubas will not allow one person or two people to come and enslave them. The Yoruba will look at things dispassionately. Yoruba is a race where people don’t take decisions in a hurry. They take their time and when the time comes, I can assure you they are going to vote for Goodluck Jonathan. You know the Yoruba by nature or by perception are democrats. They will not support a dictator to come back to power. The democracy we are enjoy­ing today was championed by the Yo­ruba race. So, they will not now smile at a man who once truncated democ­racy in Nigeria. The Yoruba people will not do that. They are too educated to be deceived. They are too enlightened to be manipulated. The Yoruba race will not vote for Buhari because Buhari is a dictator and he has never repented from being dictator and power is too serious to be given to one man who will get there and change. The man is not ready to change. And you talked about the North-West. The North West will not vote 100 percent for Buhari I can assure you that, because they know the risk of having Buhari as a President. What are those risks involved? Buhari has no respect for anybody. Buhari as­sumes that he is the most intelligent hu­man being on earth and he believes that everybody must be under him. Buhari does not respect any traditional ruler. You remember what he did to the late Emir of Kano and what he did to the Ooni of Ife. Buhari has no respect for any leader than himself and those who are championing Buhari today and who are taking Buhari round the coun­try, it’s like when you ride a Tiger; you will end up in the stomach of the tiger later. Buhari will consume all of them.

One of the campaign issues your party has raised in the South West is the National conference report. Do you think this will jell with the people?

We should actually give credits to President Jonathan for his courage to convene the National Conference. I know that he didn’t set up the confer­ence for the fun of it. It was well thought of and I am proud of the recommenda­tions. Who does not know that we need restructuring in this country? Who does not know that we need a structure that will ensure better accommodation among the ethnic sub-nationalities? That we need to give identity to our people to address the rising societal tension. I am in support of creation of states. Who does not know that the Igbos deserve another state? That the Ijebu deserve a state or the Southern Kaduna, the Oke-Ogun, Southern Bor­no or that we need to solve some of the contradictions that stall development in Kogi and that most of the states created were not democratically created. We should allow the states to evolve in line with realities around them. There is no doubt that Nigeria is due for restructur­ing and the report of National confer­ence which will be implemented by Jonathan will guarantee that. The Yoru­ba have been at the forefront of restruc­turing all along. There is no doubt they want the confab report implemented by Jonathan.

When Buhari went to Chatham House, he said he is a reformed man; he is ready to be a demo­crat. Don’t you believe him?

You know that during elections, people can say anything. In fact, some people can even change their names. I will not be surprised if Buhari says he is now Peter or Okechukwu. But we know Buhari very well that he is not going to change. A Leopard cannot change its spots. Buhari by orienta­tion and by education, he is a dictator. Okay, tell Buhari to apologize to Nige­rians for all the atrocities he commit­ted. I saw him on television saying that those who are still against him for what he did when he was military Head of State; they have a choice not to vote for him. What an arrogant statement from a politician. Buhari cannot change. And let me equally tell you that Buhari is not really prepared for leadership. This is a man who does not even know the name of his running mate. This is a man who cannot even tell us the full meaning of INEC or the name of his party. Now what is the problem with that kind of a person? It’s either that he has some discomfort within him. It could be his state of health; it could be his state of mental reasoning. If at his level he cannot give us the name of his running mate correctly, he can­not equally give us the full meaning of INEC, for a man who is to contest election, it shows two things: his state of mind and his mental sense of reason­ing. Age is not on his side. I am con­vinced that the man is too old to lead Nigeria. He can’t be less than 77, con­trary to what we are being told. I am aware that in those days when people join the civil service, they reduce their ages so they can stay longer. He can’t be less than 77.

Are we saying that we cannot gradu­ate from recycling leaders? Buhari was Head of State when some of us were in school. The same Buhari wants to be President today. Are you saying we have not graduated or we have not been able to bring up new leaders? One of the greatest mistakes the APC has made in this election and why they will not win the election is Buhari. They brought a controversial man with so many stigmas over every part of him.

But we understand he is now a toast of the western nation, despite his past?

Buhari cannot be a toast of the West­ern nations. That can’t be true. Those are just manipulations. I mean what has light to do with darkness? The Western world brought us democracy. Why would they want to bring a dictator for us? The western world can never back Buhari. Buhari by his nature and look­ing at his antecedents, he is not even supposed to be granted audience in any political gathering. This is a man who truncated democratically elected government. That is the worst crime anybody can commit against human­ity. You removed the government we put in place and you are now asking us to vote for you. It doesn’t make sense. Buhari is not a man that should be granted audience in many democratic setting because this was a man who through the barrel of the gun, truncated a democratically elected people in of­fice. Not only that; this was a man who jailed people and sentenced people to years that has never been recorded in any judicial book across the world – 200 years, 150 years. Have you ever heard that? Very unbiblical, un-Islamic, un-African, undemocratic and uncivi­lized manner of judicial administration. He sentenced people to 200 years and 300 years. This same man wants us to elect him. He owes Nigerian people apologies for all the atrocities, malad­ministration that he committed. Buhari can never be a toast of the western na­tion because the western nations gave us civilization the western nations gave us education; the western nations gave us democracy; they made us to understand what democratic govern­ment is, based on their tremendous achievements, they have recorded. So, they encourage us towards democracy. You have forgotten how UK supported Nigeria in going back to democratic government. I have not forgotten how the United States supported Nigeria in getting democracy. How would they now want to encourage a dictator? If anybody is telling Buhari that the West is backing him, they are only making him to feel happy. It’s like a man who had a dream and he dreamt that he was rich and when he wakes up, he wakes up, he will understand that it’s sleep. On 28th, Buhari will know that Nige­rians still see him as a dictator.

If you want to give us the per­formance rating of President Jonathan compared to other ci­vilian governments before him what would be the score?

I stand here and I stand to be quoted that I do not know of any civilian ad­ministration that you can compare his achievements in the area of infrastruc­tural facilities, in the area of social amenities, in the area of expanding and galvanizing socio-economic activities than Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, I agree with you equally that there has not been any President that had the mis­fortune of fighting the worst war any administration will fight. Goodluck Jonathan fought the worst war. In fact, Goodluck Jonathan should be crowned as a Field Marshall of Nigeria. If there is any Field Marshall that should be appreciated in Nigeria, it’s Goodluck Jonathan because he fought the worst war, that is fighting insurgency and sui­cide bombers. No President ever had this misfortune. That seems to becloud the sense of reasoning of the opposi­tion of the tremendous achievements recorded elsewhere. Is it in the area of sports that we have not excelled? Is it in the area of education? Our foreign di­rect investment as at last month is over $20 billion. There is no President that has succeeded in improving the foreign exchange earnings from non-oil sector than Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Today, we have Inland Ports being construct­ed. There is a Port in Lokoja in Kogi State and they have ports they are con­structing across the length and breadth of this country. There has not been any administration that has faced the prob­lem of power supply than Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Is it the number of universities? Is it the number Almajiri schools that he has established? Look at the road networks in Nigeria. Were there things like that before? Yes, we had the problem of insurgency, which tends to becloud and make people to feel bad about the achievements re­corded in other sectors. But thank God today we are gradually getting out of the bad weather. In fact, we are now on the cruising level. The PDP is cruising towards 28th of March. Our opponents are still on the tarmac. We are already at 35,000 feet above the sea level head­ing for our destination. We have just been told that our own opponent is not only at the tarmac, he has forgotten his passport at home. We are right now cruising because we have gotten over insurgency. We are cruising and you can quote me that come the 28th of March, Goodluck Ebele Mainasara, Omoluwa, Azikiwe Jonathan will be elected as President of the Federal Re­public of Nigeria for a second term and I can assure you that when Goodluck comes back, not only is he going to consolidate the achievements recorded. But I can tell you very authoritatively that whenever the history of this coun­try will be written, Goodluck Jonathan will carry more chapters that many of the civilian administrations because of the tremendous achievements that you will see in the next four years. Next four years will be a total transformation of Nigeria. Next four years will put Ni­geria on the path of attaining the 2020 objective of becoming one of the strong economies of the world and I’m proud to be a PDP Senator. I’m equally proud of the President. I’m proud of the fact that more than ever before, Nigerians have come to appreciate the tremen­dous achievements we have recorded in the last four, five years of President Ebele Jonathan. I think that the media too should give all their support. I‘m sure that journalists would not want to go back to the trenches. You have heard Buhari saying that he is going to jail people. He is not even talking about taking them to court. He said they will be jailed. Let me say it loud and clear that a Buhari administration is for you to go back to the trenches and many journalists will be killed under Buhari because the military did it and Buhari is still a product of that institution. He has not repented from the atrocities committed in time past. This is just to call my colleagues in the media not to sleep with their two eyes open. Let it be told that the problem of insurgency should not becloud the achievements recorded. We cannot pretend that this administration has not done excellently well. In every facet of life, this govern­ment has done excellently well and it makes sense to allow Goodluck Jona­than to complete his cause.

I want to commend the President for agreeing to even run a second term. The crisis of Boo Haram was enough to even make the President say he is not going to run. You’ve forgotten how bad it was about a year ago. Great was the courage of Ebele Jonathan to have agreed to even stay because many people wanted him to abandon the ship and get out. He stood and today, he is getting over the problem of insurgency. So, it takes a great leader to stand and say whatever happens, he is going to stand with his people. Some people would have run away. Some of them would abandon the ship and find a way to go. But this man stayed so far and we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Let us reason together. Let our people get to understand that there is no leader that is hundred percent good. But I give Ebele Jonathan A+ for the achieve­ments recorded so far.

Recently, a foreign online post said that Buhari is going to win the elec­tion by 60 percent on March 28. Is the PDP not worried by such projection?

Most of these foreign assessments, sponsored publications on the net, you know today, there is a lot of publica­tions on the internet that are not based on facts; blackmails, deceits, a lot of sponsored reports to ridicule people and tarnish people’s integrity. Let me tell you that the Nigerian people will not vote Buhari and I can let you know that based on our own findings, the shocking news will be the result of the election. Buhari and the leadership of his party will receive the greatest shock of their lives because the Nige­rian people, even in Katsina will vote Ebele Jonathan and I look forward to PDP winning 65 percent of the votes come 28th of March. The assessment of foreign sponsored report will not disturb the PDP because we know the caliber and we know the reach of those people in APC. We are not un­derestimating their reach in terms of propaganda. They are people who are well schooled in blackmail and pro­paganda in APC. That is one area of their strength. We are not in doubt that they have trained propagandists and manipulators in APC. But that will not win election. Winning election is not by propaganda. Winning election is by facts that people can see. Let me equal­ly let you know that more than ever before, people are equally getting en­lightened and educated by the day. So, they can see and they can understand what is going on. Is it our airport? Mur­tala Mohammed International Airport, was it like this before? We see a lot of changes. Nigerians can see. What I’m saying in essence is voting is not going to be done by foreigners. Voting will be done by Nigerians.