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*’We are ready to perform opposition role to APC’
*Says party will bounce back in 2019
Dr. Haliru
Bello Mohammed, from Kebbi State, just became the acting Chairman of
the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the
office vacated by Chief Tony Anenih.
Mohammed
was National Vice Chairman, North West of the PDP, comprising Kaduna,
Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa and Zamfara states; a Commissioner
for the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC);
and Minister of Communications
In
March 2008, he was elected the Deputy National Chairman and, in January
2011, he emerged the Acting National Chairman of the PDP when Dr.
Okwesilieze Nwodo stepped down. He was later made the Chairman of a
20-member Board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and thereafter
the Minister of Defence.
He
was appointed the Chairman, North Central Zonal Reconciliation
Committee of the PDP set up by the immediate past National Chairman,
Alhaji Adamu Mauzu. One major assignment Mohammed undertook for the PDP
before the March 28 presidential election was as Chairman of
Presidential Declaration Committee with nine sub-committees.
In
this interview, the acting BoT Chair of the PDP bares his mind on the
presidential election, the PDP before and after the election, why former
President Goodluck Jonathan refused the position of the BoT Chair and
his expectations from President Muhammadu Buhari, among other issues.
BY HENRY UMORU
PDP lost the March 28 presidential election. How has it been as an elder of the party?
In the first place, I don’t believe we lost the election, we conceded
the election because election is not lost until it is challenged in a
court of law; that is what Buhari did the first three times he contested
against PDP candidates.
At the time of the election, we foresaw that the mood in the country was
such that if the result was declared otherwise, the country will be
plunged into chaos and there will be protest and possibly loss of lives
and property; that is why President Jonathan decided to concede. So I
see it not that we lost the election but that we conceded defeat because
if Jonathan hadn’t conceded, we would still be in court trying to
determine the real winner and there would have been a lot of evidence
to be presented. However, I am glad President Jonathan decided to
concede so that we can have the peace that we have now in the country.
Did your party actually prepare to win the election?
PDP prepared very well for the election. It was clear we went round the
country campaigning despite the hostility in some northern states where
our convoys were attacked. We persisted, we went to all the states
including those considered dangerous because of the activities of Boko
Haram and we mobilized our supporters. There were a lot of negative
campaigns coming from the opposition especially with regard to religion,
terrorism which was active in the North – East of the country and these
were the issues that worked against PDP especially in the North – East
and North – West.
God has designed that, after 16 years, PDP will now taste opposition and
give opportunity for the other party to also show what they can do for
the people of this country. We don’t regret the president conceding
because President Buhari has been contesting for a very long time and
maybe he has now seen some ideas which he would like to put into
practice in the governance of Nigeria. In a way, it is good to give him
the opportunity, let the people of Nigeria see what he has to offer and
PDP will stay as a viable opposition so that when he falters, we will be
there to offer alternative opposition to the people. I believe that
come 2019, it will be a clash of ideas. Let us see what Buhari and APC
will unfold and compare with what PDP had shown in its performance and
the people will choose. Soon
after the PDP lost, there was this blame game between the
presidential campaign organisation and the PDP leadership. Was it
really healthy for the party?
It is true that a lot of mistakes were made; the leadership and
followership of the PDP made mistakes. We took certain things for
granted, but this is not the time for finger pointing. This is not the
time for blame apportioning; this is the time that we should look in
retrospect, come together and examine what happened and see how we can
put our party together so that we can prepare for 2019. When they are
busy putting their government together and showing Nigerians what to do,
we will be busy rebuilding our party; we know how we did it in 1998; we
know the right people to contact in every state who put the party
together.
We are going back to those people. That is why I always say we take this
party back to the people. We will go back to the roots and, once we do
that, we will identify the founding fathers that have been sidelined and
bring them back on board as many of them that are alive and available.
We will build a formidable structure as we did in 1998 and it will be
ready to offer an alternative government for Nigerians in 2019.
In specific terms, what did your party take for granted?
Jonathan, Haliru and Fayose
We took it for granted that the people of the country had accepted PDP
as attested to in a number of states that accepted PDP, not only as
ruling party at the federal level, but also as state governments. We
took it for granted that our legislators will come back, but,
unfortunately, the leadership of the party did not handle the primaries
well. We took it for granted that whether we removed and replaced or
not, whoever got the PDP ticket will win the elections and it turned
out that it was not so. Nigerians have become more enlightened, they
are voting more on the quality of the candidate than on blind loyalty to
the party and we did not handle the primaries very well and that is a
mistake that we have learnt from our actions and we will correct it come
2019.
We took for granted that the elections will be fought on issues and
ideology and not on religion and tribal bases. That did not happen
especially in the North where preachers in the mosques were demonising
PDP, condemning PDP to hell and threatening our voters that voting for
any PDP candidate was like buying your ticket to hell. All these things
happened, but we didn’t envisage that politics will come down to that
level; so we took it for granted that it will be based on policies and
ideologies. We have learnt from this experience and, as you can see,
PDP is full of people with ideas, great intelligence and we will sit
back and re- adjust and we will bounce back in 2019. Looking at the APC
line up, all of them with a few exception were trained by PDP in
politics, so where they learnt, the residue is still there and we will
stir it up and come back with a bang.
I
want you to comment on the resignation of the Chairman, Alhaji Adamu
Mua’zu. Was it just Muazu or the entire leadership of the party that
ought to have resigned ?
It is unfortunate that immediately after the election, some people lost
their cool and started pointing fingers and shouting at one another.
But it is not unexpected in a situation where nobody expected what
happened to happen. People will feel frustrated and will be looking
for scapegoats. The situation degenerated to what led to some of our
supporters, out of their for the party and the love for the continuity
of the PDP government, to blame and, naturally, uneasy lies the head
that wears the crown.
So Mua’zu and his NWC were natural targets for this scapegoating, but I
don’t think the blame for our candidate to win this election lies in
one direction. We are all to blame including those of us who are elders
who saw what was happening and kept quiet; but, this is not the time to
accuse each other, this is the time to come together and see what went
wrong and correct it.
How prepared is PDP to play the role of the opposition?
What is the role of the opposition? The role of the opposition is to
offer an alternative to policy and to try to bring the government back
on track when it tries to derail. So essentially, the role of opposition
is to advice the government and offer alternative where government
feels to be clueless on any issue. We already have people of experience,
people of high level of integrity and knowledge and we have done
governance for 16 years. We are very well placed to play the opposition
role of telling the government this is not how to do it and this is what
you should be doing; if they listen, of course they will succeed, but
if they don’t listen, then the people of Nigeria will see what is
happening and when it is time for the next election, they will decide.
PDP
appear to be lucky to have somebody like you around, because they
only look for you when there is problem. First, you were to look into
the implementation of Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s Committee report; you were
also the Chairman, North Central Reconciliation Committee. You acted as
the Chairman. Can I say the party is lucky to have you?
I am lucky to have the party. There are people who are even better than
me in the party. When we started, it was a party where you had the likes
of Adamu Ciroma, Alex Ekwueme, Tony Anenih, Bode George, Ken Nnamani,
Shauibu Oyedokun, Jerry Gana, Ebenezer Babatope and a lot of them. So
you cannot say we lack people of high calibre, people who are materials
to be president of this country and people with wisdom. We have all that
in PDP. So it is just a coincidence if one person happens to hold a
particular office and I believe anyone of us, given the opportunity, if
we flock together to give our support, we will be able to deliver the
party. Like I said, we are all guilty, we were complacent; that is why
what happened has happened and now that we have learnt our lessons, I
don’t think it will repeat itself.
You
have just been made the acting Chairman of BoT, Before you came in,
the immediate past Chairman, Chief Chief Tony Anenih, said in his letter
of resignation that he did that for the immediate past President
Goodluck Jonathan to take over. How did it really happen that you came
in instead of him. What are you bringing on board as BoT Chairman?
When we lost the election, we had a president who now have more time on
his hands, a lot of people including Chief Anenih believed that we could
use the president to lead the Board of Trustees. As it happened, after
former President Obasanjo finished his term, he was made Chairman, Board
of Trustees, so we could use his influence, experience and his wisdom
because there is this plot nationally and internationally to move our
party forward.
The same thing could have applied to immediate past President Jonathan
and the offer was made as you have seen in Tony Anenih’s letter, but the
immediate past president made it clear that he doesn’t want to be the
Chairman, Board of Trustees; he wants to be one of the leaders of the
party who will stay on the sideline and assist the party to rebuild
itself. What he said was that if the party rebuilds itself and becomes
the party in government again, then if he is called to take up any
position, then he will be ready to take it. But for now, he wants to
rest and give opportunities for other leaders to work in the party.
We respected his opinion. That is why we thought that one of us in the
Board of Trustees should be entrusted to temporally lead until such a
time that we are organised and we are ready to go into election to elect
a substantive Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
As to what my party expects; it expects me to galvanize all members of
the party, bring them together, stop the bickering that is happening and
start the process of re organising the party from the grass roots to
the national level. In doing that, of course, we are working with the
National Working Committee and, as you know, the Board of Trustees is
advisory. The executive authority lies with the National Working
Committee and the National Executive Committee, but because the residue
of all the founding fathers is in the BoT, the role of BoT becomes very
important at this point in time, so that the collective wisdom of the
BoT will be put together and forwarded as advice to the National Working
Committee and the National Executive Committee.
We believe that the implementation of our collective ideas will bring
PDP back to what it was meant to be by the founding fathers because we
still have residue of the founding fathers in the BoT, and we know on
what premise this party was built and we know the people who built it
are still available in the various states of the federation. So if we
take this party back to the grass roots, we hand it back to the people,
it will resuscitate, revive and roar back into power in 2019.
In
taking the party back to the grass roots, how do you avoid what
happened in the past when Chief Anenih and his team in trouble shooting
efforts were misunderstood by the former Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga
Tukur, that the former was usurping the functions of the latter?
Like I said, the BoT does not have executive powers. If we have
brilliant ideas, we should discuss them with the executive arm of the
party, that is, the National Working Committee and the National
Executive Committee. If the linkage is broken, then you have a situation
where there is a breach in communication and then the implementation
becomes fractional and therefore unsuccessful. This time around,
whatever ideas we have in the BoT, we will implement together with the
National Working Committee. If we are setting up a committee, it will be
a committee of the party not a committee of BoT. If we are going round,
it will be the party going round, not BoT or NWC or National Executive
Committee. So the party will work as a unit not in groups of BoT, NWC,
NEC. I have no doubt that we will succeed.
Muhammadu
Buhari has been sworn in as the President of Nigeria. Before now, there
were calls for the North to produce the President and some leaders of
the North operated under the ACF to have it. Now we have it. As a
Nigerian and not just as a northerner, is he taking us there against the
backdrop of the issue of change?
Change was there before he came in. The principle under which PDP
operates is that Nigeria should be seen as a united nation, but because
of the present circumstances, we believe it will need time to blend as
one people. And only when we can blend as one people is when every
section of Nigeria will be given a sense of belonging and one of the
innovative ways PDP has set out to build this sense of belonging is by
making sure that whenever we set up a government, every part of this
country, region, state, religious, tribal factors are put together so
that the federal character of Nigeria is reflected in the government.
That is why we introduced zoning and rotation of power so that
everybody feels he has something in the government. The six zones will
feel that they have a chance and opportunity at one time or the other to
produce whatever position, whether it is the president, the vice
president, Senate president, the speaker, chairman of the party,
chairman BoT.
That is one way we feel will further unify this country until we arrive
at a time when Nigerian does not look at you as to where you come from,
what religion you belong to, but what you can offer. Meanwhile, before
we reach that, we have to create a sense of belonging that will
eventually lead us to that position that a Nigerian is a Nigerian
wherever he comes from.
That is what PDP has set out to achieve and I believe if all Nigerian
parties accept that principle, it will not be long when we will reach
the point where Nigerians will be seen as Nigerians regardless of where
you live or come from.
Expectations
are very high from Nigerians. The issues of power, petrol,
unemployment, among others, are there. A new government is now in
charge and I know you are not in the position to set agenda for it.
But if you are to do that, what would you say and think the Buhari-led
government should do if it must take us there?
I can’t think of what this government can do because I haven’t seen
their performance. I was old enough to remember Buhari’s performance as a
military head of state, but as to advising this government, I believe
they have made promises to the people. The only advice I can give is
that they should keep their promises to the people. The people expect
power to operate normally, they expect security to be restored and
enhanced, they expect all aspects of Nigerian life to operate smoothly
whether it is education, health, transportation.
PDP has tried very hard and we have tried to publicise all that we have
achieved in the last four years of former President Jonathan and in the
16 years that we have operated. For 25 years, the railway wasn’t
working; I was fortunate to be the Chairman of railway when President
Yar’dua directed that instead of going into standard gauge immediately
we should first of all restore the narrow gauge so that people will
start using that while we are working on developing the standard gauge
and we thank God that the trains are now moving.
We planned to have railway in every state capital, the Ajaokuta/Warri to extend to Lokoja, the River Niger Marine transport.
The integrated master plan has been worked out and have developed
gradually from Obasanjo’s time to Goodluck’s time. All these we expect
this government to continue, otherwise the transport sector will be
stagnant. In the power sector, so many turbines have been ordered by the
PDP government, they have been put in place, but the required
infrastructure to fire them is what is lacking and that is the next
phase and we expect this government to carry on with the next phase so
that all these turbines will be fired and, once they are fired, there
will be enough power all over the country.
The power sector is such that you can’t do it over night, but we have
set the trend, we have awarded contracts for many hydro electricity
projects and the distribution is also another factor. Contracts have
been given out for distribution system to cover all zones of this
country. Towards the end of his administration, former President
Jonathan and his vice, Sambo were opening various stations to make it
possible for these distribution stations to send electricity to all
parts of the country.
If the coming government continues with this process, they will set up
transmission, which is already awarded in many parts, and distribution,
which the DISCOs were set up to do, but you know they are still at the
take off point, so the government should help them take off properly and
they can do it in the four years they have and hopefully, in 2019, we
will come in and continue from where we stopped.
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