atiku; apc will not mismanage success

Even though he is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, he still sees good in what outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan did on the heels of the March 28 presidential election. According to him, had Jonathan behaved like some Africa leaders and refused to concede defeat, Nigeria would have boiled. But his swift telephone call to the winner of the March 28 presidential election, now president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to congratulate him even before the results were officially announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, brought peace. For that, a former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, amongst other things in this interview, says Jonathan deserves the Nobel Prize for Peace. Excerpts: By Levinus Nwabughiogu The presidential and National Assembly elections saw your party, the APC, in clean sweep of the three senatorial districts and a good number of seats in the House of Representatives even though you are not in charge in Kogi State. How did that happen? The secret of any success is hard work and that has always been my contention. We worked very hard and time will virtually tell the story and time has told the story. People were given the opportunity to compare and contrast between my administration and the successive administrations of the PDP since I left office. I governed the state between 1999 and 2003 and PDP rigged me out using all manner of forces that have never been seen in any democratic sector. They brought soldiers from the air force and the barracks in Lokoja which harassed and killed. For the first time I saw military personnel carrying ballot boxes. That was how they rigged us out in 2003. They brought in a governor that spent 9 years and has not commissioned one single project. It is where I left Kogi in 2003 that Kogi is up till this moment. It is not political rhetoric neither am I praising myself. You can confirm this from any Kogi man. After spending 9 years instead of 8 years as stated in our constitution another PDP governor took over and I don’t think he has done much again. I leave everything to the electorate to judge. This time the electorates said it is time we bring Audu back. If you are a regular visitor to Kogi, at the Kontokafi bridge, you will see a billboard where the masses are crying, saying ‘where is Audu? So, as far as I am concerned it is the first step to bringing me back and convincing me to come back. That is why you see those changes in Kogi state especially in the electoral system. We won all our Senate seats. We won about six or seven of the nine House of Representatives seats and out of accredited 400,000 voters in Kogi for the presidential election, we won almost 300,000 and you know we are not in government in the state. Even a councillor, we don’t have. But now people have been placed in a position to know the difference between the good, the bad and the ugly. So, they have spoken and God in His infinite mercy has exonerated me. That is the secret of the success we achieved in Kogi state because people want me back and they have seen what I did for them in four years that I was in office. They have been given the opportunity to compare and contrast and this is the first step of the 1,000km journey and, by the special grace of God, we shall arrive there safely. What is your impression about General Muhammadu Buhari’s victory after three failed attempts at the polls? Let me tell you, my history in politics is similar to his. In 2003, that was when he fired the first shot. He contested and won but he was rigged out. In 2007 and 2011, they robbed him but, in 2015, all the robbers went to sleep and God took control. Everyone knows the kind of person Buhari is; a very disciplined and gentle man, a man who is highly principled, a man of proven integrity. I am not singing his praises but it is exactly how he is and everybody that knows him knows he is like that. The economy of this country has been battered. Look at the unemployment rate. Look at the decay in infrastructure, and look at the security aspect, insurgency, kidnapping and all sorts of notorious things. We need people with experience, people that have the ability, people with the right intellectual capacity to save us. This is why God directed the electorate in Nigeria to bring him in because there is nothing they didn’t do to ensure that PDP rigged the election but there is nothing God didn’t do to make sure that the truth prevailed. It is the handiwork of God. God wants to salvage Nigeria from total devastation that befell Nigeria under the 16 years rule of the PDP. So we have every reason to thank God and celebrate without any atom of doubt. Yes, the expectations are very high. Both Muslims and Christians voted for him, even the traditionalists voted for him, men and women voted for him and that is why he recorded landslide victory. Therefore, the expectations are very high. Mark you that Nigeria is a very resourceful country. Nigeria is one of the richest countries in Africa if not the richest in terms of natural endowment but has not been lucky with managers of our resources. We haven’t been lucky with leadership. It is the first time that we want to know what is meant by having the correct leadership to lead the country because we don’t have any business with poverty. It is a very unfortunate situation but, with the right leader in democracy and democratic norms, we will work towards that goal and Nigerians will have the opportunity to compare the four years of the first tenure not even talking about second tenure, with the 16 years of PDP. It is God’s time to change the position for us. So I congratulate you young men; all the pains you have gone through in Nigeria will soon be a thing of the past by the special grace of God. Your party is sharing offices? What is your advice? We believe that if we want peace to prevail in Nigeria, the winner-takes-all syndrome should be very minimal; it should be all an embracing government. Every segment of Nigeria should be given a role to play. We are not going to run on exclusive government but an all-embracing government and, so far so good, based on newspaper publications, you will see that most of the positions that have been shared out have even spread. Even where Buhari didn’t get votes, he has given them a position, a very powerful position, all with a view to making sure that, at the end of the day, peace prevails and everyone is given a good sense of belonging. Let’s go back to the internal politics of APC. Sometimes managing success is more difficult than getting it. How is APC going to manage this success that it has achieved? It is more difficult to manage money than to make money. Just as you said, it is more difficult to manage victory than achieving victory. Now, once you have the right persons in position, all these things are no problem. Having the right leadership, people with balanced outlook, people with balanced judgements, people who have the fear of God at the back of their minds has always been a problem in this country. And if you talk about that, Buhari will score a very high mark if not the highest mark in the entire country. I try not to exaggerate; I try not to embark on political rhetoric but on the fact of the situation.