Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, in this interview with OLALEKAN ADETAYO, insists that President Goodluck Jonathan did not sign any one-term agreement with PDP governors

Despite the President’s statement that he did not sign a one-term pact with anybody, members of the New PDP are insisting that he signed the agreement and that at the appropriate time, they will release a copy. What is your position on this?
Eight months ago, when the Governor of Niger State came up with the claim on the one- term agreement, I particularly challenged him to come up with a copy of the agreement. This is because as a political adviser to the President, I know there are only three organs of the party at where such decision can be taken. They are the national caucus, the Board of Trustees and the National Executive Council and there was no time that such as issue came up at the level of any of these organs.
I challenged him to come up with the agreement, but up till now, the so-called agreement is nowhere to be found. I have repeatedly said it that Mr. President has never signed any agreement with anybody not to run for second term. The President himself said it at the last presidential media chat that he did not sign such an agreement with anybody.
Their plan is to tell Nigerians lies in order to intimidate the President or abridge his constitutional right to offer himself for second term if he so chooses. They should leave Nigerians to decide who they will vote for. It is not a group of five or six people that will tell the President what to do. I am happy to say that from G7 governors, they have reduced to G5. Two governors have backed out because they know it is not true. So there was no agreement signed by the President.

What then could have informed this insistence by the governors that there was an agreement?
I have said it that it is part of their plan to issue out tissue of lies in order to abridge Mr. President’s constitutional right. It is power. Certain people want to be President or vice president. It is part of their strategy. We have debunked this claim. We challenged them eight months ago and we still challenge them to present this agreement.
If the President decides to run, can these aggrieved governors and other members of the New PDP stop him?
Nobody can stop him. Are we not governed by constitution in this country? The constitution allows the President to contest for the second term. Nobody can stop him from contesting, if he chooses to contest. It is only Mr. President himself that will say, “Look, I will not contest in 2015.” That prerogative belongs to him to decide whether or not to contest. So let us wait for the man. He has said he will only declare his intention to contest or not in 2014. So why are they pressurising him and heating up the polity? They are trying to drag the President into the ring before the time. They should go and prepare if they want to contest the Presidency of this country. They should not wait to know whether the President will contest or not. If you want to be President, go and prepare yourself and present yourself to Nigerians.

You have just claimed that two governors have backed out of the G7 whereas the group claimed five more governors would be declaring for them next week. Which one should Nigerians believe?
Their claim was mere propaganda. I am telling you authoritatively that two governors have backed out. They are now G5. Only that I won’t mention names but go and find out. Even the statements that some of them have been making are also indicating that what I just told you is right. Two governors have backed out. It is authoritative, go and cross-check.

The Baraje group also issued a statement asking the President to postpone the peace talk earlier billed for October 7 because some of their members would be on Hajj. What is the Presidency’s position?
I don’t believe they are sincere from the beginning. If you have followed the trend of events, you will see that the President has been bending backward to accommodate everybody. He is ready to go to any length to achieve peace. But it just appears that they are not ready for peace. Immediately after the last meeting was adjourned to October 7, they went to the National Assembly and you know there was no need for that. It was a fundamental breach of the agreement reached at the meeting, that all parties should refrain from further actions until October 7. Nigerians now know that they are not sincere.  So whenever they are ready, I believe Mr. President will be ready to listen to them once more.

You said the President could go to any length to achieve peace. Will he forego second term if that will bring peace?
There can never be agreement to abridge constitutional provision. It is for the President to decide if he wants to contest or not, that is his constitutional right. You cannot intimidate Mr. President out of contest, who are you and who do you think you are? When the constitution gives a man the opportunity to offer himself, who are you to say he will not? Unless you go and amend the constitution and that does not lie within the powers of the governors.

There are reports that a copy of the agreement is with a South-South governor who is a loyalist of the President and he will not make the copy available. What is your position on this?
Is that what they are saying again? That is just propaganda. If there is an agreement, they will have more than one copy. There will be duplicate copies. But I am telling you again that there was no such agreement between the President and any other persons. Agreements must be between two or more parties, except the agreement was entered into in the absence of the President.

With the way the New PDP has been issuing statements criticising the President and government policies, do you think genuine reconciliation can still be achieved?
I am telling you from my own experience in politics that there is no sincerity in everything these people are doing. They can go on to criticise the government and we will go on to tell Nigerians that what they are saying are tissues of lies. Nigerians are watching everybody. Ninety per cent of Nigerians have come to realise that these people are just out for their selfish ambitions. They should go about fighting poverty in their states, not fighting President Goodluck Jonathan. Thank God two of them have backed out, having realised that their move is not in tandem with the constitution of the country. Mr. President has the constitutional right to contest and it is left for Nigerians to decide whether to vote for him or not.

What then is all this noise about?
It is about power, it is about their last term in office, it is about what next in their political career.  It is not unexpected.

Apart from this agreement that you said is not in existence, are there no genuine conditions among the ones put forward by these men?
There are no genuine grievances. One, the President is entitled to offer himself for second term if he so desires and it is left for Nigerians to decide. Two, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should stop probing them: it is not within Mr. President’s power to stop EFCC from probing them. EFCC is doing its statutory job and whoever is involved, EFCC must investigate that administration. The commission is also probing the Federal Government. Haven’t you seen the fuel subsidy probe and people being prosecuted? It is a nonsense thing for a governor to say EFCC should stop probing his administration. In fact, I expect them to invite EFCC themselves to look into their books if they are genuine and sincere.
The third is about the national chairman. I have always maintained that the national chairman is a product of an election at the national convention and his election was observed to be correct by the supervisory body, which is the Independent National Electoral Commission. As there was process of emergence, there is process in our constitution for his removal. No governor or group of persons can just stand up and say you must sack the chairman.
    AND NEW PDP REPLIES

The National Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Chukwuemeka Eze, speaks on whether President Goodluck Jonathan should run for second term or not, among other issues, in this interview with OLUSOLA FABIYI

Gulak said two governors had backed out of your group, G7. How true is this?

If you have watched us since we came on board, there are some elements in President Jonathan’s administration that we have ignored because of their antecedents and Gulak happens to be a principal of this category of people. Asking me to comment on a statement credited to such a fellow is forcing me to give credibility to such a funny character, whose statements these days do not make any sense to any sound mind.
Reading what he says most of the time, one can understand why this administration is termed to be a kindergarten government because of the characters that lack substance operating or assumed to be in government.
If I may ask, under what condition should two of our progressive governors decide to jump ship at this period when five other governors have contacted us and expressed interest in joining us.  I am only happy that Nigerians no longer take most of the statements coming from Gulak as sound. So, in this case, I don’t need to react because Gulak is a well-known peddler of falsehood.

But is it true that your governors are using the Hajj as a ploy to shun the scheduled peace meeting?
The question we should be asked under this situation should be – is Hajj operation currently going on? If the answer is yes, then the second question should be – are most of our governor muslims and expected to perform or participate in the Hajj? If the answer is yes, then the next question should be – are our governors and other principal actors attending this year’s Hajj? And if the answer is yes, then we should conclude that Gulak is a very bad adviser and assistant to Mr. President and should be sacked to save the Presidency from the shame such a fellow brings to governance in the country. My national chairman just finished speaking with me before flying out with others to Mecca.

The Presidency has also said that the seven governors in New PDP do not have the capacity to stop him from winning in 2015. Do you agree?
I doubt if this statement could came from the Presidency unless it came from a jester like Gulak! Who in his sound mind will tell you that states like Rivers State do not matter to any serious-minded leader aspiring to be President of Nigeria? Tell me who could say Sokoto no longer counts in deciding who becomes the President of Nigeria?  Tell me who in his right mind will say Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Adamawa and Kwara do not matter in determining who becomes Nigerian President?

The President said there was no time he said he would not run in 2015.
That is not correct.  The President said in February, 2011 while interacting with Nigerians and diplomats working in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union in Ankara, Turkey, that he would have loved that the Nigerians in Diaspora voted during the election that year, but added that that would be very difficult. If I can also quote the President, he said,  “Presently, the law does not allow the voting outside Nigeria and so this year Nigerians in Diaspora will not vote but I will work towards it by 2015 even though I will not be running for election.”
The President went ahead to say four years was enough for anyone in power to make significant improvement and that if he couldn’t improve on power within this period, it then means he could not do anything even if he was there for more four years.

When will your group show Nigerians the memo or the agreement signed by the President with the governors?
That would be done at the appropriate time. Why would our President deny the statement he made in a broad daylight, even in the presence of international media?  Because of ambition, would our President denied the words that came out of his mouth and statements he made without duress. Truly, the President is desperate and with this, he has shown that he cannot be trusted. At the appropriate time, Nigerians will get a copy of the communiqué of the PDP governors meeting.

Your group described Nigeria as a crumbling edifice…
Yes, Nigeria is still a crumbling edifice, wrecked to the seams by corruption, bad leadership, ethnicism, parochialism, sectarian intolerance and childish political recrimination. The country at 53 has turned into a borderless valley of tears where life expectancy hovers between 40 and 43 years. That is the truth. Nigerians are callously extorted through various government agencies like the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, which today excels in generating darkness and subjecting Nigerians to the highest ever tariff regime. The Federal Road Safety Commission set up as a well-meaning agency to tame the rising cases of road accidents has become a tool for mindless extortion through the issuing and re-issuing of vehicle number plates and drivers’ licences at very exorbitant prices.
The petroleum sector has become an illicit cash cow for the people in government, their friends and relatives, who exploit hapless citizens through sundry means and cleansing the treasury via a phantom fuel subsidy scheme that targets the friends and fronts of the members of the government for enrichment.
What could best demonstrate the wanton brigandage going on in Nigeria than the fact that the government, which set up the SURE-P programme with the huge N32 increment in each litre of fuel Nigerians purchase, has recorded no known achievement with the huge accruals from the increment? Today, SURE-P has sacked the 110,000 youths it placed on N10, 000 monthly allowances on the excuse that there is no money to pay them. We ask, where is the government keeping the huge amount it realises from the inhuman increment in the price of petrol, kerosene and diesel?
At 53 years of independence, our educational sector has completely crumbled and our universities have been shut for close to three months simply because a government that celebrates free loading of the nation’s resources cannot meet the agreement it signed with university teachers four years ago. Our secondary and primary school sectors are jerking at the most inefficient level; neglected, abandoned and dejected and all have contributed to make Nigerian certificates almost worthless.
The health sector is in a pitiable state as our hospitals cannot handle simple malaria cases. Nigerians now troop to India and the far east Asian countries to treat common ailments and nothing is being done to arrest this sad situation.

How would you appraise the President’s media chat?
We had expected Mr. President, during his media chat of last Sunday, to make a categorical statement that he would not seek re-election but he, unfortunately, chose to dodge the question when it was put to him. We once more wish to appeal to President Jonathan, if he truly loves Nigeria, to abandon his second term ambition and concentrate on how to rescue the sinking Nigerian ship of state.

Is there any hope for the country and its people?
We urge Nigerians not to lose hope but to remain resolute in demanding good governance, transparency and accountability from government at various levels as that is the only way to force the corrupt clique in power to change their ways.
http://www.punchng.com/politics/crossfire/two-rebel-governors-back-to-pdp-gulak/

this man tells lies too much,i dont know what to believe

theshadyexpress: You have just claimed that two governors have backed out of the G7 whereas the group claimed five more governors would be declaring for them next week. Which one should Nigerians believe?

Their claim was mere propaganda. I am telling you authoritatively that two governors have backed out. They are now G5. Only that I won’t mention names but go and find out. Even the statements that some of them have been making are also indicating that what I just told you is right. Two governors have backed out. It is authoritative, go and cross-check.

Ok....we believe you.

Ahmed Gulak has lied so much in one year to keep the money Jonathan is giving him that I can't believe anything he is saying.

If he is telling the truth why can't he name them?

EXCESSIVE LIES AND FANTASY ALWAYS SPRING SURPRISE TO THE BEARERS. I STILL WONDER WHILE GEJ INSISTED ON BEARING INEFFECTIVE, AND INCOMPETENT HELP-HANDS AND HANGERS-ON-
GULAK,
OKUKPE,
THEODORE ORJI,
...
THE G7 AND ASSOCIATES ARE LIKELY TO INCREASE IN NUMBER THAN DECREASE

Gulak lie,he should name d 2 govs,and i wil give him 5 govs dat join npdp,he also lie dat efcc can probe Gej.

Gej should be probe with Immediate Affect for Failing The Masses. Gulak when did the Efcc Probe the FG On Fuel subsidy. Shey that yeye Metting wey una do na probe? I wish you in Agagu Plane crash with Ur boss. BAD BELLE PEOPLE.

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Nonsense

K