*’Why President must call Edwin Clark, others
to order’
By Ochereome Nnanna
Congresses for the nomination of Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) candidates for the
Houses of Assembly election in 2015 took
place nationwide on Saturday, November 29,
2014. Governor Sule Lamido joined his fellow
delegates to participate in the exercise in
Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State. Lamido later spoke
to Sunday Vanguard on some political issues.
Excerpts:
Your contemporaries – some governors
finishing their second terms in about six
months – are heading to the Senate and you
have decided not to. What is your political
future?
I have been around for a long time. In all
modesty, I think I have acquired the status of
a father who should be guiding the children
in this very difficult period of our history. I am
in the last group of public office holders linked
to the old order playing roles in the new
generation. I am like a bridge with which
people can cross over to the new generation of
leaders in Nigeria. The old order fought for
Nigeria’s independence which we got in 1960.
Then there was military intervention and an
unfortunate civil war. In 1979, we returned to
civil rule and the founding fathers were again
part of our democracy. That was when I
came into politics. Those who plotted the
military coup against our country in 1983,
psychologically, did not see themselves as
leaders. It was a defining moment in our
history. They tried to wipe out our history.
They sought to literally destroy, rubbish,
terrorise, distort and obliterate the vision of
our forefathers.
They felt that was the only way they could
stand. While some of us remained with the
founding fathers, the rest of them who went to
the military college and fought the civil war
decided to topple the very institutions that
made them. For them to be seen as leaders
they must wipe out the legacies they met in
place.
I do not think there is anyone who was in
office in 1983 still occupying elective office
today. I was in the House of Representatives
in 1979. I was a very young man, but I
enjoyed the mentoring and support of the
founding fathers. Being the last man standing
from that generation, I think the best I can do
is to help the younger generation to capture
some values one of which is the value of
seeing public office not as an industry but
service. So, I am going to be much more in
the political arena than the government arena.
I will be active, politically, in my ward after I
leave office. I will also be very active in Jigawa
State.
I will be vigorously active at the national level
in the party. I will be mentoring, influencing,
guiding and advising. I will add more value
outside government. My involvement in
politics will not be seen as a means of
employment or a sanctuary for me. I must not
occupy a political office to be seen to be
relevant. I am already relevant. I don’t need
to be in the Senate to be relevant. I don’t
need to be in an office for protection. So, it is
only fair for me to allow the younger
generation to play their roles in government
while I act as a guide. I will be seen as father
to all. I will be seen as the property of the
people, whom they own. They will be coming
to me as a father, friend, brother and mentor.
You were running for president. You were
warming up for it. Then suddenly you
withdrew for President Jonathan. What made
you withdraw? And what role will you play in
your party? Will you be active or merely
passive during the presidential campaign of
the PDP?
Let me correct you, and I want to underline it:
I have never, ever said I am gunning for the
presidency. Never. Some Nigerians just
thought I was good enough to be Nigeria’s
president. They started promoting the idea,
and it caught on, and people thought it was
me. I feel flattered that some people find me
worthy of being asked to run for president, and
I thank my Creator, my Allah, for giving me
that standing. I thank them, but it was not
me who was running for president. Secondly,
as a party man, I strongly believe in party
culture and party tradition. I have to take
cognisance of the peculiar political culture of
Nigeria, where occupiers of political office
tend to transform into political leaders.
A councillor who was nobody before being
elected becomes the political leader of that
ward while in office. He begins to lord it over
the ward chairman and executives. The same
thing happens at the state level. A governor
who was not being noticed before as an
individual uses that office to also become
political leader of his state. At the federal
level, a president who was not even known
before uses the huge office he occupies… the
aura of the office, the power of the office
distorts his thinking, and therefore the person
becomes the political leader not only of his
party but also of the whole country.
But these are public offices, under certain
rules and regulations, conferred with some
powers to function within a defined period.
When President Obasanjo was in office, he
radiated the power and glory of the
presidential office. But when he left and
handed over to the late President Umar Yar’
Adua, he was almost eclipsed by the new man
on seat. That public office, from top to the
bottom, should not be confused for leadership.
It is transient. Leadership is not transient, but
political office, within its powers, is. But in
Nigeria, elected office now combines the power
of service and leadership in the hands of the
current occupant of the office. So if I run
against such an incumbent, with the
enormous powers he wields under our
constitution and political culture, he will
certainly defeat me.
There is no way a governor can beat a sitting
president to the presidential ticket of the
party. The same thing applies in the states.
There is no way in a party arrangement that
an outsider can come and defeat a governor
seeking re-election at the party primaries. He
can go to another party, collect his ticket and
he can win at the general elections, but
certainly not within the party. If, for instance,
I go with the yearnings of my supporters, I
will only cause them more heartache and pain
because I will be defeated by the president.
There are some facts which cannot be ignored.
It will also give my opponent some
credibility and legitimacy because he will
say: ‘I contested with Sule Lamido and I
defeated him’. I will end up becoming
frustrated because the process is not going to
be transparent. If I want to hurt my party, or
perhaps hurt Nigeria, I will say I will run. They
will bring EFCC, ICPC after me, but no
problem. I will raise all the sentiments, North,
South and what have you. I know the areas I
can touch if I mean my party and my country
ill-will. At the end of it, I will be defeated.
Then, I will refuse to concede defeat; I will say
there were no level grounds. I will storm out
and address a press conference… I refuse to do
that. I love my party, PDP. And I love my
country, Nigeria. I can never allow my personal
aspiration to blind me to the dangers it can
bring on my party and my country. I will ruin
my party, I will put my country in danger, but I
will also be crippled politically. Why should I
willingly go through that? A country that
made me what I am, gave me space to grow?
I will do everything in my power to pay back
Nigeria for what Nigeria has made me. I will
work hard to see that Nigeria is stable, united
and strong, so that as Nigeria has enabled me
to grow, other Nigerians will also have the
opportunity to grow to the best of their
potentials, to be governors, ministers,
parliamentarians, academicians, captains of
industry, scientists, professionals and what
have you.
To answer your question, it was people who
felt I had the qualities that were promoting the
idea that I should run. Having opted out of
the race, it should not in any way dilute my
commitment to my party and the progress of
the country. It will not.
Will you support the president fully during the
campaigns, or will you play ‘siddon look?’
What we are going through today in Nigeria
should go beyond partisan politics. Only
yesterday, there were bomb blasts in Kano.
How many people died? How many were
injured? People in their place of worship. No
matter how you see it, sometimes there are
difficult situations. My party and my Federal
Government must assist me in ensuring my
safety. Right now, we are overwhelmed by
grief.
Government must be seen to have the political
will and commitment to confront this
insurgency. Even though I believe in Nigeria, I
am also coming from a political environment.
And when a certain arrangement seems to be
undermining me, ignoring the circumstances
under which I live in my environment, it
becomes very, very difficult for me to give the
required political support. Government should
also be willing and able to encourage me to
support it. It should be able to provide me
the comfort I need. Immediately after the
Kano mosque bombing, text messages began
to circulate.People are saying, ‘the North
should not forgive Murtala Nyako, Shehu
Shema, Sule Lamido and Isa Yuguda’, they
listed four governors for supporting President
Goodluck Jonathan to be president in 2011.
Are they saying that the president is
connected with the bomb blasts?
You see, as human beings, when you are
going through frustration, and you are literally
overwhelmed, you can get disoriented and
over-react. Otherwise, what do the bomb
blasts have to do with the 2011 election? I
am coming from a tribe, from a region and
from an environment, and these types of
things drain me of all moral authority, all
political authority. And, therefore, when things
are not working very well, I am one of those
people hold accountable. I am part of the
leadership of the country and so my people
hold me accountable.
When people like Edwin Clark say people of
the South-South are angry with the North for
being against their son, it diminishes my
contribution to the making of the Jonathan
presidency. When people are overwhelmed by
hopelessness, they can take it out on anybody
who is around, and people will now be making
reckless statements. I must be given the
moral authority, and things must be decisively
checked. And people should not be making
reckless statements. We need to work towards
a Nigeria for all Nigerians, not northern
Nigeria or southern Nigeria. People should be
defending the interests of Nigeria, not just the
interests of their regions and abusing people
who are from the other side.
There seems to be a slow descent to anarchy
as we move towards the 2015 general
elections. What is the way out?
The way out is to give Nigerians security. The
insurgency in the North should not be seen as
a northern thing but as a challenge facing the
whole nation. It should not be seen as a
gang-up of the North against the Federal
Government or the President. There has to be
a clear political will to confront this thing
head-on. Every Nigerian, from North or South,
must come together to confront this problem.
Today, if you go to the bus station to travel to
Enugu, you could become a victim of bomb
blast. Even though it is happening in the
North, the victims can be from anywhere, they
could even be expatriates. We are living by the
second.
How can you feel happy living in a country
where you don’t know what will happen to you
the next second? We must live in a secured
country. That is the principal reason for
having a government. This notion that Boko
Haram is something being used to undermine
someone, as being posited by people like
Edwin Clark and the others, will not solve the
problem. He must be publicly admonished. We
should restore confidence in the citizens.
Nigeria must be seen to belong to all
Nigerians. When you see government as ours
and not theirs; ours as in tribe or group, not
as the whole nation, as the whole citizenry of
Nigeria, then you are part of the problem.
Recently, the police invaded the National
Assembly. I am putting this question to you as
a former member of the House of
Representatives. When the legislators
managed to get into the chambers, some of
them started signing impeachment notice
against the president. How do you see that
incident? Were the police action and
impeachment move justified?
What is the National Assembly? How do you
get there? It is an assembly of political
leaders elected from their constituencies. It is
not an assembly where you always pat each
other’s back and hug each. It is a place to
contend and canvass interests, so conflicts
will naturally arise from time to time. It is not
unusual to have fisticuffs there, and this
happens in every parliament. It is not the
business of government that there could be
anarchy there. They created the impression
that some people were allowed to get in while
the gate was shut on some people. That was
wrong. It is their office. It is not for the police
to begin to anticipate that there could be
crisis. It is an assembly of disharmony and
harmony, of crises and peace, of idiocy and
anything. It all depends on the issue in
discussion. That is not the police business.
So the police were wrong. Even if the police
had reasons to take action, the way they went
about it created the
problem. They should have closed the gate,
allow members to get in and keep away non-
members, even if it means keeping away some
categories of staff, at least for that day. Let
them go in there, fight and box, it is not the
business of the police.
So, you are saying they can be lawless on the
floor, they can kill each other and police will
just watch?
I was once a parliamentarian, and the late
Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was our Speaker. A fight
erupted when we were trying to unseat the
Speaker. It happens in every legislature, even
in America, Russia, everywhere. It is a human
institution, and there is no perfection. It is an
assembly of contending interest, values, and
cultures and not to mention political camps.
So, what the police did was wrong. And it was
also wrong for the House members to say they
are impeaching the president because two
wrongs cannot make a right.
We witnessed the congress for the election of
the PDP candidate for the House of Assembly
in your ward in Birnin Kudu today. We saw
you queue up like other delegates and you
voted. What was the significance of the way
the process was conducted?
Parties have processes and traditions. There is
a difference between a party function and a
government function. Government functions
are full of officialdom and red tape. When you
are in a party function, such as congresses
and conventions, whether you are the
president, vice president, senator, member of
the legislature or governor, you are there first
and foremost as a party man. Therefore, you
should be able to bring the power, aura and
charisma of the office down to the level of the
other party men and women and youth, the
party grassroots, in such a way as to make
them feel this is mine. The party grassroots
must feel today is my day.
You must connect to them because it was
from there that they sent you to your high
office, and when you finish your tenure, you
must return to them. When you appear among
them they feel elated, that that thing which is
up there, which I sent up there is now among
us today. It gives the party a lot of cohesion.
Many people make the mistake of erecting
too many barriers and subject the ordinary
party members to hardship just because the
people they produced in public office are
around. That is wrong.
If you annoy the people, they can walk away.
In fact, they should walk away if they are
harassed too much. I make sure that fellow
party members are respected. I give them their
due courtesy, and I give them a sense of
belonging to the party and to me. I see it as a
family reunion. And that is why at the end of
the function, there was no rancour. Rather,
everybody went home happy and feeling part
and parcel of their party. What you saw today
was part of the tradition of the Peoples
Redemption Party (PRP), and that is what we
have entrenched here in Jigawa State.

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And u want us to read this long story ?

midep:
And u want us to read this long story ?

If u want to hide something from a black man, put it inside a book.

After putting it in black and white, a black man becomes a dummy.
Good one mr Governor.