In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, a national
leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode
George, speaks on the recent comments of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo and other national
issues

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says
President Goodluck Jonathan plans to perpetuate
himself in government like the former President
of Cote d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo. What do you
think of this comment?

He (Obasanjo) says he is a Christian and as a
Christian, it is emphasised in the New Testament of
the Bible where Christ said judge not so that you will
not be judged. But his judgment is no longer about
the policies of Jonathan. He has gone down to the
extent of saying Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.) will jail you (Jonathan), that is why you are
afraid. I am holding my breath because in an African
setting, you talk to elders with respect and that is
why I am trying to get the right words to describe my
feelings. Baba (Obasanjo) is not a young man. He was
Head of State at 39. So averagely, he should be about
84 or 85 and I am requesting that he should
graciously fade away into the midnight. In the Bible,
Romans chapter 13 states clearly that we should pray
for those in authority. It says pray for your leaders
so that they don’t run aground. So, to me that is my
own interpretation. If baba (Obasanjo) had attended
the Council of State meeting in Abuja, where they
were very well briefed, and that it was decided that
only the Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that could
pronounce a postponement and that he should go
and come up with a decision and Jega addressed a
press conference. Now to start comparing our
President with Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire is unjust,
unsavoury and unfair because what is the population
of Ivory Coast? What are the tribal sentiments of
Ivory Coast? Are they the same here? I want to plead
with Baba. God has been kind to him and he has
served his own time. I don’t want to conclude that his
life will be like King Saul in the Bible. I pray it will
not be so. Baba has played his role. No generation
can finish any job. Nation building is a continuous
exercise. You come, do your own and go back into
history.
Apart from the issue of insecurity which Jega
gave as the reason for the postponement of the
elections, do you think INEC was ready to
conduct the elections on February 14 and 28?
I granted an interview recently and there were two
posers that I gave to Jega. Thank God Jega is a
professor. He told us that there was an 88 per cent
collection rate in Borno State where there is massive
insurgency as well as in Yobe and Adamawa states.
Here, where there is calmness and civility, only 30
something per cent of the populace had collected
PVCs. It is just improving. I think as of last Friday
over three million had collected as against 5.6
million. And he is saying we are ready. Without the
Permanent Voter Cards, you are immediately
disenfranchised. Ask Jega that as a professor, will it
be fair to conduct an examination whereby you have
(students who have) covered 80 per cent syllabus and
another class where you have (students who have)
covered only 30 per cent syllabus. Is it fair?
The other question is this issue of card readers. Have
they been tested? I am talking as an electronic
engineer of 48 years in practice. You just bought
equipment from China and the last time it was
tested was in China. Our own environment is not the
same. Look at the vagaries of the temperature here
from the swampy areas of the South and the
savannah in the North. Who has tested the
equipment? Now, I am not saying they will not all
work but if there are almost 9,000 polling units in
Lagos, is he saying all the 9,000 card readers will be
functional? If the card readers fail to work in some
polling units, what shall we do?
Why did the military surround former Governor
Bola Tinubu’s house?
If Bola Tinubu finds his way into national
government, I will go on exile. He hasn’t the
temerity and the calmness of mind. They don’t even
know what to do in power. Because the vice-
president is his boy, he will just order that Bode
George should be picked up. He said soldiers came
to him but he must have been dreaming. When he
said soldiers had surrounded his house, I drove down
there because my house is not too far from there. I
know the hierarchy of the military and its behaviour.
That they surrounded his house is lie number one
because on either side of his house are two
buildings. There is also one at the back. So, I
wondered where the soldiers were hiding. Why
would you lie for public consumption? So when I got
down there, I knew that his spin doctors were
working. These days people go on the social media
and the story went viral. Why would he (President
Godluck Jonathan) from Abuja, be running after
Bola? Let them be very careful about the statements
they are making. More so, if Obasanjo is now linking
Jonathan with what happened in Cote d’Ivoire and
coup; not in this 21st Century. That is past and gone
forever. No nation goes through this kind of
tribulation twice and survive. We have had our own
experience of Civil War and I pray that God does not
direct our minds in that direction and our people
have to watch their mouths.
The general perception in Lagos is that the
governorship race is between yourself and
Tinubu.
Absolutely not! In the PDP, no individual owns the
party. I happen to have been the first national vice
chairman, South-West PDP, and then became deputy
national chairman South and then deputy national
chairman for the whole country and having done
that, they have honoured me that as long as I remain
in the party, I remain a member of the Board of
Trustees and I am the only one representing the
South-West in the national caucus forever. That is a
great honour in our party but I don’t decide who
becomes a candidate. Primaries were conducted and
in this particular case, the voice of the people
became louder than anybody’s. I am not like Bola
Tinubu, I don’t have the papers of the party in my
pocket. I don’t even have a veto power. But the other
side doesn’t practice democracy. We have friends
that are members there. Jimi Agbaje has no
godfather but will not behave like an authoritarian
governor.
But Senator Musiliu Obanikoro said you were the
one that imposed Agbaje.
That is absolute garbage, he knew he was lying. You
know he came from their party and that is why he
was saying it was me. He has now retracted the
statement. We are now one indivisible party and we
are ready for election. All the vagaries and all that
happened during the primary was a test of the ability
and the strength of our party and we listened to the
voice of the people. The voice of the people is the
voice of God.
Jonathan’s perception in the South-West is not as
favourable as it was in 2011. There has been
blame on you and other PDP Yoruba leaders for
allowing Buhari to increase in popularity in the
South-West.
If you had said this about two or three weeks ago, I
would have agreed. I got these feelers straight to my
face. People came to me and said they would vote
for Agbaje but they will not vote for Jonathan
because he had done nothing for us here. And I
explained that there is a general misunderstanding
of the concept of operation in this country. The long
periods of military rule presupposed that the Head
of State was responsible for everything and it is that
same thinking that is responsible for this situation.
We are all hands on deck explaining the differences
between military governance and democratic
governance.
Highly educated people, my age groups, were asking
me this question but I explained to them that 60 per
cent of the impact the President will have on you is
through the federal allocation to your state. Does he
give every state and every local government
allocation? Yes. They collect it religiously every 30
days. In the area of security, he guarantees it. It is
only three states in the North-East battling
insecurity. There is peace and he guarantees that.
What of infrastructure? All federal roads in Lagos
from Alfred Rewane in Ikoyi all the way to Third
Mainland Bridge and Ebute Meta are federal roads.
Are they like the roads in Somolu and Akowonjo?
Secondly, the APC refused to participate in the
National Conference. Since he (Buhari) has refused to
debate, what will he do about the resolution
unanimously reached by the National Conference?
What will happen to the report? The decisions of the
National Conference are so germane to the future of
this country. The more reasons why the man who
conceptualised it should be allowed to implement his
decisions.



www.punchng.com/politics/ill-flee-nigeria-if-apc-wins-bode-george/

Start fleeing now because apc would win

Start fleeing now because apc would win