1/7

- Going back on words about not contesting again.
- Certainty of winning
- Jonathans last minute congratulatory call

TVC: You're watching TVC Nigeria and this is an exclusive interview with the president elect of the FRN, GMB who won the elections some weeks ago and will be taking over the affairs of the country officially in may from the out-going president GEJ as a civilian leader of course, after his outstand as a military head of state thirty years ago.

First of all congratulations to you your excellency.

GMB: Thank you very much.

TVC: What we're worried about you had vowed to never go into politics in Nigeria, you did. And then you said that you would not contest again after losing three times at the polls, you also did, can you tell us what your changing of your minds at these stages really is.

GMB: The first question if you are following my political antecedent you'd have known that it was answered by me personally in April 2002 when i joined partisan politics. On that date i said, myself and all that were close to me if were asked a year ago whether i will be into partisan politics will say no, this was simply because of the way i found myself as the military head of state and what the govt i led did to politicians of the second republic.

So i thought i will never paticipate in Nigerian partisan politics, but i think that thing shall be a credit for me, because people are accusing me of being rigid, stereotyped and all that, if i can modify my thoughts i think people should give me a credit for that .

The second question, yes i could recall vividly what i said, ''that was the last time i will present myself as a candidate" but i said clearly that i will remain in partisan politics. And i have answered this questions so many times to your colleagues, that people from states both politicians and non politicians came and say that i cannot say that i will not participate, and since i said i will remain in partisan politics then it is my party that will decide what to do, and i agreed.

So eventually if you could recall i was in Anpp, i left, we flow to Cpc and then we decided to have a merger which got three main political parties together under the name of Apc, and that's how we arrived where we are today.

TVC: When it was clear that you were going to win the presidential election this time around how did you feel and then the point where GEJ put a call across to you congratulated you even before the election result was announced.

GMB: Well, i think it's a landmark in Nigerian political history, firstly, for an opposition party to successfully win an election against the incumbent party which has been there for 16 years. And more significantly what the president did by calling me before even the final telling, before announcement of Inec and said he is congratulating me for winning, that's a remarkable statesmanship and that stabilise the politics of this country, because from the extension of six weeks many observers especially Nigerians feel that the elections and the results are going to be controversial, but the president decided to cut it off by accepting what is practically on the ground.

2/7

- Birth of formidable/viable Apc
- Fate of decampees
- Gmb's cabinet

TVC: Talking about the Apc, it seems that the coming about of the Apc and eventual victory of the party was somehow shaped by the approach to seeing the way it was carried out, a scientific approach if i must say, carrying out a study to know how really to form a viable opposition. Could you tell us more about this?

GMB: I think the role played by chief Akande and Bola Ahmed Tinubu are really remarkable, those who know Nigerian politics from independence till now know that the ace card for political stability is always held by the southwest.

I have no problem because i believed Chief Obafemi Awolowo has cultivated democratic system in the southwest and it remained there, and by some fabulous coincidence as the three of us and a number of others realise that unless the opposition parties come together there's nothing we can do with the rulling party, because for more than ten years they're dictating the terms, so the best thing is for the opposition parties to come together because each one of us individually will be taken feasible and destroyed, but if we come together we willl get the national spread then we will be able to successfully deal with Pdp, and thank God we have done it.

TVC: But there is mass exodus of Pdp members to the Apc which many Nigerians somehow are becoming worried saying is gradually giving the Apc an image of an old wine in a new bottle. Are you not worried that this could affect the vision of the Apc?

GMB: I am not worried because as i have just explained to you in detail, Apc is not a result of impulsive decision by the leadership of the legacy parties, it is a deliberate, well processed, well documented processes that arrived at the Apc.

So, whoever join us whether from the ruling party or non commited politician before, there's plenty of room for them as long as they agreed to be part of Apc, they can go back to their constituencies and start to establish themselves, it is not from top to bottom it is from bottom to top.

TVC: What factors now would you consider in choosing members of your cabinet?

GMB: Well, well, that again the party had a lot of role to play there. But most importantly we need seasoned technocrats, people of professional and personal integrity.

There is so much mudslinging and accurate and inaccurate accusations of how corruption has eaten deep into the Nigerian system, we cannot afford to make mistake, those people who had been identified as incompetent and of doubtful personal or professional integrity i dont think they will get a role into the cabinet of the Apc.

3/7

- Walking the talk / Hitting the ground running.
- Petrol price.
- Terrible set of Nigerians.

TVC: You sold the change message to Nigerians and they bought it by voting you into office, many Nigerians now see you as a magician sort of, expecting you to wave your magic wand and start making things happen once you get into office. Now how soon can Nigerians start seeing visible results of the change message.

GMB: I think from 1st of June this year. When we are sworn in, from the processess of picking ministers people will know we are living to our manifestos commitment.

And i will ask Nigerian political observers to please study our manifesto, it is not a Bible or the Quran, because you cant change the Quran, whatever is there you take it or you leave it, same thing with most part of the Bible. So, our manifesto was made by very very experienced Nigerians, they took several months to arrive at it but it's subject to modification. As soon as we are in govt we will highly respect the role of the other two tiers of govt, the legislature and the judiciary, so whatever we said in our manifesto people must accept the fact that we have to modify certain things according to the law and constitution of the country.

TVC: Professor Tam David West former petroleum minister said that your govt once you get into power you will reduce the petroleum price to 40 Naira per litre that that's possible and Nigerians should look forward to that could you please confirm if so?

GMB: He said it i didnt say it so why should you hold me to ransom about what he said[**teasing].

Having said that, he has been a minister of petroleum under me, so he knows the industry and he is keepimg himself upto date, i have my own idea about this subsidy or non subsidy, mine is based on hikes which were available to David West and those that are interested in prospection and development of our petroleum industry. For petrol to cost so much in Nigeria relative to other countries, how i wish Nigerians could articulate their representations and present it to the govt because from what i know the prospection and development of Nigerian petroleum industry was largerly financed in terms of Nigeria's percentage of shares in the prospection and development companies. I can understand Nigerians to pay the cost at filling station should be the cost of a barrel from the well head, the type of crude, transportation to the refinery, the cost of refining, cost of transportation from refinery to filling stations and then we look at the economy and then cost of fuel outside so that we dont make our fuel too cheap to encourage smuggling and other irresponsible acts identified by a lot of Nigerians in the industry, because i know to the best of my ability the upgrading of Port harcourt refinery from 60,000 to 100,000 and then the building of another core refinery in Portharcourt, so Portharcourt alone had the capacity of refining 150,000 barrel of crude a day. And then i as a minister of petroleum signed the contract for Warri, a 100,000 barrels a day, Kaduna a 100,000 barrels a day, pipelines were built across the country, more than 3200 lined pipes and then more than 20 depots from Ilorin to Gusau to Maiduguri to Kano to Makurdi to Adamawa.

We all did that without borrowing, so why should Nigerians waste so much, if we borrow this money and we are paying back with interest i can understand Nigerians to be charged much more than it should be as i describe it, so....

***cuts in

TVC: In other words are you saying that it's possible the price of petrol pegged that it's 70 naira per litre now could reduce when you get to office?

GMB: We will look at it, it is going to be difficult, the reason is this: virtually the infrastructure has been destroyed by neglect, by pdp.

Even when we are working then when the refineries are working when there is maintenance, turnaround maintenance they call it, where refineries are closed and then are maintained according to sophistications by the manufacturers, Nigerians hardly know it. Why, because the people that are in charge for prospection and development in Nigeria have got refineries all over the world, all we have to do we sit down with them, we are going to get so many Nigerian type of barrels that will yield so much petrol, so much kerosene, so much diesel, you, go and refine it and bring it for us we will pay you for transportation, Nigerians could hardly know that refineries are closed.

But what pdp government has done are, to kill the refineries, allow pipelines to be destroyed by saboteurs and refuse to maintain the depots and so on. So the petroleum industry is in such a mess just like rest of the economy that i cannot promise magic as you put, magic wand, i dont think i have got that magic wand.

4/7

- Refineries.
- Power supply
- Aviation, railways, shipping lines, roads

TVC: Are there plans to revive the refineries and even build new ones under your government.

GMB: I think that's the most sensible thing to do, one of our problems is lack of employment, here we are as a country and in our most important industry petroleum people were trained as petroleum engineers, gas, civil, for pipelines, for structures, thousands of Nigerians are employed, and then you allow a percentage of another set of terrible Nigerians to destroy this infrastructure, to make people unemployed, to make rest of Nigeria pay so much for the product that God gave them, that they put infrastructure on the ground, they refined it, they distribute it, they allow corrupt party within 16 years to destroy that vital economy along with others.

TVC: So what about power what plans do you have to improve power supply in Nigeria ?

GMB: We have to see what efforts were done in terms of privatisation, the good old NEPA and PHCN have been sold, now those who bought them we have to study what have they done with them.

All we know, atleast 20 billion dollars have been spent on power between 1999 and now, what are the results? there's a lot of work to be done

TVC: The country doesnt have a national carrier, in the aviation industry there are many private airlines around, now is there a plan by your government to let nigeria have a national carrier?

GMB: I like to treat patriotism with a lot of economic sense and common sense, i think for Nigeria railway is more important than airline, railways can be used by people from different level, from cleaners in the office to permanent secretaries, to the ministers to president but airline is for the elite, those that can afford to pay.

My personal opinion, i will give Nigerian railways more priority over airways and shipping lines. And give priority to the roads because of the way they affect the economy especially the link roads, roads to rural areas and so on, where foodstuff is brought to the urban areas. So there were lots of work to be done but our party as i said our manifesto has seen it all, they condensed it but it can be expanded, and with participation of the legislature we will identify our priorities and work very hard to get things done.

5/7

- Corruption, insecurity, unemployment, economy.
- Quick jobs
- Military & police reform

TVC: Now you promised to fight corruption and of course improve security in the country, dont you think these two could be a challenge to really tackle effectively?

GMB: We have three fundamental problems in Nigeria, one insecurity, two unemployment, the damage done to the economy as i have just explained only one part of it the petroleum industry, three corruption.

In all the 35 states and all the town hall meetings i had in Lagos in Kano in Abuja, i emphasize these three points, i could not recall any group or any individual disagreement with me in identifying these three fundamental issues. Now these are issues that wiill certainly take time but we thought of agriculture and mining would help the new government to quickly provide jobs for everybody unemployed and we will give that lot of priority.

Because insecurity and unemployment and corruption is such a viscous circle that has to be broken. If you have insecurity it will affect employment, look at the schools closed in the northeast, the factories, the bridges blown and the unemployment they cause, and what corruption has been doing to us. I have already started persuading Nigerians to be patient with us, we will try and explain at every level what we are doing and how we are doing it and what cooperation we need from Nigerians.

TVC: So talking about security do you think there will be a need for you to reform the military and the police especially with that drama over your missing certificate and then later on it was found.

GMB: Yeah, well, the inefficiency and corruption of the Pdp administration as i kept on saying in the last 16 years. Somebody up there in the pdp ought to know that the armed forces and indeed the ministries and other organisations as i mentioned about financial instructions and administrative instructions, i had the honour to be the Nigerian army military secretary and i know every commision officer has a file and that file was open the day he was commisioned in the Nigerian army and it will be there untill his death.

So, for somebody to say that my certificate is missing that proves how the system has been destroyed, does it mean the previous times INEC cleared me to participate INEC didnt know what they were doing? or they were not following the electoral act? this i think are things normal Nigerians shall quickly see through them.

6/7

- Missing certificate
- United Nigeria
- Confab report.

TVC: So would there be a reform, will there be an investigation especially into what went into your certificate getting missing ?

GMB: Well they said it is no longer missing so why should we...........

***both laughing...

..... why should we waste so many precedent investigating again..

In any case there is one damn-good cartoons i cant remember in which paper he said "well they said Buharis certificate is missing but INEC has given him one". So if inec has given me certificate of winning the election to hell with the certificate that is with the military.

TVC: Alright now Nigerians have so long been divided along ethnic and religious lines, now as a president of a united Nigeria how would you move really to unite everyone in the country?

GMB: Insecurity, economy, unemployment and corruption as Nigerians agreed with Apc's identification of this problems, and there has to be a quick systematic way of enumerating Nigeria from these problems. We thank God the result of this election across the country has dealt with what brought out our social problems across ethnicity and religion, people just voted for Apc, a party that promised them will make sure all Nigerians will have a fair deal during its rule in this country.

TVC: Would you look into the recommendations in the national confab reports.

GMB: Well, frankly i have'nt study it. I have a problem with that conference, if you could recall at the time the govt said it voted 7 billion Naira for that conference ASUU was on strike, teachers on tertiary institutions, polytechnics were on strike, these strikes were for a whole academic year.

I think a serious govt if they have a 7 billion Naira to throw about will go and negotiate with ASUU, and then teachers organisations or teachers unions of the tertiary institutions so that our children should remain in school.

I was so much against that thing because the national assembly is there, i believed the executive ought to have send a memo to the national assembly if they want a constiitutional ammendment, this is in line with the constitution of 1999 as amended.

Why go and take 7 billion that you could not afford when our children are on the street? I think this government has a capacity for wrong priorities that are hurting us a nation.

7/7

- Pdp debris under Apc
- First 100 days in office
- EFCC

TVC: Alright so will your party now which would be the ruling party at the center intimidate or be hostile to opposition parties once in office, am talking about the pdp states.

GMB: No.. That will be against our manifesto, our manifesto strenghtens social justice, and somebody who promised social justice and put it in writing cannot turn around and promote injustice.

We are going to provide social justice, people will get what they deserve weather they're in opposition or in our party.

TVC: What basically do you hope to achieve in your first 100 days in office?

GMB: The three things i mentioned, security, employment which means improvement of the economy and really giving corruption a bloody nose.

We just have to block all loop holes how people siphon public funds for their own interests.

TVC: What plans do you have for the EFCC ?

GMB: When i get there i will find out what EFCC has been doing so i wiill know what to do with them.

TVC: Thank you very much your excellency it has been quite interesting chatting with you exclusively telling us your plans for Nigerians once you get into office officially in may.

GMB: Thank you very much.

***Shake hands. [END]..

The people's General

Vídeo:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gmnd4u09D8

I just love that man. I the man with the PhD no fit give us a Straightforward anewer like ds one. I na to dry talk as if he dry explain something to his 2yr old kid

SLIDEwaxie:
I just love that man. I the man with the PhD no fit give us a Straightforward anewer like ds one. I na to dry talk as if he dry explain something to his 2yr old kid

Lol. Like the story of goat and nyam.

He said nothing. Practically answering all the questions away.

This is for omenka and the others who called the hopefornigeria story fake.

I don't know why I feel some kinda confidence that Nigeria will be greater than ever. He speaks like a true leader honestly. He was a dictator but now he sounds more democratic than those.......

eCollynzo:
This is for omenka and the others who called the hopefornigeria story fake.

That's not a sincere version of presentation, they put it as though Apc will never pursue to materialise anything stated in its manifesto. The state of this nation is similar to a wrecked ship vandalised by pirates, Apc arrived at its manifesto majorly through remote sensing, we need to hope things are not badder as it was laid in their documentation which is what will lead to further modifications of some parts of the manifesto.

Nigeria will be great by HIS grace

Please who knows how to fast forward time....we need to get to May 29 quickly

Intelligent President.
Chai........this man know book I swear(biko u can continue to argue with ur BB charger on this oo).

atleast we all agree here that stealing is corruption

I trust U My President.

All the best BABA!

SAI BABA...mai choice may....mai own****if na gej na cough go full the interview.....

Kudos OP. I hope dis will hit the FP,at least, to acknowledge the OP's efforts

This is the kind of leader we want. A leader who gives us hope even after election that shows he really mean business. Not like those corrupt mofos (Doyin Okupe) who said nigeria can not aford brand new train because we are not america whereas they were busy embezzling our money to enrich themselves and also the arindin (Jonathan) that said stealing is not corruption. I beg help me ask him if stealing is not corruption then what is stealing and what is corruption.

Insha allah with this man as our president our days of suffering is over.

what an interview!!!
did he say all that!!!
i'm really impressed...NOW WE HAVE A PRESIDENT

Jimwalex:
Kudos OP. I hope dis will hit the FP,at least, to acknowledge the OP efforts

I took hours transcribing this simply because tons of members & guests rely on interpretations of the few that got to watch Tv and stream on youtube, where some have ulterior motives to mispresent.

Unfortunately, i dont think the mods will ever see it, it's not about girls twerking or selfies with dogs

This thread won't make fp. Nairaland is so reluctant when it comes to appreciating people's efforts.

Buhari



I'm just so Happy.... I voted wisely.

okiokio

weldone my presido
sai BABA.....