Recently, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was at the corporate headquarters of the Sun Publishing Limited. He fielded questions from the editors on a number of issues.Excerpts:
What has Buhari achieved in 100 days? Secondly, what would you say has made it impossible for members of political parties to fund parties, instead of the current situation where their fate is at the mercy of some moneybags?
We had it up to 1979. In NPN, Action Group, NPC, UPN, it was members of the party that sponsored their campaigns. I remember when I went to contest for the governorship of Kwara State in 2003, an old woman came to show me her Action Group card, she used to pay about six pence, one shilling every month. Now, this was destroyed by Babangida. When they made two party system and government funded the two parties .
Let me tell you in the UPN in those days, there was an organising secretary in every local government. Once you win nomination in UPN, you are the candidate of the party. You don’t spend one penny again. You become the responsibility of the party. I remember those who won Senate then, they were given 504, House of Representatives got Volkswagen. That was the time the party was really supreme. What made the party supreme was that everybody was a stakeholder. However, even then it was exactly the same thing. What the parties did in the first republic was that it empowered certain members of their parties.
To answer your question, we missed the road when political parties were turned into parastatals and they were receiving money quarterly from the government and party officials were paid by government. That was the beginning of losing party supremacy.
Now, the only way the party can come back is when we re-organise the country. The moment you have a much more vibrant economy and the middle class is rehabilitated a lot of things will change .
In any country, the middle class are those people that change the cause of history. But today, the middle class is so endangered. And the middle class people, very few of them can survive on probity and integrity.
So, I think once we rehabilitate the economy and we consciously, very consciously encourage people to participate in politics and if integrity becomes more of the yardstick than resources, things will change. We have seen that happen under this particular administration, I don’t think Buhari would have got the presidential ticket if it was a matter of resources . If the consideration was about money there was no way APC would have won the election.
Those who voted for Buhari voted because they saw in him an incorruptible leader. And I think it is a good beginning. And hopefully as time goes on, we will be able to see people look more at what people stand for.
Again, the war against corruption, I believe is going to help us. Because this time last year, we were cerebrating corrupt people. Today, they have all been lying low. Somebody was caught in Niger with about 1billion naira. And that is probably the money that was stolen.
I believe that gradually when this ethical revolution catches on, Nigerians will now attach more importance to integrity and character than resources.
I think political parties should now start consciously, to encourage people of integrity to come out and assist them. I believe that elections in 2019 will not be as expensive as that of 2015. Gradually I believe that integrity and probity will become the yardstick.
What has Buhari achieved in 100 days?
I want to say with all sense of humility that he has achieved a lot in 100 days. To me, the most important thing I think he has achieved is what I call the Buhari effect. All of a sudden there is relative stability in power. There are no longer queues in our filling stations. Some will argue that we are benefitting from what the PDP put on ground. It is not true. The installed capacity has always remained the same, about 7000 megawatts.
This administration, not one single megawatts has been put on since May 29. But the major obstacle to power stability has been availability of gas, largely because of sabotage. Now according to Igali, there has been no major disruption; there has been no major sabotage to our gas pipeline since May 29. And again because people look at the new leader,they see in him a man of integrity. They tell themselves ,let us co-operate with him.
In the last 100 days, people were talking about corruption that government was spending a lot of time on corruption. No. I think it is important for us to know that corruption is a virus.
If you look at what happened in the international community, we were almost a pariah state. Today, we are the toast of the civilised world, that is all because of one person.
When Buhari got to the US, Obama said he was glad to meet him. He wanted to see that man who rode on people’s power and who has come to power with high integrity quotient. And when Ban Ki Moon came last week, he said he was eager to discuss the issue of good governance with him. These may be in the area of intangibles. But in the area of tangibles, in the last 100 days, the President has shown that he is a focussed man, addressing the issue of insecurity, corruption and the economy,
On security, when he came, he visited Chad, he visited Cameroun. Those are our neighbours. He realised that unless we have the support of our neighbours, there is no way we can defeat Boko Haram.
When he came back he hosted a meeting of Lake Chad Basin Commission. He did not only get the support of the US; US was ready to suspend the Leah law . Today we have the integrated army, an army that is ready to go after the insurgents, unlike before.
Today, we are dislodging the insurgents. Before now, they were flying their own flag, they were appointing their own emirs, they were collecting taxes. Today, they are on the run. It is true we can’t claim all the credit, because the last six weeks before the election, there were some actions that helped in dislodging the insurgents.
What has changed now I think is the holistic approach in fighting the insurgents.
Again, the decision of the President to move the command and control centre of the Army to the theatre of war has not only raised the morale of the army, but has also helped our service chiefs to know the magnitude of the problem.
When they were in Abuja, it was like a foreign war. The visit by service chiefs to the various units and even to communities has added to the new confidence of the Nigerian army and Nigerians generally . Today, the service chiefs are saying that they are going to meet the three months deadline to defeat Boko Haram.
What is different between this administration and former administration is that this administration realised that you cannot fight Boko Haram by using just guns. No. No, insurgency is never won by force of arm. You must also understand the underlining factors that gave rise to it.
One of the factors, according to Shekau or even his former boss, is corruption. That reason why they took up arms against their fatherland is because of lack of good governance.
This administration is bent on de-radicalising the entire North East. Today, the kind of message in the north east in terms of Islam is so radical. The mainstream Muslims, have been so intimidated. The government is helping to build the confidence of those people so that people can hear the real message.
What is happening about Boko Haram is not about religion. It is about politics. They want to take total control of Nigeria. So, I think in the area of insurgency, security, the President in the last 100 days has achieved a lot. Ban Ki Moon when he invited him to New York to meet with other heads of state in September, on an international conference on cambating extremism acknowledged that.
Another area, I think the government has achieved a lot is the fight against corruption. The thing about corruption is that until you really understand the level rot got to in the last administration, you will not fully understand why we were almost a failed state. When we reel out figures, they will come and say you are exaggerating. No .this figures were not fabricated by APC. They are all in the public domain. It was the Auditor General of the Federation in his report to the National Assembly that talked about the 183 billion naira that the NDDC could not account for. It was not APC that captured it. The 160 million barrels of oil that they cannot account for between 2010 to 2015 was not from us .The 3.8 trillion naira that NNPC did not return to the federation account, was not manufactured by APC. Actually, it is the National Economic Council that made that revelation and it is yet to be denied by NNPC. Or are you talking about 102 billion naira that they
accuse DPR of not remitting back to the federation account.
The 2.1billion dollar excess crude account, it was even the former minister of Finance that admitted that it was the President that asked her to take it. It is not as if we manufactured them. But imagine what 3.8 trillion naira could do to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians. We are talking about another 2 billion naira arms scandal. Now, until we clear this and get to the bottom and retrieve this money, Nigeria will not stabilise.
But ,for me, more people must be made to understand that there is consequences of looting. And that if you cannot tackle it such crimes will continue.
There are allegations that only PDP members are been hounded by the government, why is the APC government not looking inward?
That is what they say. It is not correct. Now, you can’t come after Lai Mohammed, because he was never in power. For 16 years, the PDP was in power. For 16 years they appointed ministers, heads of parastatals, MDs of NNPC, NPA and all that. Clearly if they are going to investigate, their members will be more than the APC people.
Secondly, come to states, in 1999, there were 24 PDP states and the others shared 12 . In 2003, there were 27 PDP states. In 2011, there were about 23 or 24 PDP states. It was even when we came to merge in 2013 , plus the five PDP states, we were just 16. So, why are they saying it is selective. And don’t forget that under our law, only the EFCC, the police, the DSS and the ICPC can probe corruption. It does not mean they will not pick APC. As I am speaking to you, we have senators in APC who are facing EFCC.
Our senator representing Adamawa central, both him and his father were invited and detained. Goje. Let me tell you one thing, Buhari has said it clearly that no member of the party will escape justice, simply because he is a member of our party. If you have information, write petition, let the agency investigate. But even on a level playing field, by virtue of the fact that PDP members had been in power for so long, there would be more of them. It is clear.
The President said he is not going to micromanage these agencies. The beauty of it is that everyday we here fresh petitions. We heard that ICPC is already investigating some APC ex-governors.
When people come out to say we are selective, I see it as corruption fighting back. Corruption is so strong in Nigeria, it has such a large followership. It has a strong foundation. If you want to fight corruption in Nigeria, you must be ready also to face corruption fighting you back
There are perceptions in the public that some of the people around Buhari are corrupt, the public is saying why not charity begin at home?
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Believe me, if anybody has any information, Buhari is not going to sweep it under the carpet. That I can assure you.
This is a season of muck raking. It is going to do us much good, but let us be careful. As at today, nobody has been convicted, because we want to make sure there is due process, rule of law. You know all the time they have been talking, nobody has gone to the Corporate Affairs Commission to investigate.
It is just like this nonsense about 100 days of Buhari. When did Buhari say he was going to do anything in 100 days. When he was asked even in Chattam House in February, he said, I don’t believe in 100 days. He said it is a fraud. He can’t be part of it. How can anybody say in 100 days he will start giving free meals
He said he is not running for office. If you think anybody around Mr President is guilty, go and challenge him and prove it. I can tell you many people today if it is based on perception, they would be in jail already.
The President’s recent appointments have attracted criticisms, what is your take on that? When a man is going to make over 1000 appointments, you can’t start judging by 35. Two, when you look at the nature of the appointments, it is actually personal staff. I have been privileged to be chief of staff. I know that as Chief of Staff, I am the first person the governor sees in the morning or the last person at night. I have access to him everywhere including his bedroom. In fact, it is not uncommon for me to go in and ask “where is the governor? They would say in the toilet, I would go there and say.. Excellency, I am here. He would I am coming. I would say there is fire on the mountain oo. He would say would where. Mushin is burning sir. Ok. I am coming. That was the nature of my job.
Now, the person that would have access to your bedroom, you don’t develop the relationship on the job. What is the meaning of Chief of Staff? Chief of personal staff actually. As the Chief of Staff, you are the bridge between the private life and his public life. You are the bridge between the past and the present. So, it cannot be just be anybody.
Two, when you look at positions like special assistant on legislative matters, you need three qualifications. You must be rabidly loyal. You must understand the workings of the legislature, thirdly, you must be the a good party man. One is from the South. One is from the North.
But overall, let me assure Nigerians, this government would not leave behind any part of Nigeria in the appointment. But I think, we have been so fixated in Nigeria. We look at certain offices as juicy and some as not .When we should start looking at offices in terms of responsibility.
Honestly, the furore that has greeted this appointments shows that Nigeria is far from been a united country. We still have to walk more on our unity. Everybody sees himself as a Yoruba man, a Hausa man, Igbo man. What about these smaller tribes. We should stop thinking of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo. It won’t lead us anywhere. I think the President is very mindful of all this. I am sure by the time he starts appointing people from South East, other people will complain that it is too many. But I think the President has taken note. It was not deliberate. It was not meant to spite anybody. In the fullness of time everybody will be represented.http://sunnewsonline.com/new/how-babangida-killed-party-supremacy-lai-mohammed/

[size=98pt]lies[/size]

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