dayokanu:

What of Rimi and Gemade?

Kenyata:

@9ijaprince

Ekwueme contested with Obasanjo because he's from the south too.

Kobojunkie:

Why not Rimi and Gemade?

PERRY OPARA, National Chairman, National Unity Party (NUP), is also President of Nigerian Union of Political Parties (NUPP). He recently formed a coalition of political parties, civil society organisation and religious groups called ‘The Big Deal’, which is aimed at persuading President Goodluck Jonathan to contest 2011 Presidential Poll. In this interview with journalists, he speaks on the campaign, among other national issues. Reporter, MICHAEL JEGEDE, was there.
Excerpts:

Most people in the North are angry about President Goodluck Jonathan’s perceived intention to run for Presidency next year despite his party’s zoning arrangement. Do you think it will be right to stop the President from contesting in 2011 based on the said zoning agreement?
I would say, first of all, that till now Goodluck Jonathan has not said that he wants to run for any elective position. It’s the Nigerian masses who are seeking to draft him into the race. The people doing this are not only Southerners or people of the Niger Delta. Some progressive elements in the North also feel that he should be the one to lead this country beyond 2011. Those threatening to protest by choosing someone from the North in any party need to note that no one region can elect the President all on its own.

They should also recall the difficulty of the consensus option. Certain leading politicians who sought, under the aegis of the CNPP, in 2003, to present a consensus candidate against the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, failed at it. Some other leading candidates from the North tried it once more in 2007; again, they failed. Nobody would agree to step down his ambition so that the other person could be supported to face the ‘common enemy’ they wanted so much to stop. Only weeks back, the much-touted Mega Summit Group crashed. The North wanted again, through the Mega Summit Group this time, to field a consensus candidate. But, as in previous attempts, everyone of them wanted to be the consensus candidate. Naturally, it didn’t work.
The North parades highly qualified people to run for the Presidency, so I don’t mean that these people shouldn’t aspire to it. Neither am I involved in the process of drafting President Goodluck Jonathan into the race on any considerations for zoning. I am encouraging him to go for the office, on the whole, because he is anointed for it. He has always been called of God. He has never struggled for office from when he was a director in OMPADEC to when he became Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, to when he became Governor, to when he was called from merely expecting to, perhaps, run for elections to remain governor in 2007 to running with late President Umaru Yar’Adua for the Presidency, to when he became Acting President and then substantive President. Fate has always lifted him to positions of authority and I am yet to see him fail. He parades intimidating credentials. He is one of the most educated Presidents in the world but has remained one of the most humble and credible.
Among the few individuals associated with intention to become President is Muhammadu Buhari, who is believed to be highly credible. How well will Jonathan do against a man like Buhari when elections finally come up next year?
Buhari is a very popular man, but he commands his popularity essentially in the North. Nobody can take it from him that he is the most popular man in the North. Many people contesting for positions of governor around the North, especially the far North, need his picture to sell their candidacy. But that popularity isn’t big enough for the rest of the country. Secondly, we’ve had enough of ex-military officials. Also, Nigerians are wondering why anyone who has been president before should want the Presidency again. Anyhow, he has tried a return in two consecutive times and failed. He failed in 2003 and then 2007. He should leave it for younger people. He is a popular man who earns my respect, but I advise him to forget about 2011
What about Ibrahim Babangida?
IBB is another very popular Nigerian. So popular among many that I feel he may not be the one financing his campaign. By my estimation, IBB probably has more friends in the South than in the North, but he who spent close to nine years in Aso Rock, shouldn’t want to go back there. He should remain a good statesman and a rallying point of advice in times of difficulty. I don’t think it is wise for him to come and start struggling with the younger elements.[/b]
What in your view makes Buhari unpopular in the South relative to Babangida?
People see Buhari as a fundamentalist who sticks strictly to his religious views. It’s good to hold to your religion unyieldingly but probably unhelpful to do so if you want goodwill across religious boundaries. Secondly, Buhari didn’t stay long enough in office as military Head of State to make enough friends, more so, because it appears he couldn’t really be bothered about making friends, possibly because he didn’t think he could need friends in the future. This probably explains why he sent so many prominent people to jail in an undemocratic manner. Such people haven’t forgiven him.
You said something about the exploits of mother luck in seeing Jonathan climb effortlessly to high positions. Do you see that element rising up for him if he eventually asks for votes to be President next year?
As a student pastor, I can see the hand of God upon him. From secondary school up till today, he has never been unduly ambitious. When he was Deputy Governor in Bayelsa State and Governor Diepreye Alameisegha had a problem, it took the intervention of very prominent people, like Obasanjo, to make him agree to replace the governor. They practically forced him to accept that position. Right now, the hand of God on him is already copiously evident. There is so much calm in the land despite the threat to peace following the succession issue triggered by the illness of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Jonathan who took over after Yar’Adua didn’t immediately remove military service chiefs and he still hasn’t done so. It is the first time that a man will take over as president and not remove the service chiefs and there is tranquility and a new sense of security all over the country. So, this man is called by God to lead this country for some time yet. It is this conviction that brings me out into the open to campaign for him. I don’t campaign for anybody unless I am led by the Spirit. I campaigned in Nigeria for Barack Obama and God saw him through. I have no doubt about Goodluck Jonathan. God has asked me to mobilise Nigerians at home and abroad to draft Goodluck Jonathan into the 2011 Presidential race and my first task is to persuade him to run.

Many Nigerians believe that Goodluck Jonathan does not have the political clout to become the next President. They feel that when more Presidential aspirants join the race and intense campaigns begin, Jonathan’s chances will narrow considerably. What do you feel about this?
Goodluck Jonathan is an extraordinary man in ordinary circumstances. He has never sought to push himself forward for any high office. God who wields the ultimate clout and has always raised him to power will do His work once more. The process will include people like us coming up to do what should be done for his sake. I am not a member of his Peoples Democratic Party. I am the National Chairman of another party, the National Unity Party (NUP). But we have commenced discussion with 20 other political parties. If he eventually agrees to run, no less than these 20 political parties will adopt him. That is political clout. More than 500 registered NGOs and more than 100 religious groups will want to adopt him. That is political clout. God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen.
Some people have argued that Jonathan, as a gentleman, should be able to respect the gentleman agreement of his party that the Presidency should remain in the North till 2015. Do you not think they have a point in that argument?
Goodluck Jonathan wasn’t there when the agreement was reached. That’s one. Secondly, this agreement has been violated severally from the beginning. Late Abubakar Rimi made himself available for election as the PDP candidate in 1999 and 2003 when the party favoured aspirants from the South in respect to the zoning arrangement. In 2007, when the North was expected to begin its turn in observance of the same zoning arrangement, so many PDP members from the South, including Donald Duke, campaigned earnestly before Olusegun Obasanjo got the PDP to let the late Umaru Yar’Adua have the ticket. Besides, zoning is archaic and undemocratic. It should be done away with.
The Niger Delta appears to be calm. Is it just the amnesty, or do you see something else as having informed the calmness?
It’s God. God has interest in Nigeria and brought the pair of the late Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan to bring the peace you talk about. We’ve had four, five-star generals as Heads of State at different times but who couldn’t curtail militancy in the Niger Delta. In 2007, however, God brought the man Umaru Yar’Adua and another one called Goodluck Jonathan to steer the ship of the nation. Everyone knew Yar’Adua wasn’t strong in health. Yet, this man who had no military training and wasn’t healthy enough was able to disarm the rampaging militants in the Niger Delta. God used him to do what military men who ruled before him couldn’t do. Yar’Adua was the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces who was nurturing the idea; Jonathan was the second in command who was doing the legwork. God used Jonathan who is from the Niger Delta to assist Yar’Adua in bringing lasting peace to the region. Goodluck Jonathan had no hand in Yar’Adua’s death. They had a perfect relationship before Yar’Adua took ill and then died. So, Jonathan did nothing on his own to reach where he is today. God has His reason for taking him there. I said when I was campaigning for Barack Obama that he was not going to be President of America alone. I said he was a phenomenon to bring change to the world. We can see the much he has done for the world already. In Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the answer. His father didn’t know what he was doing when he gave his son two good names. Goodluck means favour. Ebele is a native name meaning mercy. His father must have been led by the Holy Spirit to choose the great names for his son. Goodluck Jonathan will fail if he comes out on his own to contest any election. But I am sure God who wants him can and will use even his enemies to make him succeed.
Jonathan is popular now probably because he is the incumbent President against whom not many have declared interest for 2011. Do you see him remaining a hot favourite as 2011 draws closer and more presidential aspirants begin campaigns?
He will get even more popular. If you do a book on him today, by next week you may have to update it. He is a man who is on his feet doing such great things that his profile rises by the day. Many Presidential aspirants will drop off. Many are going to come around to support him. Because he is going to perform so credibly well, there will be quantum leaps in national development indices, in which case Nigerians cannot but ask for more. Jonathan is going to be very reluctant to declare to run for President, but we are not going to rest on our oars. We are going to keep on persuading him and enlisting other Nigerians to support his candidacy by highlighting his true colours and the merits of his candidacy. We did it for Barack Obama. People were campaigning for Obama in Nigeria, in South Africa, in Peru, everywhere. That’s what’s going to happen with President Goodluck Jonathan for whom we already have presence in about seven countries: Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa. I envisage that more than half the number of registered political parties will adopt Jonathan before the elections. It’s going to be a mass movement and everybody will be interested in it. It is not about the party he belongs, but it is about the fact that he has the divine wisdom, knowledge and understanding to take the country to the Promised Land.

How will you feel if someone describes your campaign for Jonathan as a relevance-seeking stuff?
I am qualified to run for the office of the President, but I am not going to run. As a national chairman of a political party, I have better chances of picking the ticket of my party than Jonathan has of picking the ticket of the PDP. And I am not a poor man by Nigerian standards. I am not campaigning for Jonathan for money. I am doing it because I believe in it. The way leadership was in the olden days where I come from, people go to those who show leadership traits and draft them to leadership. In America, peasants and widows contributed money to support Barack Obama’s campaign. People will move the same way for Goodluck Jonathan. We are moving this campaign train, which we call The Big Deal. It is a coalition of political parties, of civil society groups, and of religious groups, Churches and Mosques, and everyone who feels as we do that Goodluck Jonathan represents the future. We are not seeking funding from any government or agency. It is a personal thing. We believe in Goodluck Jonathan and want to draft him into the race. If you are a good man, it shouldn’t be wrong for your constituents to contribute in their respective ways to encourage you to represent them. It doesn’t have to be that you have personal or selfish agenda. People spend their resources on voluntary projects. As a journalist, you can write pieces to support someone you feel strongly about. Printers produce and distribute T-shirts free to co-supporters of a favourite candidate. People bring out their cars for campaign activities and not ask for fuel money. That’s mass movement, and that’s the kind we are planning for Goodluck Jonathan. I ran the Barack Obama Support Group here and it exposed me to how it’s done in the United States and that’s how we will do it here. Concerned Nigerians are going to spend their time and energy and resources to ensure that the man wins. It’s not all about money. That means nobody is going to buy votes. We want votes to count in 2011 and the only way for votes to count is for people to get involved. I want my grandmother in the village to be able to contribute N100 to Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign. I want a student to be willing to skip one meal a day and donate the money to the Goodluck Jonathan project. We want it to be a mass movement. We want people in the Diaspora to save money, come to Nigeria and mobilise their people for Jonathan. That’s the concept, and we are introducing what we call Political Marketing Network. You get one person that person gets another and the circle widens. We are targeting 95 million Nigerians to endorse Jonathan and we are going to get them.
Some people see the Goodluck Jonathan campaign as the current version of past schemes to extend mandates that became unpopular and were rejected. The famed Third Term of Olusegun Obasanjo era is the most recent example. How do you react to this?
The circumstances are different. President Jonathan will remain the President till 2011, but before then, he will conduct a free and fair election. This election will not be rigged for anybody. The votes must count, and that’s why people like us are qualified to do what we are doing and that’s why we want most Nigerians to be involved. It isn’t a matter for just the PDP. I am not a member of the PDP. I am National Chairman of another party campaigning for someone in another party. Before I started this, I had to convince members of the National Working Committee and National Executive Council of my party on why we should toe the line of Goodluck Jonathan. Till now, he has not said he wants to be the next President of Nigeria. He has never gone out of his way to seek public office. So, it’s not as if he is doing anything to overstay his welcome. He is satisfied to pack his bags and leave Aso Rock when he finishes his joint mandate with the late President Yar’Adua in 2011, but this mass movement called The Big Deal, believes we can get him to agree to contest in a properly conducted election in 2011 and the mass support from the mass campaign efforts we are starting will get him the votes he will need to win the 2011 Presidential election clean and clear. He has the blessing of people working for him by their own free will. He has always enjoyed that divine privilege. He has never asked me to do anything for him, yet here I am working with some other people, spending our time and money for his cause. There is a recent antecedent of what we are doing. In America, General Colin Powell who was a notable Republican adopted the Democrat, Barack Obama. I am toeing the line of Powell, a Republican adopting a Democrat. Here is Perry Opara, Chairman of National Unity Party adopting a member of Peoples Democratic Party. That’s global democracy, that’s advanced democracy, and that’s what we want to practice in Nigeria.
How will you describe the appointment of Prof. Attahiru Jega as the new INEC Chairman?
Splendid. Prof. Jega is a square peg in a square hole. His academic and performance pedigree is commensurate to the office of Chairman of INEC. He is going to perform. Prof. Jega will conduct two national elections before he leaves office – 2011 and 2015. President Goodluck Jonathan has made us proud by the nomination of Sambo and Jega.

Jonathan is popular now probably because he is the incumbent President against whom not many have declared interest for 2011. Do you see him remaining a hot favourite as 2011 draws closer and more presidential aspirants begin campaigns?
He will get even more popular. If you do a book on him today, by next week you may have to update it. He is a man who is on his feet doing such great things that his profile rises by the day. Many Presidential aspirants will drop off. Many are going to come around to support him. Because he is going to perform so credibly well, there will be quantum leaps in national development indices, in which case Nigerians cannot but ask for more. Jonathan is going to be very reluctant to declare to run for President, but we are not going to rest on our oars. We are going to keep on persuading him and enlisting other Nigerians to support his candidacy by highlighting his true colours and the merits of his candidacy. We did it for Barack Obama. People were campaigning for Obama in Nigeria, in South Africa, in Peru, everywhere. That’s what’s going to happen with President Goodluck Jonathan for whom we already have presence in about seven countries: Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa.  I envisage that more than half the number of registered political parties will adopt Jonathan before the elections. It’s going to be a mass movement and everybody will be interested in it. It is not about the party he belongs, but it is about the fact that he has the divine wisdom, knowledge and understanding to take the country to the Promised Land.
Many Nigerians believe that Goodluck Jonathan does not have the political clout to become the next President. They feel that when more Presidential aspirants join the race and intense campaigns begin, Jonathan’s chances will narrow considerably. What do you feel about this?
Goodluck Jonathan is an extraordinary man in ordinary circumstances. He has never sought to push himself forward for any high office. God who wields the ultimate clout and has always raised him to power will do His work once more. The process will include people like us coming up to do what should be done for his sake. I am not a member of his Peoples Democratic Party. I am the National Chairman of another party, the National Unity Party (NUP). But we have commenced discussion with 20 other political parties. If he eventually agrees to run, no less than these 20 political parties will adopt him. That is political clout. More than 500 registered NGOs and more than 100 religious groups will want to adopt him. That is political clout. God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen.
Some people have argued that Jonathan, as a gentleman, should be able to respect the gentleman agreement of his party that the Presidency should remain in the North till 2015. Do you not think they have a point in that argument?
Goodluck Jonathan wasn’t there when the agreement was reached. That’s one. Secondly, this agreement has been violated severally from the beginning. Late Abubakar Rimi made himself available for election as the PDP candidate in 1999 and 2003 when the party favoured aspirants from the South in respect to the zoning arrangement. In 2007, when the North was expected to begin its turn in observance of the same zoning arrangement, so many PDP members from the South, including Donald Duke, campaigned earnestly before Olusegun Obasanjo got the PDP to let the late Umaru Yar’Adua have the ticket. Besides, zoning is archaic and undemocratic. It should be done away with.

He disclosed that zoning was to redress the purported injustice allegedly done the South and to restore democracy from the military. He added that the annulment of the June 12 presidential election of 1993, and the death of Chief MKO Abiola, made the party zone its presidential slot to the South, particularly the South-West.

"It was just a gentleman's agreement; it was something sympathetic to a situation. I told you some people complained that they had been hurt, and had been injured too much and that their people were feeling the pains.
"So, they will not participate in the government in the political arrangement at that time, and if they don't there will be a stalemate. So, the agreement was not in written but a gentlemen's agreement.
"Nigeria supersedes zoning. Nigeria is what we are looking for; it was what prompted us to enter into zoning because we did not want Nigeria destabilised."

"In 1998/1999, there was a request from the South, particularly the South-West. It was not only a request but a threat that they won the June 12 1993 election but it was annulled by the North. So, they were not happy and were not interested to participate in the political arrangement. You know, at that time we were trying to restore democracy from the military, and if we allowed any problem to come our way that may be the end of the restoration of democracy. So, we have to think of a way out, and we allowed a powershift, this time to the South, particularly the South-West."

"The North wronged one part and the country was on the verge of collapse and we said we will not sit down and watch; we could do anything. So, in the second tenure of Obasanjo we were still hoping on the zoning but it wasn't too strict because, at that time some people from the North also ran, I remember that Abubakar Rimi ran as a candidate.
"Engr.Barnabas Gemade also contested from the North as against the Southern candidate but principally those of us in the leadership supported the zoning at that time".

On the threat that it is either North or chaos, along with the death of the late President Musa Yar'Adua as basis to continue Northern presidency,Lar answered, "that statement should not come from eminent politicians, or from those in positions of leadership, I have said that we should put Nigeria first, Nigeria is more important than any position, Nigeria is more important than presidents, Nigeria is better than anything and this is what we considered. The beauty of democracy is that we can sit down and negotiate and talk.
"The question of justification is not there. Nobody wished that anybody should die. In any agreement, whether written or unwritten, whether international or national, some unforeseen situations might arise, and this was precisely what happened.
So, to that effect, you have to take a look at the present circumstance, and how do we do? "And I think that was precisely what the governors of Nigeria did to overcome a situation which was never foreseen. We have to discuss, and this is why we want to hold a northern political summit on July 15."
"We will be sincere and honest. We were in love with this country at the critical time of Independence and that was almost fifty years ago and I am not a small boy and I know what we are saying not somebody saying rebel", Lar opined.