In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, the Director, Strategic Communications, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), speaks about trending issues ahead of next month’s presidential election
You and others have been promoting the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari and yet an audio clip in which the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, was purportedly criticising the President for his handling of the government, went viral recently. Doesn’t this mean you all don’t believe in the product you’re selling?
When you say ‘you’, I believe you are not asking the right question.
I’m referring to the campaign directorate.
Did you hear any of such words from the campaign team? Did you hear such words from me? So, why are you using one incident to generalise? It is not a fair question because you are passing a subliminal message to the public and in Philosophy 101, it is called hasty generalisation, which is wrong. Don’t use the conduct of one person to judge over 4,000 people who are on the field campaigning.
The Director-General of the campaign directorate (Amaechi) was heard on tape saying that poverty had increased under this administration. So, how do you expect to sell the candidature of Buhari in the light of this audio clip?
Let me ask you a rhetorical question. Have you heard another version of the tape where he talked about corruption being rife and because corruption is being tackled, everybody is crying? Have you heard that? If you have, that means there is some evidence of doctoring somewhere. If you have heard a second tape in which the minister was situating his statement within the context of fighting corruption, it means there has been some tampering and once there has been some tampering and editing, everything has become tainted and once everything is tainted, I don’t want to talk about it. Once there is no honesty on the side of those who released the tapes and there is evidence of editing, everything has been sullied and that ends the story. It shows desperation on their part to cut corners.
In an interview which you granted a newspaper in 2017, you said Buhari’s economic team was not doing well. Have you now changed your mind because of your new appointment?
Did you read the full interview or just read the headline? If you read the whole body of the text, you would not be asking me this question because the headline itself was dubious. I never said the President’s economic team failed and I have corrected this impression on Twitter before but because of this same desperation and lack of honesty, my words have been misconstrued. I spoke to that newspaper on that day thinking that they were honest, but they went ahead to reflect a wrong headline different from what I said and that is what I always tell journalists. All I said at that time was that the economic team needed reinforcement and that they needed to add more people to the team.
The opposition has accused you of not running an issue-based campaign but rather focusing on issues like the inability of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, to travel to the United States, which some people consider as trivial.
Have you seen me, the campaign spokesman, talking about Atiku not going to the US on my own? It is always done in response to an allegation, and the opposition is always the first to cast a stone. It is the opposition that is always chasing shadows. They have made unfounded allegations which are false. They make allegations without evidence and unfortunately, many journalists celebrate these baseless allegations as headlines. They don’t fact-check, they just let it go. The following week, the PDP makes another allegation and the media celebrates it without even investigating the previous one. For example, consider the issue of shares in some companies which they said members of the first family bought. When the companies came out to refute the allegations, the PDP shifted gear again, saying that they discovered that it was money meant for arms that would be used in purchasing shares. Now, they have abandoned that allegation and are moving to another one. They ask for issue-based campaigns but they are the ones that engage in dirty, useless politics. They engage in diversionary tactics, making allegations every day.
Fighting insecurity was one of the cardinal points on Buhari’s campaign. However, Zamfara, Kastina and Benue have experienced an upsurge in violent crisis and even the Zamfara governor has asked for a state of emergency to be declared in his state.
You have quietly slipped in Benue State and it is not true. You are passing a wrong message to the public.
But crisis in Benue increased under this government.
No, you are referring to a recent upsurge and rating it along with Zamfara, which is not right.
Alright, let us talk about Zamfara and Katsina where the President comes from.
Fine, that is what you should have asked. There has been peace in Benue in the last few months, which means there have been conscious efforts to stem the tide. Yes, there has been an upsurge of violence in Zamfara and Katsina states and I agree. The governors cried out. The Katsina case is a one-off because in the last three years, we hadn’t heard very serious cases from Katsina. These things are bound to happen once in a while and what we want to concentrate on is what the government is doing in that regard. I am sure you know of the deployment of troops in Zamfara. Most of the bandits were either killed or arrested and investigations are ongoing. These are age-long problems but thank God there is no religious or tribal spin on it because it is happening in a core Muslim area. If it were down South a bit, you would hear Christians versus Muslims. We want to let people know that efforts are ongoing (to curb the problem). All countries have their sore point when it comes to security issues. The United States is still battling with cases of mass shootings. It happens a lot and it has to do with gun control in America. So, even the police of the world have their own challenges. It happened under former President Barack Obama and it is happening under President Donald Trump. It is the collective responsibility of Republicans and Democrats.
Is it true that Zamfara State has been neglected because the All Progressives Congress will not be allowed to participate in elections there?
There has been violence in Zamfara since last year. We plead with journalists to also help to educate the people. The state has been a sore point since last year. We have these security issues around the world. In Kenya, it is Al-Shabaab.
The government declared over two years ago that Boko Haram had been technically defeated but what you see now is many soldiers being killed. Doesn’t it show that this whole victory against Boko Haram was mere propaganda?
No, it was not propaganda. At the time they were described as being technically defeated, they stopped killing soldiers and seizing territories. This is an asymmetric war in the sense that it is not a war where there is a particular territory where two battalions are fighting and one overruns the other and the war ends, territory is recovered, no. This is an asymmetric war, in the sense that these are terrorists. The war is not just about seizing territory, but causing havoc. They blow up innocent people and abduct others. So, it is a problem all over the world. It is not like the Biafran War when the Nigerian troops overran the Biafran soldiers and the war ended. The war is not such that we can easily say it is over because some territories were recovered.

https://punchng.com/apcs-2015-promises-were-based-on-all-things-being-equal-keyamo/amp/

What are all things that are being equal? Liars!

Hahaha expecting Ceteris paribus.

Really dumb

Even nature have rejected apc

How can all things be equal when it took buhari 6months to appoint ministers and he used his body odour to chase investors away.

No be only all things being equal na all things fall apart

magoo10:
Even nature have rejected apc

How can all things be equal when it took buhari 6months to appoint ministers and he used his body odour to chase investors away.

No be only all things being equal na all things fall apart

Even wind no de blow again...Lol

Omooba77:


Even wind no de blow again...Lol

you dey mind the jati jati somebody.