JOHN BAKO AJEYE, a retired Air Commodore, whose organisation, Arise Nigeria, has been working for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, insists that the president needs to drop his deputy, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, for somebody with better political credentials. He also speaks on governance in Kaduna, scoring the governor, Ramalan Yero, below average in this interview with Special Correspondent, COLINS OSIGBEME
Why Jonathan should continue beyond 2015
John Bako Ajeye
The president has shown us that he has a lot of leadership qualities, especially in his transformation agenda. He has initiated and completed many projects and programmes, despite the hurdles placed on his way. It is only proper we encourage him to continue. I am sure you have started seeing the fruits of what he has been doing. He has made a lot of progress in electricity and road construction. Even our inland waterways are now navigable with attendant positive impact on trade and commerce such as job creation. The railway is back to life, from Lagos to Kano etc. The multi-billion naira Abuja to Kaduna light rail line, which would shorten the time to travel to Abuja, would be completed this December. What of the aviation sector? So much has been done, if you have visited any of our airports of recent. Under his watch, Nigeria became the biggest African economy. Security is another area he has tried but still has a lot of challenges, especially in the North East. But, thank God the international community is beginning to understand the problem and helping in finding solutions. They quite understand that if they leave Nigeria to go the way it is going now, they would also be among the losers. I am sure that with their assistance, and more investment made into security, everyone will be happy in the end. And it is my belief that we shall solve these problems before 2015. If there is no peace, nobody will come out to vote.
Kaduna government and challenge of low popularity rating
I am a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and very involved in the matters of the party. I am also a very strong supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan. I am the Chairman of Arise Nigeria. Throughout my discussions, I have never mentioned the governance of Kaduna State. It is intentional, because I don’t believe in what the government is doing at the moment. The problem is that you cannot give what you don’t have. The leadership lacks experience. It doesn’t just have it. You don’t just bring somebody from nowhere and make him what he is today just like that. Leadership takes grooming, learning, vision, charisma. The person must be schooled, and must first indicate intention for leadership through politics. You don’t come without any preparation for public service as an accounts manager from a company and by chance you were pronounced a commissioner, by providence, a deputy governor and by another sheer coincidence, you become governor. What is your idea of governance? What has been your vision for the people? Yes, PDP is my party, but it is unfortunate that we don’t have a candidate for Kaduna State yet in 2015. We must look for somebody to champion that cause of PDP in Kaduna.
Possibility of leaving PDP
No, I will not leave the PDP because the governor is not doing well. He is not doing well because he has no idea of doing what is right and acceptable to his electorate. Even the little ones that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa left for him, he cannot continue with them. If he is doing so, no one knows. I cannot see a culvert, for example, that he has done. The only thing he has done is the traffic light by the stadium and by Station Roundabout. Well, I commend that. It has improved the flow of traffic. Apart from that, he has not done anything for the state. Look at the area of security; it is getting worse. If this government is doing anything, it must be doing so in the night because we are not seeing or hearing anything. As it is now, Kaduna does not know where it is going. If we continue with Yero as our flag bearer, there is going to be a problem. There is a big problem in the PDP in this state.
All Progressives Congress (APC) having upper hand in Kaduna
The two contending parties in the state are PDP and APC. APC means trouble. If they win, trouble; if they lose, trouble. We must map out those areas likely to be trouble spots and make sure that security is provided for people to be safe before and after voting. However, we shall surmount the APC challenge and PDP will still win.
Strategising against insecurity
For the presidential elections, I have no problem with the chances of PDP in Kaduna. I know where we stand. The president is going to win. But there may be violence in some states, even after he wins. As for Governor Yero, we are still consulting. If the PDP wants to win in Kaduna, it must change some of the players. We just have to do that. The present governor is not marketable, and we cannot afford to pretend otherwise. We must be able to come out with a candidate that is saleable. Even in his place, Zaria, Yero is not marketable. His boss, Sambo, the Vice President, is not saleable too. Go to his house, where there is a polling booth, he lost all elections there. He cannot pull anything. We were all here during the last elections; and the records are there. He has never won at his polling booth, let alone his ward. This must change. We cannot continue to field candidates that cannot deliver. It is not as if we do not have credible people from Southern Kaduna that we can bring to contest against the governor. Despite that we have lost many prominent politicians from there such as Senator Isaiah Balat, Col. Yohanna Madaki, Garba Ali Madaki, Stephen Shekari among others, that is not the end of politics in Southern Kaduna. There are lots of up-and-coming, very brilliant, credible and popular politicians in the South and even North of Kaduna. You may say they have not been tested, but they will stand the test of time given the opportunity. I want to make it clear that the power of incumbency will not stop us from bringing a better candidate to challenge the present governor for the ticket of the PDP in 2015. We must tell him (Yero), “no, things have to change!” There are also many people who have been groomed in many ways for power, and can offer better leadership if given the chance. This present governor is not only too young; he has no direction and is not prepared for leadership. The truth is that providence has brought him, though he does not have the capacity to be there. He does not have what it takes to do his present job. That is the truth of the matter. We must look inwards for a solution.
Insistence on dropping Sambo
Somehow, the president has been fair enough to carry on with the vice president. But with the way things stand now, he may need to change his strategy. It is very important he does so, though it would be a very hard decision on the part of the president. I am saying so because the president must be careful who runs with him, judging from the feelings of people where the vice president comes from. I am talking about the North West geo-political zone. This is the time for the president to consult. But we all know that the vice president is not helping at all. He does not have the clout. He is not a rallying point for Northern politicians. There are more seasoned persons that can stand in his place and take the people of the North for the PDP, bearing in mind the present circumstances in which we have found ourselves. Just as the governor of our state, the vice president does not have any political stand. These people were never politicians in the first place.
Replacement for VP
He may need to pick from one of the governors that have delivered from the North West. The president may even look at Kaduna. We have a lot of qualified persons here. Already, the National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, is from Bauchi, in the North East. I don’t want to start giving names now, but I know that there are people that are credible, that can be more useful and can make a lot of difference for him. Let’s add that Kaduna is a state that the PDP cannot afford to lose. We must work very hard to keep it. And to do that, we must look for better candidate that can take over from the present governor. He lacks the experience. He lacks the capacity. He doesn’t just have it.
Bringing back support for Jonathan ahead of 2015 against the backdrop of insecurity
I want you to know that security is not cheap. We must try and appreciate the serious challenges and also efforts of Mr. President in trying to solve security problems in various areas you have mentioned. But the governors of affected states, I must say, are not doing well. They thought they were doing in Mr. President by not supporting his efforts. But at the end of the day, it is their states that are suffering. We cannot sit down and expect the president to do everything. The governor is the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of his state. And as a governor, you must be up and doing to ensure that life and property of every person in your state is secured. But when you sit down and things happen, and you don’t even go round, what message are you sending? For example, look at the violence unleashed on the people of Bondon in March this year. I was there and we saw what happened; more than 142 persons were killed and all the houses in the three affected villages razed. Till now, I don’t think the governor has ever visited there. But look at the clash that happened in Kachia few days back, he was there. It was because it affected people close to him. Is he saying that the other people are not part of his state? Are they not part of those that voted the PDP to power?
I understand that he sent some money, through the deputy governor, to Bondon. That is just not enough. His presence makes a lot of difference. He ought to have visited to console and assure them because, very soon, he may go looking for their votes. Last February, some gunmen killed Sheikh Albani in Zaria. Before you would say “Jack”, the governor was there.
Chibok school girls’ abduction and the military
I want to correct one impression. First of all, it is not the job of the military to do internal security work. Internal security is a different ball game from defence. Internal security would involve the police, State Security Service (SSS), Customs, Immigration and related security outfits. But what has happened is that these people have not done their job properly. That was why the military had to get involved, and now it is overstretched. The military is all over the streets of Nigeria doing security work. It is demeaning to the profession. But that is the situation that we found ourselves. If there was proper intelligence gathering, and the information properly managed by relevant agencies, we will not be here.
