‘People ‘ll work free for Buhari’s presidency’

S enator Obafemi Ojudu is a member of
the Organizing Committee for the national
convention of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) recently at Onikan
Stadium, Lagos. In this interview, relives
the experience of the convention that led
to the emergence of Buhari as a
presidential contender, insisting that APC
will take over the leadership of the
country in 2015. Excerpts:
Having had a successful convention
leading to the emergence of Gen Mu­
hammadu Buhari (rtd) as presidential
candidate of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) for the 2015 general
election, where do you go from here as a
party?
The thing is to take over power and then
solve the problem confronting Nigeria as
a nation. Nigeria is in a very bad shape.
As at today, people have lost hope; people
are despondent; people are scared of
their future. They don’t know what
tomorrow will bring to them. It is now the
biggest responsibility of APC to give hope
to Nigerians with the emergence of Buhari
as presidential candidate. We have to
ensure that change becomes a reality. So,
we have a very big challenge on our
hands. I have never seen the kind of
interest people are showing after the
election of presidential candidate of a
party. People are so passionate, so
concerned, so involved. Even from
quarters you do not expect, people have
sent text messages of congratulations as
if the general election has come and gone.
They are also showing interest in who be­
comes his running mate. They are now be­
ginning to see some kind of hope. That
hope must be turned into reality.
But then, some people now see the
emergence of Buhari as a battle between
the North and South, Muslims and
Christians. What is your take on this?
Nobody can see it that way other than
supporters of Jonathan. That is the way
they want it to be. That is the way they
think it will make it easy for them to
defeat APC. What they want to do is to
divide the country along religious and
ethnic lines and then rule thereafter. But
Nigerians have seen through them. In the
past, it was either APC was responsible
for terrorism or Buhari was the father of
Boko Haram and all that kind of things.
Now, Nigerians have seen beyond that.
They have seen that these people are just
deceiving them. There is no truth about it.
So, if they tell you that Buhari is a
Northern politician, tell them it is not true.
If they tell you he is sponsoring Boko
Haram, tell them it is not true. If you have
the Yoruba rooting for Buhari, you have
the Northerners rooting for Buhari, you
have some people from Southeast and
South South rooting for Buhari, what are
we talking about?
It is now incumbent on Nigerians to insist
on having a president who can fight insur­
gency. They want a president who can
ensure that they feel secured, who can
fight corruption so that our system can
work again. Corruption is killing us in all
sectors. And here is a man who has a
good credential in the area of corruption.
He has been in government several times,
he has not stolen money. Today, the oil
price is crashing; yet these people are not
doing anything. The crash of oil price
wouldn’t have affected us the way it is
affecting us, if not because of corruption
we are experiencing. Before the crash oil
price, we had lost so much to crude oil
theft at the creeks. Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela are going through the same
thing we are going through, but they are
not panicking as we are panicking.
We now have an alternative. They thought
on the day of our convention that the
party was going to split. But unfortunately
for them, the party didn’t split. All the
aspirants accepted the process as
transparent, clean, fair and just. They
were shocked; so, they have to move to
another mode. The mode of let us divide
them; Buhari has now turned to godson of
Asiwaju and all those kinds of cheap
thoughts. But that is not going to stick; it
is not going to work. People are
determined that we must rescue this
country. If we allow things to remain the
way they are now, the federal government
of this country will operate from Lagos by
this time next year. We would have been
driven away from this place. If we allow
things to remain the way they are,
workers will not get their salaries by this
time next year. So, if we have a man who
can arrest the situation, why can’t we give
power to him? Jonathan is a Christian.
How many Christians have benefited from
his government? What is my business
about my leader being a Muslim or
Christian? I come from a family where my
father was a Muslim and my mother a
Christian without any rancour because we
respected each other. That Jonathan is a
Christian does not make life easier for the
Christians. That he is an Ijaw man does
not mean that all Ijaws are now
millionaires. Obasanjo was president for
eight years. Does that make life
meaningful for Yoruba? Did he because
he was a Yoruba man construct the road
that leads to Lagos from Ibadan? So,
whoever is capable, let us put him there
for the job.
What is your party’s blueprint for better
governance?
The party has come up with a very
detailed and comprehensive manifesto.
On the final day of our convention, the
manifesto was unveiled and launched. It
is very comprehensive. So, it is not
business as usual. They set up
committees in different sectors; they de­
bated, argued and came up with solutions
to these problems. That is the way
democracy should run. That night, the
manifesto was handed over to Buhari.
Apart from that, Buhari has had his own
team that has done some work for him
too. We expect that as soon as he gets
there, they will get up and run with all the
preparedness that has come into being.
You have rightly identified corruption is a
major problem killing this country. With
integrity Buhari is bringing on board, do
you think people surrounding him to will
allow him to fight corruption?
Again, it is about leadership. If the head is
rotten, the whole part of the body is rot­
ten. Fish starts to rot from the head. If a
head says this is where I am going and
you are not ready to go with him, you
quit. If a leader is serious about it and he
is living by example, Nigerians will follow
him. If you are preaching one thing and
doing another, they too will cut corner as
well and you will not be able to deal with
them. I have the belief that if Buhari
becomes president today, as soon as he
is sworn-in and declares his assets,
everybody will have to follow suit. He has
promised to further empower EFCC to
investigate, put on trial and deal with
those people who are found to be corrupt.
Before he even gets there, people are
already scared. Some people will run
away from this country. The man is 71 for
God’s sake, what will he do with money
now? Will he want to build a house, buy a
jet or whatever? If he wants to own
houses, he probably would have done that
when he was Minister of Petroleum re­
sources. When he was Chairman of PTF,
he has no houses abroad, he has no
foreign accounts. The only glory left to
him now is to turns Nigeria from bad to
good and bring it back from the brink.
That, for me, is the only thing left for that
kind of a man. People say he is an old
man. Well, he is an old man with a
mission. Anybody who is going to negate
that regime is probably not going to be
part of that regime.
As you know, electioneering is all about
money. But this is a man who claimed to
have bought nomination form with a
bank loan. How is he going to do his
campaign without money?
I can assure you that this is going to be
an election that people themselves will
finance. If you have read the
advertisement he placed in the papers for
people to donate to a particular account,
people have been responding. I have had
people who have called me and said
please help me to look for that account
number I want to put money into it. You
cannot imagine what that money
becomes at the end of the day from
across the country. If two million
Nigerians put down a thousand naira, you
know how much that amounts to?
How much will it amount to in the face of
a sitting government that has enormous
resources at its disposal?
It doesn’t matter. This man came to La­
gos for the primary; he didn’t give
anybody any kobo; he didn’t house
anybody. People housed themselves and
yet they voted for him. In the same way,
people will go out and collect money from
those who have loads of money and they
will still vote for Buhari. A colleague of
mine told me that when Buhari contested
the last time, ACN paid its agents N5000
each, the CPC didn’t pay its agents a
dime. Yet, while the CPC agents were very
open and confident about being agents at
the polling booth, the other parties’
agents that were paid were busy
negotiating with other party. The same
thing will happen. People will work for
him for free. They will work for him
without taking money. They will put down
their vehicles; they will put down their
resources for him to become president.
The wealth of rich people is being
threatened by insecurity in the country.
They will want their wealth to be secured.
How would you assess the budget
performance for the 2014 fiscal year?
That was not implemented at all. Budgets
have become a ritual and meaningless to
the survival of Nigeria. What they do every
year is just to photocopy, doctor the
figures here and there and then send to
the senate.
Then the blame comes to your doorstep
for not doing your oversight function.
(Cuts in). I agree with you, the blame
should come to us for not being vigorous
enough in the performance of our
oversight functions. I totally agree with
you. I am being very critical of the senate
and critical of myself too. I agree with you
that we could still have done better in
ensuring that we make those budgets
relevant to the needs of Nigerians.
Your party lost Ekiti State to PDP in the
last governorship election. How is this
not going to affect the fortune of the
party in the coming state and National
Assembly elections?
We will continue to hope.
What do you think led to the defeat of for­
mer Governor Kayode Fayemi?
We went for an election, we were declared
losers and a new governor has been
sworn-in. Too bad!
Does that have to do with performance?
I don’t know. History is there to give the
verdict.
You are coming back to the senate.
(Cuts in). No, I am not coming back. I
didn’t apply to come back. I am not inter­
ested.
Then, what’s your plan after this tenure?
I go back to the newsroom. I have a job, I
have a company, I will go back there.