By Chukwudi Nweje
Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has said that despite the current challenges facing Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu will in due time be rated as an excellent performer. He took a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whom he said hindered the chances of his party by breaching the rotation agreement by contesting. He also discussed other national issues.
You are an avid supporter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, what is your take on the recent developments over his alleged forgery of Chicago State University certificates?
A case of forgery was not established. However, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar did so well to follow the democratic route up to the highest court in the land. Let us allow the Supreme Court to determine the matter. Otherwise, my little take away from the Chicago State University papers is that CSU admitted President Tinubu was their student and that paper certificate does not possess the premium in the United States as in Nigeria; Nigeria is more aligned with Britain than America in this circumstance.
How do you explain the sudden editing of his profile like the Adekunle to the Wikipedia page, it seems like an attempt at cover up because we never knew him to be Adekunle?
The law frowns at afterthought. The Chicago expedition was an unforced error committed by Waziri Adamawa and co; that is why they are now more or less blackmailing the judiciary, which to me is absurd, and I plead sincerely that they don’t incite anti-democrats and throw away the baby and bath water
For more than 24 years now the issue of the Chicago certificate had dragged, starting with the late Gani Fawehinmi who approached the court to have the police investigate the alleged forgery, why didn’t Tinubu just present the records, what was the big deal?
If you take a cursory analysis of the historical trajectory of liberal democracy, you notice that liberal democracy exposes the truism that we are all human beings with our fault lines. Otherwise, has he resolved the school certificate of Atiku bearing Sadiq Abubakar?
Would you have imagined that after 200 years of democracy that Americans will elect Donald Trump and over 40 per cent of the Americans electors today want him voted back. I assure you that Asiwaju after this entire fuse will in due time be rated as an excellent performer.
You did not answer the question, what was the “severe irreparable damage” releasing the school certificate would cause Tinubu?
I am not close to President Tinubu; however, he is the leader of my great party and our dear country. Please note that no foul air hovers in the political horizon for too long.
Perhaps we would come back to this issue. What is your take on the calls for Tinubu to resign?
Why should he resign? Let’s encourage our people to be optimistic on the judiciary and not join those who blackmail the judiciary, because we all will need the judiciary one day or the other.
Insecurity is still a serious issue affecting the country, what do you think the government should do, particularly in the South East where some people believe that releasing Nnamdi Kanu would quell the situation.
Insecurity in the South East is subsisting because of Atiku’s unforced error. If he had obeyed the zoning convention whether we won or lost, peace, tranquillity, and sense of belonging could have returned to the region. Atiku further fuelled the marginalisation mentality of my people. That’s my grouse; we could have dropped the idea of every Monday sit- at- home on Monday, or talk of Nnamdi Kalu or Sam Ekpe, after an equitable electoral battle, loss or win.
What do you mean by Atiku further fuelling the marginalisation mentality?
I have great respect for Atiku. He is a good friend to one of my big brothers, Dubem Onyia, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chuba Okadigbo, one of my political mentors. Yes, I said so and I repeat that Atiku wittingly or unwittingly breached the subsisting agreement, which binds our fledgling democracy and our fragile unity. Agreement of rotation of power from North to South is an agreement whether written or oral.
Let’s summarise the origin of the rotation or zoning convention.
After the crisis that trailed the annulment of June 12, 1993 election, won by Chief MKO Abiola, and northern political elite out of genuine patriotism adopted the zoning or rotation convention. Politicians like, Alhajis Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, and others in the collective interest of our dear country shelved their personal interest to contest 1999 presidential election. To me that is the height of patriotism; it is not easy to shelve one’s presidential ambition. Ironically, Atiku was a foremost beneficiary of this ingrained ligament to manage our fledgling democracy and fragile country in 1999.
Is that why you believe Atiku anointed Tinubu?
We were taught that it is trite law that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Atiku vehemently breached his party’s constitution and the subsisting national rotation convention. The moment Atiku threw his hat into the ring, his party scattered beyond repair.
We were taught in village folktale that divided we fall and united we stand. Atiku dug PDP’s grave in the 2023 election. As an elder statesman, and veteran politician, he should have adhered to the rule of law; if you stretch it further, his in-laws, South East, who actually it’s their turn in the PDP calculus. The micro-zoning narrative maintains that out of the three geopolitical zones of the South, the South West and South South had presided over Nigeria since the advent of the 4th Republic Nigeria in 1999, leaving South East in the limbo.
Atiku threw caution to the winds, shunted even Peter Obi, one of the sane ones in the rank of the PDP, who was his running mate. Imagine if he backed Obi in the PDP presidential primary election; Obi could have emerged.
Can you imagine the shine Nigeria would have attracted if the 2023 presidential election were Tinubu vs Obi? No matter who won, Atiku would have no business going on the Chicago expedition.
Atiku was exercising his constitutional rights as a Nigerian by contesting the 2023 presidential election…
(Cuts in) In public arena, there’s always the law with its legal teeth and the convention with its moral high ground. Atiku breached the two violently.
He brushed aside out of sheer hysteria for power, how South East pitched their tent with PDP for over 20 years come rain and come sunshine. In fact, we warned South Easterners then to avoid putting all their eggs in one PDP’s basket. PDP shunned Ekwueme, Southeast still voted for PDP, we came with Okadigbo as Buhari’s vice presidential candidate in 2003, South East still voted for PDP, in 2007, we came with Edwin Umezoke as vice presidential candidate to Buhari, South East still voted for PDP, same in 2011, 2015 and 2019. Atiku should apologize to the entire membership of PDP and the South East in particular.
Do you think that is why Atiku lost the election?
How else does one explain the cost of his unforced error? We were taught in primary class that assumption is the mother of all mistakes. Atiku stepped out of the tonic of bravado assumption. He assumed that the northern voters were locked up in a dormitory and on the day of the election, all he needs do is to open the door and they will troop out and vote for him. That’s why a man we all respected and touted as a pan Nigerian, came openly to cajole the North on the pretext that Tinubu and Obi are not their sons. He forgot that all the APC’s Northern Governors Forum had publicly issued a statement on June 4, 2022, and proclaimed their resolve to adhere to the rotation convention. Were Mallam Nasir El-Rufia, Aminu Masari, and others not also qualified to contest?
What do you think made Atiku to neglect his party’s constitution?
Maybe he thought they were joking, and that they will listen to his sermon of son of the North and they won’t vote for President Tinubu, that’s an unforced error. Please check, Tinubu got more votes in the North than he got in the South.
I was amused when I heard my big brother, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo and our veteran senior colleague, Dele Momodu canvassing the Northern dormitory theory. Little did they know that the northern electorates are one of the most sophisticated and can disappoint those who peddle such assumption theories.
Why do you think Atiku’s managers didn’t consider your position?
My answer is that their gross unforced error is our fortune, even Machiavelli advised the Prince to ask Almighty God for fortune. APC is the beneficiary of their greed.
Will you imagine that even when the G-5 Governors or what I dubbed then as Wike Masquerade made simple demand for the resignation of Dr Iyorchia Ayu as chairman, they rebuffed them. As if victory was in their pocket, only to come today and be stoking fire. Our local parlance has it that when one is overdosed with narcissism, he blocks his ears and will not listen.
POST AUTHOR: Rapheal
Source link
