In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, the National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the All Progressives Congress, Hilliard Eta, speaks on promises made by his party, its performance in government and calls on Buhari to seek re-election in 2019
There are reports that the President has appointed Rotimi Amaechi as the Director-General of his re-election campaign organisation. Is that the resolve by the chieftains of the party, given Amaechi’s success in the position at the last election?
Let me start by saying that that is a speculation. I have not been briefed by the party leadership or those who are involved. I have no definite information on the issue. I have read the same thing on the social media, I have yet to confirm it. I can, therefore, not react to what I cannot confirm even though I am 100 per cent sold out to the President seeking re-election.
But Nigerians are disturbed that the APC is already talking about the 2019 election when it has not delivered on some promises it made ahead of the 2015 elections, e.g., promises such as the provision of three million jobs annually, restructuring, etc. Isn’t a re-election bid insensitive and an abuse of trust?
As politicians, we are generally futuristic. A lot of politicians are indeed talking about 2019, but the party as an institution has not done anything to show that we have abandoned our mandate. We cannot stop individuals from interactions and that is exactly what is happening today; politicians are just interacting. Some of them are testing the waters; some of them are flying kites, which is as it should be. On the question of fulfilling the promises that we made, most of the promises have been tackled by this administration very successfully and the ones that have not been so tackled are in the process of being tackled. When he was campaigning, Mr. President predicated his mandate on three basic issues: Security, economy and fight against corruption. On the issue of security, discerning Nigerians have attested to the fantastic work that the President has done quelling the insurgency in the North-East and putting in place mechanism for dealing with issues of kidnapping and other crimes nationwide. On the issue of fighting corruption, the work that the President has done is quite instructive. Not only has he set up processes to deal with the menace, he has not shielded away from going after people who crossed the line with regards to looting the public treasury. He has done very well. On the issue of the economy, which I see as work in progress, we have been able to exit the recession. The forecast is that the Nigerian economy will begin to enjoy positive growth. It is true that the APC made a promise to create an enabling environment that will absorb unemployed youths into gainful employment, especially in the private sector. It is unfortunate that the recession that we had in the country came at the time that it came, but I am sure that as we have exited it and are on the way to economic recovery, many youths will get employment. I have a very strong feeling, especially now that the agricultural sector has experienced nothing less than a revolution. As you are aware, Nigeria is exiting rice importation this year and other crops that form the basis of our agriculture, we have turned the corner. Our quest for food sufficiency is on course. Given all of these, I believe that the economy is on its way to making a full recovery. In 2018, you will see that the economy will once again record tremendous increase in our foreign reserves. There are some things one would encourage the government to look into, especially the issue of loans for start-ups and other entrepreneurs. The government would also be encouraged to tinker with our trade policy in such a way that will protect indigenous industries to help them grow and become globally competitive.
With the President absent from the country for over 100 days in 2017 alone for medical treatment abroad, is that not enough indication that the President is too old to re-contest in 2019?
That is to presume that ill health is found within a particular age bracket. You and I know that that is far from the truth. Anyone can fall ill and the President is a human being who fell ill, it is not a question of age. Even when there was a lot of agitation about lowering the age of leadership, we have had governors who were in their 30s and performed very abysmally and we have had governors who at their old age performed extremely well. This gives me a picture that leadership has very little to do with age. What we must seek at all times when we are engaged in leadership engineering must be vision and a sense of history and the desire to bequeath to succeeding generations legacies. We must look for people who are propelled by legacy, who dream big dreams and for me, this can be found in President Muhammadu Buhari; his age is immaterial.
Even though the President has not announced his intention to re-contest, party leaders have been putting pressure on him. Is that not selfish given his age and health status?
If the leaders of our party are putting pressure on Mr. President to seek re-election, it is simply because they have seen some qualities that we have not had in leaders of this country in recent history. In all his endeavours, you will see a discerning selflessness, nationalistic flavour and patriotic zeal that is unequalled. That is why Nigerians of all age brackets and belief systems are now urging Mr. President to go for a second term.
The President promised to end foreign medical tourism, especially among public officers. What we have seen is a gross violation of that promise by people in this government, including himself. Isn’t this an act of brazen hypocrisy?
There are so many things that have been attributed to Mr. President that I personally cannot confirm. I have heard people say the President promised to make the naira equivalent to the dollar. I travelled with Mr. President round the country during the campaigns; at no point did I hear him make that statement. Even this question that you have put to me, I never heard Mr. President make such a statement. Until I can confirm, I will posit that this is one of the propaganda orchestrated by the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party.
The APC-led government claimed to have technically defeated Boko Haram since 2016; yet, the government is asking for $1bn to fight the same terrorists that have been defeated. Why is the APC deceiving Nigerians?
One million dollars is a huge amount of money wherever it is going to be spent. Let me also say that nations don’t just fold their arms because a terrorist organisation has been degraded or technically defeated. I believe that what this resource is meant for is to prevent this kind of insurgency from festering. It is to create an infrastructure that will make it impossible for insurgency to thrive. The fact that we have technically degraded the sect is not in dispute, but must we therefore go to sleep and allow resurgence? If you go through the budget of the United States of America and see how much is budgeted for the prevention of terrorist activities inside the US even when there is no insurgency, then you will understand that serious countries who unfortunately are faced with this demon must do something drastic to ensure that that kind of situation does not thrive within their national space. Nigeria cannot be different; for me, that is the reason that these resources must be used to create the architecture that will prevent this kind of thing from happening now and in the future.
There are insinuations that your party wants to use the money to fund the 2019 elections just like the PDP allegedly did with the $2.1bn arms procurement funds. That request seems to have justified that allegation?
The answer that my friend and National Publicity Secretary of our party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, gave to that very funny position by the opposition is apt. In his reply to the propaganda of the PDP, he said, “If you have been bitten by a snake, if you see a worm, you are likely to be jolted.” As far as we are concerned, Mr. President has shown in all his public life that he can be entrusted with public funds and that he holds in high esteem the concept of public trust. So, for anybody to think that simply because there is going to be an election in 2019, that Mr. President is going to fall into the same gutter that the PDP found itself, is to say the least, begging the issue. I am sure that this money, if appropriated by the National Assembly, will be used for the purpose for which it has been sought. Never again will we have a Federal Government that will supervise the sharing of our common wealth as if it was booty from a thieving escapade.
Nothing seems to have changed between the PDP era and the APC era in terms of fuel scarcity. Isn’t that a sign of cluelessness that your party accused the Goodluck Jonathan-led government of?
It is not true that nothing has changed. We ran into this glitch because some organisations connived to take Nigerians through this very painful episode during the festive period. You are aware that this did not happen during the 2015 festive period; in 2016, it did not also happen. So, for us in the APC, we are aware that this was contrived and as Mr. President said, we will get to the bottom of it and those found culpable will be sanctioned.
The President, in your party’s usual style, has again passed the buck, blaming marketers for the scarcity. Is it a crime for the APC-led government to take responsibility for its ineptitude?
That may be your position to call it ineptitude, but there is nothing like ineptitude here. The NNPC, which unfortunately is the sole importer of petroleum products, has no reason to lie when it said that there were enough petroleum products in the country to take us through the festive period, and so, one should ask himself that the number of persons you see on the television who are arrested or whose petrol stations are sealed or those selling products to black marketeers at night, are those people part of the APC government? When you say it is an excuse, nobody should have been arrested and no filling station should have been sealed. But you know that a lot of people were arrested and a lot of filling stations were sealed for contravening the laws of Nigeria by engaging in criminal activities and sabotaging our economy.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has said that there is no evidence so far to hold any marketer responsible, yet you have been blaming them. Why do you enjoy buck-passing so much?
I didn’t hear Kachikwu say what you just said. So, I cannot comment on what I have not heard. But let me ask, should the APC be held to account for the various acts of sabotage through diversion and hoarding of products by some marketers? Are those currently being investigated for this act acting on behalf of our party? I think the media should stop feeding on the propaganda dished out by the opposition. I am not surprised like other Nigerians that the PDP has fallen on bad times that the only thing left for them is to be seen as an attack dog, attacking everything and everyone associated with this administration to attract the admiration of Nigerians. That has not happened and as far as I am concerned, it will never happen.
Kachikwu said in May 2017 that there would be no importation of fuel from 2019 and that he would resign if it happened otherwise. Can we hold your government accountable for that one promise?
When you say Kachikwu said this and you will now want to hold the APC government accountable for what he said, I want to believe that you can only hold us responsible for what Mr. President says. If the President, who is the leader of the party and the leader of the country, had said that, then you can hold us responsible.
The President cleverly left out the issue of the dead persons he appointed into the various boards in his New Year’s Day speech. Should he not have addressed that issue or you think it was unimportant?
Look, the issue of dead people, even between the time that this list was announced and the time that these boards will be inaugurated, what guarantees do you have that some persons will live to witness it? The death of people or whatever mistake that was made on the list has nothing to do with the competence of the appointing authority. It is so pedestrian for people to begin to equate that with the capacity of the government. Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill.
The President’s spokesperson claimed that the list had been compiled since 2015. Don’t you think that a serious-minded government should have done a thorough check two years after before releasing the list?
I am not the spokesperson of the government. I am one person to admit that mistakes which are human occurrences were made. Oversights may have been condoned but that is not to elevate the issue a national discourse . This has sadly been elevated to a topical issue in Nigeria. Why does it profit the PDP to pick up very pedestrian issues and dwell on them as if their lives depended on them? Nigerians would like to know what the position of the PDP is on matters of education; they want to know why in 16 years under the leadership of the PDP, education degenerated to a level where Nigerian parents had to pay through their nose for their children to go to school in Togo and Republic of Benin? We want to know their position on taxation, we want to know their position on foreign affairs; that is how politics should be played not if they did not spell somebody’s name well, the PDP takes it up as an issue.
The President even said in the speech that Nigerians were impatient. Is that truly the position of your party after all the goodwill the President seems to enjoy in spite of his infractions in government in close to three years?
Don’t take Mr. President’s comment out of context. The President was talking about the clamour for the return to the Parliamentary system of government and he said, in other climes – take a country like America, do they still not have glitches in their elections? It means that there is still room for adjustment even in the American system. So, what the President meant in that context was that we are just 18 years in this democratic experience, he did not say that Nigerians were impatient in general terms.
Your party has been shying away from restructuring, the very first item on your manifesto. Why did you deceive the electorate with that item, knowing that you did not believe in it?
How can anybody say that our party does not believe in restructuring when the manifesto of our party committed the party to the devolution of power which, of course, is an integral part of restructuring? The APC has never said it does not believe in restructuring. Wherever any person got that impression from we do not know. If the party does not believe in it, how come we set up a high-powered committee to go round the country to collate information as to what Nigerians really mean by restructuring? This is mutually exclusive. So, for me, this party believes in restructuring, especially in the devolution of powers. We are barely three years old in government. For those who are making a meal out of restructuring today, they were in power for 16 years, yet they could not restructure. The same people now want us to do what they could not do in 16 years under three years. We plead with Nigerians to bear with us; we have not abandoned our manifesto, which clearly states our commitment to restructuring.
There are insinuations that you would want to use it in 2019 to canvass for votes. Since it is in your present manifesto, will you deliver that promise before the next elections?
Without sounding boastful, we truly believe that this President will return with the APC as the governing party. For us, time is still with us and everything that we promised, we will do the utmost to make sure that we actualise them, including restructuring or the devolution of powers as we have it in our manifesto.
It would seem that the party is equally afraid of holding a convention since 2014. Why are you scared of holding a convention?
The only convention we have not held is the non-elective convention, a convention which for us had the ratification of amendments to our constitution as the only agenda. There was nothing that was going to happen in the convention that will make the party afraid to hold it. We have held conventions, before we even held the convention that produced our presidential candidate, we held a non-elective convention. How come today, having enjoyed the support of millions of Nigerians, we are now afraid to hold one as you are insinuating? That is not correct. What is correct is that our leader, the President, was away on medical vacation for a very long time and this disrupted the programmes of the party. The way the Nigerian political firmament is structured is such that the President is key and we could not have held a convention without his presence and input. We plead with Nigerians to disregard the propaganda of the PDP and support this administration.
Will you ever hold a convention again?
We will definitely hold conventions. You are aware as I am that the life of this executive is coming to an end, we must hold a convention to bring in a new crop of leaders. Not only that, we are also going to hold a national convention to bring out our presidential candidate. So, Nigerians should be patient , because this year, we have a lot of things to offer.
You referred to the PDP as an attack dog but as an opposition, your party did worse and even called a sitting president ‘clueless and lazy’. Do you think you have the moral right to make that kind of statement?
Even before we became the ruling party, we organised a conference where we proffered solutions, we were the opposition party then. We organised the conference and itemised topical issues and proffered alternatives to government policies. So, you cannot refer to us as an attack dog because we were attacking policies. If the then-President was seen as clueless by Nigerians and others outside Nigeria, that is his lot. Let the PDP present its manifesto so that we can have an informed intellectual debate.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed as your spokesperson then made several unsavoury comments about the then-ruling PDP government. Did you ever see anything wrong with all the things Lai Mohammed said at that time?
That is neither here nor there because when you talk about Lai Mohammed, there are several issues he engaged the government of that day with. He engaged the administration on key national issues is the correct thing to say.
Why has the Buhari-led APC administration shown bias in the handling of the infamous herdsmen attacks on innocent Nigerians?
Let me sympathise with families of those who recently lost their lives, especially the recent attacks in Benue State. I think that it is unfortunate that people will take the lives of their compatriots with such ease. I know the government is doing all it can to bring all the perpetrators to book. You cannot say the government is not doing anything. It is doing so much; it may not be in the news, but the government is working behind the scene.
Most of your governors have performed woefully and have refused to pay staff salaries in spite of the Paris Club refunds and several bailouts in the past. Are these governors bigger than the party?
It is sad that some governors do not see the issue of salaries and pensions as a very serious one. Not to pay a worker their salary and a pensioner their pension is the most heinous crime you can commit against people. I do not discriminate between the PDP and APC governors on this issue, I believe that any governor whether he is of my party or not who has not done well should be voted out. Time has come for Nigerian leaders to be alive to their responsibilities. It is ungodly for governors to take millions of naira as security votes and refuse to pay workers as and when due.
Or are you happy and satisfied with their performances?
There are governors in our party that are a source of joy and pride to the party. When we remember that they are in our party, our heart is warm with appreciation. I cannot but thank governors like Akinwunmi Ambode for raising the bar of governance. Most of the people who are performing at this level can only be found in the APC. The APC is the only progressive party in Nigeria. I say again, if you do not perform as a governor, I urge your constituents to vote you out.
A few days ago, the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, who had money to erect statues of foreign personalities, flew his son abroad for treatment. Is it not an embarrassment that close to three years in government, this government cannot boast of any major intervention in the health sector as even the President has travelled several times for treatment?
To this question, I can only say “My governor, my governor.”
Vanguard
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