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Ngige should ‘settle’ Uba for peace to reign-Gen Adisa
General Abdulkarim Adisa former Works and
Housing Minister, in this interview with KALU OKWARA and UCHENNA NWARU,
insists that the political crisis in Anambra State will linger on till Governor
Chris Ngige implements the terms of the secret agreement he reportedly reached
with Chief Chris Uba.
SINCE you started
the campaign to position General Ibrahim Babangida for 2007, there has been some
oppositions in certain quarters. Are you still convinced that IBB will make it?
I’m still convinced that he will make it.
We know that with all the propaganda people are carrying against him, many
people still want him to be their president and what people want is what we
should accept. You know people use the media to say a lot of things. Nigeria is
a very difficult place but I enjoy Nigeria very well. I like the way and manner
of the people. You see some saying yes; and you see others saying no; you see
positive and negative. You see reverse and you see forward. So that is why
Nigeria ticks and I like it but people should be reasonable sometimes in
whatever they are doing. They should not bring somebody down completely. IBB is
a human being, nobody is above mistake. I believe he is a person that has human
face and has been very lucky. During his leadership, people could eat, clothe
themselves, and were doing very well. I remember some people said that during
his time they built so many houses through their trading business because the
economy was good.
Somebody told me that during Babangida’s
time, he had four houses. He was not a contractor but a mere business man. But
now he has sold three out of the four houses. Gen. Obasanjo is trying his best
and we pray for him so that he can continue to lead us. If a leader has a
problem, you also will suffer. So we should continue to pray for our leaders.
Whether from the local government, state government, everywhere, we must pray so
that things will work well.
So, I believe in IBB and I will continue
to do so.
Has project 2007 of which you are, its
coordinator collapsed into a larger group?
We are not moving with anybody. We are on
our own. Project -2007 is on its own. We will join others in future to
centralise our campaign strategy. But now, what we should be doing is to get
more supporters. We are not talking of merging with any organisations now, let
the different groups continue with their mobilisation. And next year, we could
merge. Let every group continue provided we are not working at cross purposes.
However, harmonisation is quite alright
but it should be done in a very nice way. You cannot force me to join other
group. What I want is for us to have a structure with an apex.
All these groups, are like a state that
must still report to the centre. Why can’t we have a center where project 2007,
Destiny 2007, and all the other groups would report all their activities to?
But not when you have not done anything in
your state, then you want to take over what I have been doing by calling for
harmonisation.
It’s not done. We know what each person is
doing. Those who have not done anything want to claim that they know people. Let
everybody produce what they have realised, how many people or supports they have
got. To me, I will not accept any harmonisation that will share portfolios to
people. Nobody is looking for posts. We are not talking of posts. We are not
looking for power.
We are looking at people who are following
because they know you. If tomorrow you are not there, their interest may die
off. So why kill the people’s interest?
Those who have not even inaugurated their
own states will now come up and say they want to harmonise. We can harmonise but
what I believe is command and control. Let all of us report to some people on
top and then we get things going.
Have those people clamouring for the
harmonisation reached out to you?
We are all friends. I don’t blame them for
what they are doing but some of them do not understand the system. I started
shouting IBB when some of them were not even there. They were hiding. If you
want to talk about harmonisation, I should be the first person to say what type
of harmonisation that is to be done. I hope you understand. Some of them
contacted me and I respect them. They’re good people, very close people to IBB
too. IBB is like a market and there are many ways leading to that market. They
should not cut anyone off. Let us all be going. After all, it is not a political
party that we are using now. We are talking of lobbying people, we are talking
of appealing to people.
But to say we just want to harmonise, and
get another name, does not make any sense because we are not forming a political
party. All that we are trying to do, is to convass for people to come into IBB’s
camp.
Do you think president Olusegun Obasanjo
will be inclined to hand over to IBB?
There is no arrangement for that. People
should not blackmail Obasanjo at all because the tendency for blackmail is
there. They are saying he wants to handover to Marwa, he wants to handover to
Atiku, he wants to handover to Babangida. No, I don’t believe so. We must not
give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Chief Obasanjo has not told anybody
he is handing over to him. But this is Nigeria, anything goes. Rumours continue
to fly. Even some have started saying that he wants a third term presidency.
But I have always said that even if they
ask him to continue, he should, in his honour as an international man, not fall
to that temptation. He should maintain his respect by leaving at the expiration
of this his second term, and thank those asking me to continue.
We are not in a parliamentary system where
you can continue in office till you die. People who are asking him to stay are
those who feel that if Obasanjo leaves, they will become jobless. So they want
to continue in power. They want to do so many things. Those are the people
asking Obasanjo to continue because they know their days are numbered. But I
think Gen. Obasanjo is more clever than they are, and will not allow that to
happen. But he has not told anybody to whom he will hand over. It is free for
all. Anybody can come up. We should have many people. Afterall, the political
parties are 30. You are only talking of PDP, you’ve not talked of other
political parties. Who will their presidential candidates be.
Do you think IBB will clinch the
Presidential ticket of the PDP?
I don’t know about that. Only God knows.
For those following him, its not a do or die affair. If God says you will be,
you will be. If God says you are not going to be, you will not be. We have seen
people who believe in God but they don’t believe in his teachings. Some people
have done wrong, some people have died because they don’t believe in God. They
are just worshipping. They don’t believe the power of God. If God says you’ll
become something, you’ll become. Did Obasanjo know that after all he went
through, he would still become president? Could anybody believe that Mandela
would become president after many years in jail? So why are we struggling? As
far as I am concerned, people are agitating for IBB to come, but in side him, he
believes that it is whatever God says he will take. It’s not a do or die affair.
Will your entrance into the political
scene in Kwara State break the domination of Kwara politics by Chief Olusola
Saraki?
I still don’t believe in that one. What
I’m doing is that I want to help my people because of the love I have for them.
But some people are reading it upside down. They don’t understand it. I’m not
struggling with anybody.
But I don’t like the position of my
people. I don’t like the way they are and I believe my people can be properly
looked after. That is all. If tomorrow people think otherwise, that is, what I
can do, well its all right. It is not only when I become governor, or anything
like that, that I can help my people. I"ll continue to help my people daily,
Politics or no politics. I started doing something for my people when I was in
service.
Are you not worried about our democracy
today taking into account perceived violations of the constitution and the rule
of law, as exemplified in the crises rocking Anambra and Plateau States?
The problem is that Ngige has refused to
tell us the truth. What was the agreement he entered into with Uba before he
became the governor? There is no smoke without fire. I don’t know Ngige as a
person but, he is a Nigerian. But I don’t think he has told people the truth and
until he comes out and tells the truth, I don’t think there would be any
solution to that problem Uba is not above the law. But you can’t continue to
blame Uba everyday. Ngige should come out and tell people what went on between
them. Let him implement the agreement, he reached with Uba.
We understand that the agreement was that
if he becomes governor, he will be giving certain quota of the state allocation
to Uba? You want him to oblige Uba on that?
Did he agree or not? Let him come out.
We understand that he signed the agreement
under duress?
You see, this is the problem. People
invest money. The way Nigerians react to issues sometimes is because they don’t
know the reasons for certain actions they jump to conclusions. Uba is not a mad
person. Emeka Offor was there before him. Let Ngige tell us why he is not
meeting up with the agreement. If at all he signed any agreement, why did he
have to sign an agreement he knew he would not keep?
Just like Oyo State, people believe that
things should be done properly. The same thing in Anambra, If you know that you
reached an agreement over how many commissioners should go to him, or how many
board members should be taken, then meet up with the agreement.
How about the money? Should he also open
the state treasury to Chief Uba?
I don’t know about that. If they agreed on
money, what is the money for? They must have spent the money for a purpose.
Nigerian politicians today spent a lot of money and even sell their property in
order to win elections. They want to recoup it. I’m not saying that is the right
thing.
Ngige said he was asking for about N3
billion naira. Should Ngige release that amount to his political godfather?
I don’t know about that. He should call
Uba and say although I promised you but I didn’t know that this how the treasury
would be, what do we do? Then Uba would sit down with him and know what to do.
He cannot just invest his money without returns. He should be given contracts
but the contracts should not be inflated. So these are some of the things to do,
but he should let us know what they agreed upon in the first place. He is even
fraudulent himself. If he signed an agreement just because he wanted to become a
governor and on reaching there he doesn’t want to implement it, that is fraud.
Recently, the World Bank said more than 65
per cent of Nigerians live below poverty level but Mr. President dismissed their
report by saying there’s no poverty in Nigeria. Now that you live closer to the
people, do you believe there is poverty in Nigeria?
I can’t answer that because he knows why
he says there is no poverty. I don’t know. He is in a better position. Some of
us too know what is happening but he knows better as a president. Perhaps he is
looking at the money coming into Nigeria.
But does the money go down to the people?
That is another thing. So he is correct to say that Nigeria is rich, but does
the wealth go down to everybody. That is the question. I don’t know the answer.
What is your advice to Nigerians?
They should continue to pray. You know
that every leader needs to be prayed for, whether local government, chairman
ward leader or councillor. You must pray for them, because if they make
mistakes, you will be affected so we continue to pray for them so that God will
use them to help he people.
You have seen places where they curse the
leader. Such a curse will not go to the leader alone but it will go to
everybody.
You may not be able to remove him even
when he is doing bad things so it is better you continue to pray to God to guide
him to the right path.
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