Former Minister for Petroleum, Professor Tam David West is an ardent supporter of General Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 presidential ambition. He believes that the former head of state is the only one that can change Nigeria if given the chance to rule the country again. In this interview, the professor, who is President Jonathan’s kinsman, describes the president as the worst Nigerian leader in the nation’s history and speaks on other national issues. Excerpts: You have never been known to belong to any political party but the way you have been speaking about General Buhari’s 2015 presidential ambition makes it seem as if you have become a politician. Have you? I see Gen Buhari as an extra-ordinary man, a real man and detribalised Nigerian. He is clean, not corrupt. He is a man of integrity. And I challenge anybody, both President Jonathan and all his supporters, to contest it in an open debate. I believe that only Buhari can fight corruption in Nigeria because he honestly detests corruption. He has been head of state, minister of petroleum and governor of a north-eastern state. He was also the executive chairman of Petroleum Trust fund (PTF) and in all that, he was not soiled in any way. When he was accused of corruption, he challenged them to show the world his corruption. Till date they have not. He is the only former head of state that has no plot of land and house in Abuja and no oil block anywhere. Whenever he goes to Abuja he stays in a hotel. He stayed clean in and out of office. And I think that we need only clean individuals to lead this country. I can assure you that when elected, Buhari will fix Nigeria within his first 100 days in office. In the first 100 days, the price of petrol must come down from N97 to between N40 and N50. He has done it before and he will do it again. He is honest and you can trust him. He has proved to be an extraordinary Nigerian in and out of uniform; and a leader of rare qualities So, I support him, I have my reasons for that and I am free to express them. I am not a politician. I don’t belong to any political party. But I am APC at heart and I have no apology for that. Why are you APC at heart? That’s because Buhari is the nucleus of APC. And then when they were going to form the merger committee, Buhari nominated me to represent him. So, I was in the merger committee that oversaw the coming together of several political parties throughout, even as a non-member. But you see, every effort was made to prevent the merger. They planted some moles in our meeting and we knew them. When they said that the ruling party had offered them bribes, Buhari had no money to bribe anybody. In fact, he said that he was the poorest presidential aspirant. And as was reported in Thisday Newspapers, all aspirants were rated in the categories of deep purse, shallow purse and middle purse. Buhari was in the shallow purse category. He didn’t even have N3 million to hire a hall to launch his campaign. He said he is the poorest of the poor presidential aspirants. So, he told them that he doesn’t pay anybody and that they should use their money to support him. I was in Abuja during his declaration and I can tell you that the Eagle Square was packed to capacity. Many people couldn’t even enter. I support Buhari because he loves Nigeria. I support him because I’m confident that he is the only man that can take us to the promised land. I have said it many times that I have worked with him and that he leads by example. But many Nigerians are concerned about his lack of funds. Is it really possible for anybody to contest the presidential election without enough money in present day Nigeria? That is a very good question. I believe 100 per cent that it is possible because I foresee a paradigm shift in Nigeria. The country is learning to put more emphasis on integrity than money. People are beginning to see that what we need is the quality of the individual – one who can put food on our table, help our children to get good education, good jobs and all that. As for those who share money, the money they are giving you is still yours. It is the money that had been stolen from you that they are giving you back to corrupt the system again. Why should an honest person spend millions and billions of naira just because he wants to be elected president? The moment he brings the money, know that he is a crook. So, if he is able to bribe his way, with say, N10 million, he knows that within one month, he can get 10 times that figure. I believe that the June12 issue showed that we can win election without those unnecessary diversions like the Muslim-Muslim ticket issue. The Muslim-Muslim ticket of Abiola and Kingibe paid off without any problems during the build-up. Abiola was advised against it but he insisted, Thank God he did. And rather than create problems, everybody voted for him. So, I say it again that 2015 will witness a paradigm shift in this country. People will vote for their conscience. It was alleged that Tinubu’s overbearing influence on APC was the reason for the collapse of the planned Muslim-Muslim ticket for the party. What’s your reaction? That’s a lie. I think Tinubu is a good man but they are giving him a bad name. They give the impression that Tinubu is the prime mover in APC. But he is not. I told you how the merger came about. In fact, designing the party logo took a lot of time before they adopted the broom as part of the logo. Forget the logo for the merger. They accommodated the broom because an election was coming in the South-west. So, Tinubu pleaded and explained that the common man could easily associate the party with the broom as it had been in the ACN and that it would be better than changing it to an entirely new logo. So, the broom was adopted. Even the colour combinations of the party were not Tinubu’s making. Also , the rumour that Tinubu was struggling to be running mate to Buhari was not true at all. They had deployed Tinubu to pitch against Buhari but they failed. Tinubu is a good politician and he came to realise that Buhari enjoyed massive support. They say Muslim-Muslim but are we going to be better if it were Christian-Christian? Buhari is not against Christians. Three of his cooks are Christians, his confidential secretary is a Christian and his second security officer is a Christian. As PTF boss, three out of his five directors were Christians. I have all their names but would not want to embarrass them by disclosing them but I mentioned their names in my new book. Idiagbon’s wife was a born-again Christian. It’s also in the book. So, if Buhari does not like Christians, I would not agree with him. But do those that used Christianity to cause confusion go to church or are they Christians? But why is Buhari always branded a Muslim extremist? The simple reason is that it is the strategy that can sell fast. There are religious beliefs, religious fundamentalists and religious extremists. Buhari is a religious fundamentalist and being a religious fundamentalist is a positive thing. A religious fundamentalist is a person who believes in his religion firmly. If you are a Muslim, you believe in the Quran and if you a Christian you believe in the Bible. I am a Christian fundamentalist and I feel proud to be one. I am not an extremist. And Buhari is not one. They only use that to scare people but they have failed. They tried corruption and failed. And they now introduced the religious extremism thing.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 05:20:57 +0000
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