G7 governors behaving like suicide bombers –Solomon G7 governors behaving like suicide bombers –Solomon Bob Mr. Solomon Bob, a chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State is the Convener of The Renaissance Network. He recently spoke with IKENNA EMEWU in Abuja on the Rivers State PDP problems and issues of the nation’s leadership. Excerpts: Do you support President Goodluck Jonathan’s plan to bring Nigerians to a dialogue table as the committee is already at work? Permit me to borrow the expression used by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, sometime last year in describing British Prime Minister David Cameron’s performance at the E.U. summit where he tabled a set of UK demands aimed at clawing back powers from Brussels. He said then that Cameron had played a blinder, that is, a masterstroke. I am similarly euphoric about this National Conference idea, so in my view, the president has played a blinder, a magnificent statesman’s masterstroke. He deserves full credit for this. Look, by his uncommon tolerance, humility and studious approach to issues, President Jonathan will go down in history as Nigeria’s greatest leader yet. But the idea of national conference, sovereign or not, did not originate from him. Nigerians, particularly, the Patriots, a group of Nigerian elders have been demanding for it for so long now… Yes, that is what I said. The president deserves full credit for the courage to accept to convoke the conference. Nigerians have been demanding for it as you said, but no Nigerian leader has ever had the guts to do this. The Patriots had similarly made the call on Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’Adua. None paid them any attention, and going back farther, same demand had been made of all previous administrations from the time of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. In the same way, President Jonathan could also have dismissed the idea and got on with business as usual. To the extent that he did not do that, he deserves full credit because, let’s face it, this venture is strewn with potential landmines. What are the potential landmines? Well, as you know, the president did not mark out any no-go areas for the committee; as such there is a potential threat to his office too. Don’t forget that there is this thinking within a section of the country that a national conference would break us up. To me, though, this fear is unfounded Do you share the view that the conference would bring positive result? I think the national conference will make us stronger contrary to the opinions of some pessimists. For the first time we will have the opportunity to confront our demons as a nation and deal with them. But some leaders of the main opposition party like Chief Bola Tinubu are opposed to the idea of national conference. What is your comment on this? With due respect, it is difficult to understand what former Governor Bola Tinubu stands for anymore. It is surprising because this is something he has supported all his life before now. He is now opposing the idea because it is coming from President Jonathan. You will agree that our politicians today play politics with everything. It seems to me that the opposition has a pathological fear of the President’s success. So it’s sheer demagoguery. Remember that Alhaji Bola Tinubu attacked the state of emergency idea that most Nigerians applauded, as well as his unfortunate speech before UK House of Commons’ Committee. So I see a partisan trend here. But this, in my opinion, is a wrong approach; people should have the courage to stand for what they believe in regardless of where it is coming from. He has called for national conference all his life, if he opposes it now because it is coming from President Jonathan, then it is hypocrisy. But seriously, I think the opposition is in panic now, because this again has taken the wind out of their sail. The national conference has always been their swansong because they never imagined we could have a President who would have the courage of conviction to get on with it, so it’s like the PDP has stolen a march on them; now they are in panic. See all the venom Gen. Muhamadu Buhari and others are spewing. You seem totally supportive of President’s administration despite the fact that Nigerians are of the opinion that he has not performed. Some Nigerians you mean? Ok yes, some Nigerians… But that is normal. You can’t have everyone on your side no matter your achievements in any public office. But by most objective accounts President Jonathan has done very well. If you take the perspective that the President ought to literally put food on your table and make your bed, then sorry to disappoint you. But if your view is that his job is to build or re-build national infrastructure and provide leadership and the necessary climate for enterprise and growth, then he is cut above every leader we have had till date. So it will be an interesting debate what those Nigerians you are referring to consider as performance. So in which sector can you say President Jonathan has performed best? He has performed creditably in all sectors. Well, let me divide them into two, the tangible and intangible. You know, we are used to understanding only the things we see. So on that score, see the revolution in agriculture, it is unmatched in our history. Look at power, the completion of nearly 10 new power plants and the great strides in the aviation industry, the huge investment in road infrastructure nationwide, surely you are aware that the railway is back. I could go on and on. In less than three years, gas flaring has been reduced to 18%. See the massive investment in Almajiri education in the North; they have never had it so good. But the opposition, especially some governors, accuse the president of impunity. If these governors know the meaning of impunity they would not openly undermine the President everyday or even attempt to deny him his constitutional right to re-election, so, I can tell you that they don’t know the meaning of impunity. The President has enormous overt and covert powers, if impunity was his style a lot of those governors would not be strutting about. The interesting part is that the governors who make these allegations are all tyrants in their states. They stifle the atmosphere of choice and freedom in their states. Is impunity not using party apparatus to deal with governors who don’t support President Jonathan’s re-election ambition as we now see happening in your Party, the PDP? The president is dealing with nobody. If you are referring to the so called G7 governors, you are mistaken. I read a piece where someone likened the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party in United States of America to hostage takers. In our situation, these governors are even worse. They are all behaving like suicide bombers. They have told us that if they don’t get what they want they would bring down the house. And what do they want? They want to dictate to the President, it’s incredible. Interestingly, all of them except the Kwara State Governor are on their last term, so it’s not too difficult to understand their zero-sum game. But don’t they have a case? What case? Explain to me. You are from Rivers State, in your own state for instance, the leadership of your party, the PDP, has been removed from Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s control. Is it not a legitimate ground for agitation against the president? First of all, the Senate President never said what you just attributed to him because I listened to his remark when the G7 Governors visited him. To your second question, the president never removed the party leadership from the governor’s control in Rivers State. Of course, he has no such powers. The fact is that the present Chairman of the party in the state, Chief Felix Obuah, challenged the election of the former chairman in court and won. This whole hullaballoo is surprising because all the parties submitted themselves to the trial and the court gave judgment on the basis of evidence before it. The party chairmanship is not the highest political office in a state. It is the governorship, and the present governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, is a creation of the court, as you well know. The question, therefore is: Did the heavens fall when the court generously made him governor? We have to take the right perspective to these things. You asked about impunity earlier, now here is an example of it for you. When the court rules in your favour, it is fantastic but when it rules against you all hell must be let loose, that’s not a democratic habit in my opinion. But it is said that the present chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah, was not even a candidate in the election, and didn’t even buy a form. Then on what evidence did the court pronounce? So that can’t be a valid assertion. Funny enough, now I am not saying that this matters, well, may be only tangentially just to make the point, Governor Amaechi was also not a candidate in the election that he was said to have won (laughter). He was an imaginary candidate, the court deemed him a notional candidate and ….(laughter). Prof. Ben Nwabueze called the judgment that brought him (Amaechi) to power “pernicious”, and you know Prof. Nwabueze, don’t you? He is the foremost authority on constitutional law in Nigeria. And the late Chief Gani Fawehimi too, he described the judgment as lacking in both law and common sense. But it is the law as we speak and by virtue of which the governor was in office before the 2011 election. No one took up arms. You see, if you call yourself a democrat, you must have the temperament that goes with it, by accepting that you can either win or lose and not win all the time. Unfortunately, Gov. Amaechi doesn’t have that. What do you mean? I mean to say that the governor has a sense of entitlement which I suspect stems from the manner he became governor in the first instance. He thinks that he ought to get whatever he desires.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 05:42:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015