By Emmanuel Aziken

Mr. Oronto Douglas is the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy. In this interview, he reviews the Presidency’s approach of neutrality in last weekend’s presidential election, explores how the president is going to utilise what he describes as a pan-Nigerian mandate and postulates a legacy of a united, vibrant and progressive government that the president-elect would deliver at the end of his tenure in 2015.
Excerpts

How would you react to the outbreak of violence immediately after the President’s victory at the polls?

The President-elect, Dr. Jonathan, comes from a part of the country that has consistently voted for national unity and togetherness. His brand of politics is one without rancour or bitterness. His public and private life speaks of and demonstrates peaceful co-existence. He is not an exclusionist and it is unfortunate that violence would erupt from a part of the country to sour the sweet of our democracy. This is the time to heal, not to kill. It is time for Nigerians to intensify the building of our country brick by brick as supported by the strong mortar of one Nigeria.

It appears that the violence has taken the shine off the President’s victory. His opponents have also raised questions about the free and fair nature of the election…

Did you say “his victory”? No, no, no! This is not a victory for Dr. Jonathan. It is a victory for Nigeria and Nigerians. It will be a monumental mistake to interpret the result of the presidential election as a victory for President Jonathan. 

President Jonathan is a pen in God’s hand which He, the Almighty, is using to bring justice to all Nigerians whether we are from the north, south, east or west. The violence, therefore, cannot dent Nigerians’ victory at the polls.

Let’s look back a little bit:  Year after year, one election circle after another, the epitaph following the closure of our elections from 1959 has been damning verdict of rigging and consequent disrespect of our leaders. 

 The  Yar’Adua/ Jonathan administration decided to do away with that, saying we cannot continue to muddle on, pretending that all was well. As you know, the Uwais electoral committee was set up and we began the journey towards free and fair elections. President Yar’Adua died and Dr. Jonathan, a man of who believes in doing what he says, took over and intensified the reform theoretically and practically.

He appointed men of distinguished pedigree including Prof. (Attahiru) Jega into INEC to begin the work of ensuring that the vehicle that would guarantee and ensure that those who come to rule us come through our support and our saying so. Well, the presidential election has come and gone, the people have spoken and have given a pan-Nigerian mandate to Dr. Jonathan who won overwhelmingly in the South-West, South-South, North-Central, South-East, parts of the North-East and got the constitutional mandate of at least 25 per cent in about 31 states of the federation.

The EU, the Americans, civil society, ECOWAS and others who monitored the election have since returned a verdict of free, fair, transparent and credible election. Someone said Nigerian politicians are bad losers who want to take their country down the road of defeat. There is an urgent need to do away with that habit in the interest of our country. Let us collectively ap
peal to merchants of violence and entrepreneurs of intolerance to give peace a chance.  President Jonathan cannot rule over a divided country and he will take fair steps to assure and ensure justice is done to all on the matter of good governance.

You participated in the election. But going by the claim of the opposition, how neutral can we say INEC was  in conducting the election?

The neutrality of INEC was never in doubt. Mr. President made it a point of duty to ensure that he helped, build an INEC that will deliver on credible elections by first appointing people who cannot be influenced by the power of money or the oppressive hand of the state.

Jega’s antecedent and his carriage throughout the period clearly showed a man who was in charge. He got all the resources he asked for, got all the personnel he requested and, above all, the space to operate unhindered. Remember, even the president had no knowledge that  the parliamentary elections will be postponed.

 He was in his village when Prof. Jega called through my phone to inform him that the  elections could not go on. No one can doubt the integrity of Jega,  the neutrality of INEC  or the non-interference of the President or the Presidency in this election.

Again, the outbreak of violence raises questions of security. Many would wonder whether the President they massively voted for is ready to defend them?

The primary responsibility of the President is to coordinate the security services in defence of Nigeria and Nigerians. All those who voted for him and those who did not vote for him are Nigerians and he will do what is right in defending us all. He swore to an oath to do this and come May 29 he will again swear to an oath to do this as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to defend Nigeria and Nigerians.

The President has said that he wants to do a single term of four years, but, on his election train, he made a lot of promises. How does he plan to deliver on those promises in four years?

Government is a continuum. You can summarise all the promises the president made on the campaign trail into a promise to focus on agriculture so as to make us self-sufficient and also set the path for export; improvement in the quality and accessibility of our educational resources; improvement in infrastructure e.g. rail and roads etc; electricity, deepening our democracy through continuous support in the area of electoral reforms; focus on the youth, especially on the matter of employment- generation and special focus on adding value in the petroleum sub-sector so as to make us self-sufficient in this area and create jobs; focus on ongoing work in the Niger Delta so that we do not resurrect the ghost of insurrection and militancy.

 This President is a transformational president and it is important that we support him to succeed. Since government is a continuum, whatever work the five-year budgeting circle the president is adopting does not take care of will be completed by his successor because such matters will be of national priority.

What legacy would the President  be leaving when he completes his tenure in 2015?

President Jonathan will be leaving a more united, stronger and prosperous Nigeria where the circumstance of your birth will not matter in your mission to access the resources of service and survival in our motherland.

He will enthrone the culture of excellence in service and be remembered as that president, who cleared the path for free, fair, transparent and credible elections to germinate in Nigeria. He will be known as the education president who opened access to more educational opportunities for Nigerians.

Above all, he will be remembered as a God-conscious and God-fearing man who was privileged to govern his country and paid attention to fairness, equity and justice in his everyday action. It is a new day for our country. We have taken a very bold step in our march to democratic consolidation and I am confident that we will get there.