BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
Mr. Oronto Douglas, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Strategy and Documentation, in this interview speaks among others on intrigues heralding campaigns for the 2011 presidential polls, how President Jonathan is fencing off the opposition and efforts to bring the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar camp into his campaign train. Excerpts:

Given the acrimonies that trailed the Peoples Democratic Party primaries, what is the president doing to bring aggrieved stakeholders togther?

Oronto Douglas

The PDP as party is seen by many that once you have the ticket you are half way to getting to office. People should know that this is a new PDP, where the most popular and competent candidates are picked to run elections. But where there are constitutional issues, the strategy that President Jonathan and the PDP are adopting is dialogue. Let all parties have a discussion.

The president spent sleepless nights having meeting and meetings. I remember that Ogun State for example, there was a time the President did not sleep for two days – meeting with the Jubril Martins Kuye group, the Gbenga Daniel group, etc and at a point brought all of them together at the Villa. All these were intended to bring the party together. The president is a man of peace. He tells everybody, I have no enemies to fight, I want all of us to work together. Regardless of what of may have caused separation, there is nothing that cannot be resolved.

So this strategy of inclusivity via dialogue is what the President is emphasising. For example, after the presidential primaries that was orderly and he won, he still went out of his way to drive to Malam Adamu Ciroma’s house to have a discussion with a view to keeping the party together.

If he chooses he could have ignored Ciroma but he felt that a statesman of Ciroma’s stature who is part of a constituency cannot be ignored. And if he is president he wants to be president of all, not president of a section or region. It is in this regard that the President sees the strategy of outreach, dialogue as what is going to help to heal the wounds with a view of PDP winning the election in every area they have presented candidates.

How do you see comments that President Goodluck Jonathan insulted South-West people with his statement in Ibadan during the rally that the party would rescue South-West from rascals?

In the statement, the President praised Southwesterners for their sophistication and high level of education. If a statement regarding that is being taken out of context and used for political purpose, it is unfortunate. The President, as a true statesman would, came out to say, ‘I take responsibility for this statement, I offer my sincere regrets in this regard, that what I meant is to celebrate the excellence, greatness and leadership of South-West people.

It is unfortunate that one or two individuals are appropriating it and pushing it to mean insulting the most educated and sophisticated people. The President will never insult his elders and leaders. If you knew the President well, he always answers ‘sir’ to anyone who is older than him. He will never insult the elders, leaders and people of the South-West. Take note that the President is educated, he did his NYSC in the South-West, has friends from the South-West and is one person who never forgets. Some of those he did youth service with from the South-
West are now working with him.

What do you make of allegations that the President, sometimes talks too much?

Mr President is a man of very little words, calm, cool, calculative and deliberative in the way he carries on in his personal life, public life.. It is important that we do no ascribe flippancy to Mr President. We need to study this man, may be as a teacher and as a scholar, in explaining things, some may say he is giving too much information. The reality is that he doesn’t need to hide anything because he doesn’t believe in hiding things.

His life has been a life of transparency and like you said. We know who we are. His background can be traced from the village and you can say that this is who the president is. He has also worked hard in Nigeria. He has no bank account aborad. All his children school here and he schooled here. Every thing about him is known. So, it is absolutely important that this man who has come out from a humble beginning to become the president of Nigeria, is seen for what he is.

Could you comment on reports that President Jonathan queried his vice, Namadi Sambo over the walkout of party supporters and crowd at the North-West rally of the PDP in Kaduna?

There was absolutely no query for the vice president and there was no incident where the vice president was asked about anything regarding crowd. Whatever have been published is absolutely out of the imagination of whomever that published it. My observations is that the crowd in Kaduna had been sitting there from 7am.

The event was scheduled at the time I don’t know but as at the time the President and all the dignitaries arrived, people were very tired. Take note, they were zonal rallies and most of the people were returning to their areas. Some are going to drive to Sokoto, Kebbi and Kano and I believe that if you go to a place like that, it is like what happened in Port-Harcourt, when the occasion ended, people wanted to go back to their buses and travel.

In a zonal rally, people come from various states. So if the day is getting dark, you will want to get back home. It is part of the Nigerian character that we do not have this patience to want to wait. So if we reverse the order of the programme and say t
he President will speak first in the programme, will anyone go and write that people walked out of the stadium?

I want to believe that those circulating that information are doing it for political purposes. The president is a gentle man. Why will he query his vice president? For what? Was it the Vice President that organised the zone? The zonal rally was organised by the zonal coordinator who is not even the governor of Kaduna State. The Coordinator of the North-West zonal rally is from Kastina. This is to tell you that the basis of that allegation is not correct because if there is any query at all, it will be directed to the Katsina State governor because the people coming are from the various states.

Rather than tiredness, how would you react to insinuations that the people left because they are not in support of the President?

I don’t agree. The president won 53 % of the votes of the North-West delegates. He may have lost in some states but he won with 53 percent over all, meaning that he had overwhelming support of the people and voting of the majority. Democracy is about majority. At the election proper, what the president needs is 25 per cent and he got more than that in majority of these states. Ordinary people in the North West, love Dr Jonathan. Why would they love him? It is because he relates with them.

This is a president that had no shoes when he was in school. This is a president that had no bag to put his books when he was in school. If you go to the North-West, the North East and the South-South, The South-West and South-East, the majority of Nigerians will identify with that. Why wouldn’t the North-West people who want to represent the rise from that humble beginning to the top of their children, the children of the North-West will one day, regardless of the present circumstances, get there. Why would they not support
and rally round such an individual?

But you would agree that he has a lot of job to do in the North-West compared to the other zones?

Every other candidate has work to do in every zone. Buhari has work to do in the South-West, he has work to do in the South-East, South-West and in the North-Central, North-East and North-West. Is it everybody in the North West that loves Buhari?. Nuhu Ribadu has work to do in every single zone. So the political challenges are challenges that are not restricted to one person. Picking out Gooduck Jonathan and saying he has a lot of work to do in the North-West is an acknowledgment that you want the president and you want him to win and we are ready to work very hard to ensure that we win that election and win the North-West.

Let me just say that we have a lot of people who will like  to identify with Mr president, his history and all that.

What about the alleged poor performance of his party, PDP in the last 12 years?

The President came to transform Nigeria and the first place to start is transforming the PDP and he has stated that work. The PDP as a party has been in  office for close to 12 years. There are perceptions about the PDP that may not be salutary to Nigerians. However, the determination of President Jonathan is to transform all aspects of our lives; our political lives in terms of practice, institution, governance and strategies.

The opposition has been very careful not to attack President Jonathan as a person. They are very careful. So they have been attacking the PDP, that the PDP has been in power since 1998 till date and nothing to show for it. Well, if I was working for the opposition, I would probably adopt that strategy because Jonathan is popular with the Nigerian people, the children, the youths, old men and women and with the old men of the society.

So, to get him out of the race is to attack the PDP, which is brilliant from the strategy point of view to deny Jonathan the opportunity. But Nigerians are very wise because they know who they want to become their President. They will look at everything and say we are comfortable with this man who we can surrender our lives to.  They are not going to be Bamboozled by the weight of this blanket attack that may be unleashed and being unleashed on the PDP. So, Dr Jonathan is fully aware that the PDP will be attacked and at some point the opposition will also attack him and he is pre
pared for them. Look at the statement he made in Ibadan for example that was blown out of proportion.

I for example I am a beneficiary of Chief Obafemi Awolowo free education. If I am advising the President and standing with the President, would I tell the President to do anything against the South-West? Dr. Jonathan did his NYSC in the Southwest and has a lot of friends in the South- West. Would he now do anything against the South-West? People just pick a few thing to find a way to tarnish the image of someone. In the nest few weeks, it is going to be very interesting in Nigeria.

Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor recently raised issues about President Jonathan’s alleged mismanagement of the economy. What is the blue print of Mr President to ensure that life is bearable and meaningful?

Your question borders on  programme quality and vision of Mr President. I need to quickly draw the fact that Mr President has been in the office for nine months. He was sworn in on May 6, 2010 and on that he promised what we call the three Es. He looked at Electoral reform, Electricity and Energy security. These where the three things he promised Nigerians because as a man of his word, what has he done about this three and why must this three be important in the economic and total  transformation of Nigeria?

Electoral reform: There cannot be good government if you do not have constitutional and robust process for selecting the leaders who will govern the country. He decided that the individuals who will mount this important institution will be men and women of outstanding degree. In practical terms of electoral reforms, he decided, ‘let us practicalise what we are preaching.’ so when the bye-election was coming up in the Edo Central, he decided that it was one of the first test cases that he was going to practicalise free and fair elections.

He told INEC the security agency that what he wants in Edo central is one man, one vote. One woman, one vote, one youth, one vote. that he does not want any situation where the election is rigged. that is a big one from the president. In that Edo Central, who ever won will tilt the balance in the state assembly in favour of the other. PDP needed that to be able to control the state assembly.  Oshiomole needed that to stand firm in that position. The president insisted on free and fair election and the result came, and the ACN won. Oshiomole flew from Benin to Abuja to congratulate and thank the President for standing on the rule of law and insisting on free and fair election.

On electricity, I was in Lagos the other day talking to Editors and one journalist told me, ‘look I live in Ikorodu,  for sometime for 18 hours they have electricity. Somebody from Egbeda said yes the same goes with Egbeda. and that we have 12 hours of electricity and that they now know when light will come and when it will go. So you now plan your life accordingly. This is not worth celebrating but it is worth recognizing that some improvement has come to stay.

Getting up power cannot be decreed because the infrastructure that would have given us 24 hours electricity is not just there. We have to build the infrastructure and it takes time in building it. The President is determined in making sure that this is done.

On energy security, it is important that we note that before now, you will stay on the queue for three hours, while some people sleep overnight in the filling stations just to get a little of drop of fuel to put in their car. People were sleeping three days, three nights in filling stations Now that is a thing of the past.

How did he do this? Why is it that so many people couldn’t do it. Secondly the same amount of litres of fuel you buy in Lagos is what you are going to buy in Maidugiri. How did this equalization of price come to be? Before now, you may buy N100 per litre in Zungeru and N 60 per litre in Lagos.