*Retired Generals Turn To Saraki

*Wike, others want Tambuwal to step down as chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum 

*States Without PDP Governors Plot Against 13 PDP Governors

By Emmanuel Aziken

A silent war has broken out in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the party’s governors and chieftains project configurations to outsmart the All Progressives Congress, APC in the 2023 General Election.

In the latest development, a crack has emerged among the governors with a camp including Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State demanding the resignation of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. The demand, it was gathered, was based on the insistence that he cannot be chairman of the influential Governors’ Forum and be a participant in the contest for the party’s presidential ticket. 

Wike, another source said, has been in the vanguard of stabilising the party, saying ‘but for him Uche Secondus would have remained as chairman of the party and by now the party would have been hijacked by those who have little or no regards for party principle with regard to zoning”.

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The source said that “God is using Wike to stabilise PDP.” 

Meanwhile, the expectation that the powerful clique of retired generals would again back Atiku Abubakar as it did in 2019 may have been dashed with claims that Senator Bukola Saraki may have become the darling of the retired generals.

The division in the top hierarchy of the PDP according to inside sources may have broken the unity of the governors. While the governors remain united in removing the APC from the presidency, they are divided on strategy with zoning increasingly becoming an issue among some of the governors.

Saturday Vanguard reports that Governor Wike has been especially trenchant on the need for the presidential candidate to be picked from the Southern part of the country.

The division among them was sharpened earlier in the week with the announcement by Tambuwal, chairman of the PDP Governors Forum that he would be consulting on his 2023 presidential prospects.

That announcement, it was gathered, has ruffled some feathers and reportedly including Wike who have asked him to resign as the chairman of the Governors Forum.

“You cannot be chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and be part of the process that you will be expected to arbitrate,” a source privy to the angst of the governors told Saturday Vanguard.

A message sent to Paulinus Nsirim, the commissioner for information, Rivers State on the issue had not been replied to as at press time.

Saturday Vanguard reports that Governor Wike was a major supporter of Tambuwal’s presidential bid in 2019 but has not shown a similar inclination ahead of 2023 with the Rivers State governor increasingly backing south to produce the candidate on the basis of equity, justice and fair play.

Governor Wike had earlier this week indicated that he was the best person to lead the party to victory in 2023.

Tambuwal had on Monday announced his decision to initiate a nationwide consultation for the 2023 presidency.

His announcement was followed a day later by a terse rebuff by Wike who insisted that it was the turn of the South to produce the president of the country in 2023.

Without mentioning his onetime best friend, Tambuwal at a meeting with political stakeholders in Port-Harcourt last Tuesday, Wike had said:

“It’s not to come out to say you’re consulting. You’re consulting, yet, you’ve declared. Is it not after consultation that you declare. You’ve already declared and you say you’re consulting. What are you consulting again then.

“And people take the South for granted saying that they are not together. No problems. If we don’t know yesterday, today we know.”

Affirming the capacity of the Rivers State political machine and nay, the South to swing the pendulum, he added:

“When we come out, we will choke them. They know it. So,   everybody should relax,   let the south do their homework and then they’ll make a proper statement.”

Saturday Vanguard reports that the 2019 collaboration between Wike and Tambuwal to produce the latter as the PDP presidential candidate was turned in its head by the last minute intervention of retired generals who pitched camp with Atiku to clinch the ticket under Wike’s nose in Port-Harcourt.

However, sources indicate that the generals so famed as (the owners of Nigeria) comprising some former heads of state and influential retired generals may be looking beyond Atiku this time. Senator Bukola Saraki it was gathered may have become the toast of the retired generals as evidenced by developments in Minna earlier this week when Atiku visited.

Saturday Vanguard reports that Atiku visited General Ibrahim Babangida in his Minna residence on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, and there was no communique issued at the end of the meeting.

However, two days later, a group of emissaries from Saraki were with the former military president during which he gave an elaborate endorsement of Saraki as the “best for Nigeria.”

Though Babangida had also endorsed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,  it was the first time that he would endorse a PDP presidential gladiator.

Babangida who described Saraki as “Self Propelled artillery gun,” said the former Senate President has what it takes to lead Nigeria.

He said: “I’m glad to have found people who have defined who a true Nigerian leader should be. This definition was lacking. Am happy you have identified someone who can do the job. The narrative has to change. I know your client very well. I am part of him. His father was very close to me.

“You have zeroed on a good candidate. I call him SP. In the artillery, we have a Self Propelled gun called SP with strategic responsibility and functions. That is who he is.”

Besides the age factor that is being raised against Atiku, Saraki’s emergence from the North Central with cross cultural affinity between the North and South is said to also be strengthening his ascendancy.

Meanwhile, a move to challenge the influence of the 13 PDP governors in determining the presidential candidate commenced in Abuja on Thursday.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that party chiefs from the 23 states not controlled by the PDP at a secret meeting took up resolutions on strategies to safeguard their interests as against the lordship of the PDP governors.

Among those present at the meeting were former governors including Alhaji Sule Lamido, Jonah Jang among others. Following the meeting they sent a delegation to deliver their resolutions to the PDP national chairman, Dr. Iyorcha Ayu.

If elected president, can Nigerians count on you to summon the political will to restructure the country considering that President Muhammadu Buhari and APC promised same and never did?

Yes, I will have the political will to lead the negotiations and creating the consensus because constitutional restructuring is the job of the National Assembly. But a president’s influence, the bully pulpit as they call it in America, matters a lot. The reason Nigeria is not constitutionally restructured today is because President Buhari doesn’t care one jot about restructuring and he has made it very clear. So, if you have a president who believes that this is a good idea, I will manage the process in such a way that anybody who is afraid or worried that he or she will lose out, we will placate those fears and make arrangements that take their fears into consideration. That is leadership and yet achieve progress for everyone including those who are afraid.

In a recent interview too, President Buhari said an emphatic no to state police. What do you say to that?

I believe that state police is necessary. In 2019 when I ran for president, I came out with the most detailed restructuring agenda but Nigerians were too busy looking at the APC and the PDP to take notice. And that is where our problem begins. In 2023, Nigerians should be looking for a leader, not for a party. Unless we do that, we are not going to make progress.

So, state police is very necessary because we are the only federation in the world where the policing function is exclusively controlled by the central government.  It is antithetical to the idea of a federation. But I recognize the fears of people who worry that state governors or regions may try to use state police for political purposes that could threaten the viability of the country.

How do you do that? It is just elegant lawyering that will take care of that. There has to be a provision in the constitution for the right of reversion whereby the federal authority can supersede a state police if they begin to misuse state police for the wrong reasons.  So, there must be some power that can revert back that power to the federation. That is the way to balance that fear. But in terms of operations, give the states the responsibility to police their communities because those police will know their communities better and be able to secure them. That is just common sense.

So, the fact that President Buhari opposes it is that old-fashioned knee-jerk leadership. It is part of his fundamental opposition to constitutional reform, to federalism.

The military destroyed federalism in Nigeria, starting with Aguiyi Ironsi, going down to Yakubu Gowon and to all the military leaders. So, the military class of 1966 has always been welded to unitary thinking where power is centralized because in the military, command is centralized. The military psyche and psychology does not understand the diffusion and devolution of powers in a federal structure.

And yet, Nigeria did much better economically, I think, when we had a proper federal constitution.

You ran for the presidency in 2019 and failed largely because of the political platform. The issue of political platform matters. How do you intend to go round it this time?

The way we are going to go round it is as follows. There is a negotiation that is going on now between several political parties. And those negotiations include my party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC). We are involved together with other parties.

So, a third force, a new mega party, we expect will be formed within the first quarter of this year. That party will be much bigger and much stronger. So, the idea of small parties will go away and we will then present ourselves to Nigerians as the credible alternative, in fact, the only alternative because the APC and PDP, collectively have failed.

So, in 2023, you will not solve the problem by removing Olisemeka and replacing him with Chukwuemeka because they are the same thing. The APC and the PDP are the same and actually, I recommended that they should be merged and become one party so that we have that two party system that many people ignorantly argue is what should be.

It is not a two-party system in the United Kingdom. There is the Torries, there is the Labour, and there is the Lib Dem (Liberal Democrats). Even in the U.S., it is not just two parties. Two parties, yes, in terms of winning elections but it is not only two parties that exist and people are making the wrong comparisons.

These parties are based on ideology. Here, there is no ideology of the APC or ideology of the PDP. So, why should we be faithful to parties that don’t mean anything other than as vehicles to acquire power? So, the young people will support the third force.

There is going to be a ballot box revolution in Nigeria in 2023. Because the young people are not thinking the way older people are people. They don’t like the APC and the PDP because they have not shown them any promise for their future. And that is where we are going to draw a lot of our support.  

Nobody thought that Barack Obama will win election in the U.S. in 2008. First of all, he is a black man. Nobody thought he will win the Democratic nomination against the powerful political family like the Clintons but he won. After that nobody thought he would win the general election because they said he was a black man. He won.

Nobody gave Donald Trump a chance to be president but he won. Why? Because he found his own electorate. We are going to create an electorate that will defeat the APC and the PDP in the presidential election in 2023. 

You watch what is going to happen. Why will that happen? Because those political parties have created the conditions. They have become so arrogant in their failure and in their corruption that they take the masses for granted. So, the masses are tired of the APC and PDP. Many people do not want them but they cannot yet see the alternative. If they see the alternative, clear and strong new third force formation, many people will gravitate towards it. I can tell you that.

So, that is the path to victory and of course, I will be hoping to emerge as the presidential candidate of an alternative third force platform.

So, I believe that if we can do that, I am very widely accepted in Nigeria. I don’t suffer any prejudices, I can tell you that. Whether in the North, West or in the East, many people can identify with me and they think that I can be handed the presidency of this country with an expectation that I will perform.

So, that is how we are going to address the party platform issue. Each of the smaller parties doesn’t have a big chance to win the election but if many of them come together, they can win because it becomes a bigger platform just like the APC was formed in 2014. The PDP was saying exactly what some people are saying today. By 2012, the PDP was boasting that it would run this country for 60 years. Within three years of that statement, they were out of power.  Never become arrogant because you hold power. Political formations can always change and they can change in ways that you would never expect. So, many of these people parroting this conventional wisdom about political platform are in for a surprise because things change. The only thing that is permanent in life is change.

And like the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, said, it is always impossible until it happens.

Mega political alliance like the one you are suggesting takes a lot of time to consolidate. With less than 13 months to the 2023 elections, is it not getting late?

I don’t think it is getting too late. I mean if the third force formation takes place before the end of February, it is not too late. That will be one year to the elections. And we are working on it, we are at an advanced stage. We have interesting announcements to make before the end of February, within the next few weeks. 

Could it be the same thing Prof. Pat Utomi was talking about last time?

It is part of it. Utomi is the chairman of the National Consultative Forum, which is a convening platform under which different political parties are negotiating this merger.

What is your worst fear for Nigeria?

My worst fear for Nigeria is that the country breaks down into completely and totally ungoverned spaces. That is to say, absolute state failure. We are already a failing state. In fact, if you look at so many indices, we are already a failed state. But we have not yet failed to the extent that Somalia failed, to the extent that Afghanistan failed because in the Southern part of the country, there is still semblance of normality. But if you go to the North and look at how Boko Haram is intimidating and seizing legitimacy from the Nigerian State, you will be very worried. If you look at bandits and the way they are operating, you will be very worried.

So, what needs to happen to avert this looming Armageddon?

I have ideas about what to do when I become President about how to stop Boko Haram and banditry. It is easily stoppable. The fact that Boko Haram has carried on for 13 years speaks to the failure of political leadership in this country. Why should anybody vote for politicians who cannot protect their lives?

In 2015, Nigerians voted for Buhari, a retired General of the Nigerian army, because they believed he would secure their lives and properties. He failed woefully. If a General could fail, what can a “bloody civilian” like you actually do?

First of all, as we have seen, the hood doesn’t make a monk. The so-called retired General has failed to secure your life and you will be surprised who will be able to do it – the “bloody civilian.” But that will be the “bloody civilian” who understands the complexities of security operations because he has had experience as a civilian in an international organization that has managed security operations in civil wars and in various conflicts.

So, I have the relevant experience and relevant experience for security is not just being in the Army. There are other aspects of security that even matter more. There is the matter of intelligence and it is not exclusively a military affair. There is the matter of the relationship between the citizens and the state, there is the matter of the economy – creating the economic opportunity for young people so that their attentions are not being taken away by religious irredentists and terrorists.

All these things are factors in managing security. There is the aspect of leadership being able to create a national security architecture, but that will be a leadership that is based on expertise and represents Nigeria broadly. It is not based on religious and ethnic loyalties. All these things are aspects of the failure of security in this country. So, as President, I will approach it very differently.

The first thing you have to do in terms of security is that you must go back and reform the Nigerian Police Force. The failure of policing in Nigeria is the root cause of the insecurity in this country. Because the police is weak and inefficient, ineffective and corrupt, they are not able to bring people to account for crimes. When people are not brought to account for crimes, you are creating incentives for escalation in criminal activities. 

And this is what is happening. We graduated from armed robbery to terrorism and banditry. So, because the police are not able to secure the internal space, the military has been brought into civilian spaces. And the military itself is not large enough. I don’t know how many people we have in the army, may be two hundred and something thousand people. Nigeria needs an army of at least a million people. We need a police force of at least a million people. So, both the army and the police force are undermined to start with. The Police need to be retrained.

Was it not police brutality and extra-judicial execution of Mohammed Yusuf that started Boko Haram? We need to go back to the police as the first order of business and to carry out deep rooted reform. That is necessary. People need to be specialized. You cannot have someone today manning traffic, tomorrow he is investigating a crime and next tomorrow, he is doing something else. There is no specialization. The leadership of the police is not for politics but it has been made politics in this country. The leadership of the national security apparatus is politics.

President Buhari has not shown any inclination to appoint people other than those from his part of the country and his religious faith in sensitive security positions. So, it is about protecting his regime. It is not about protecting you and I. That is why insecurity has become hydra-headed. I will change that. I will bring back professionalism to national security management. We will escalate the role of intelligence. We will improve the relationship, the trust between the civilian population, the government and the security agencies so that the security agencies can get intelligence.

Above all, I will have the political will to act against terrorists. Until very recently, President Buhari showed no political will to fight terrorism. He was telling us to pray. This is an abdication of his responsibility. Of course we all pray as individuals but you were not elected to be a prayer warrior. You are elected to secure our lives, you must do that job. You cannot transfer it to God because He will not come and do it for you.

So, professionalization of the security forces, with the reform of the police, reform of the military.

We are talking about how to stop banditry and you are talking about Tucano jets. It is not going to stop it. Tucano jets will go in and bomb and go away but you need an army that can go in and occupy those forests. That is the only way. You must flush out the terrorists on the ground.

I also want to tell you that we need foreign help. At the stage Nigeria is now in terms of insecurity, we have to be honest with ourselves, the Nigerian military and security apparatus as it stands today is unable to match the force and the sophistication of the terrorists. That is why terrorists can come into the Nigerian Defence Academy. That is why they can go into the Nigerian Army University and sack the place. It happens almost every day. Very embarrassing things and all you do is to bomb some places. We need a military on the group that can defeat Boko Haram and the bandits on the ground. It is ground work and nor the air war that defeats terrorism. You may use aerial bombardment to create room for a push on the ground. Without that, Tucano jets are not going to secure Nigeria.

Are you confident that the Nigerian electorate will make the right decision in 2023?

What I am confident is that we will do our best to educate the Nigerian electorate to make the right electoral choices. What we have in this country is a situation of slavery and oppression. You know, when Paulo Freire wrote his book, the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” he said oppression works insidiously in the minds of people who are oppressed. They justify their oppression and support their oppressors. So, when you want to liberate them, they will be laughing at you.

This is part of how the system of oppression works. And that system has worked beautifully in favour of APC and PDP and with that they have captured the minds of Nigerians and those Nigerians justify them because they have structure. Are you going to eat a structure? Is a structure a job for you? So, we have a lot of education to do.

We must set up our own counter structures which we are already doing. As I am speaking to you, I am setting up structures down to the grassroots in every state of Nigeria. So, I am not just talking. I am working and setting up structures that can deliver electoral outcomes. And then, with those structures, we are undertaking political education at the level of the grassroots.

The elections are 13 months away. There is still time for a lot to happen. One week is a long time in politics, in this country especially.

Many youths seem to have lost hope in Nigeria, hence the mass emigration. What message do you have for them?

When I become president, we will create a country to which they can return because they are my priority. The youths of this country are my priority. We are going to secure their future, we are going to create an environment that gives them opportunities. 

They are running away because there are no opportunities. When we reform the economy in a very fundamental way, that begins to create opportunities for wealth creation, many young people will return because they are innovative. They have ideas. But we don’t have a government that can create the enabling environment for them. This government is statist. I believe in developmental capitalism. I believe in the market and I will create the right incentives. That is what we need. Economics is the science of incentives. You create incentives, people will respond. It is human nature.

Prof Kingsley Moghalu

Election requires a lot of money …

Yes

Kingsley Moghalu …

Did not steal money anywhere …

And he is not known to have deep pockets

Yes

So, how are you going to do it?

I have a plan. But I will not reveal it. But I can assure you, we will have the resources to contest and win.