Ahmed Gulak, a former presidential adviser to the former President Goodluck Jonathan in this interview with ADEOLA BALOGUN talks about the Buhari administration and sundry issues
As a prominent PDP member, who was even a presidential adviser, many people were surprised that you could leave PDP for APC. Why did you do so?
Well, in the first place, there are people who have benefited more from PDP than myself yet they still left the party. I can give you an example with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was elected as president on the platform of the PDP for eight years. Atiku Abubakar who was elected vice president, ministers, governors, advisers who were appointed and elected on the platform of PDP left the party. Not only did some of them leave PDP, some of them tore their membership card. The reason for my leaving PDP for APC is that, in every politics, you must take into account your local environment. I am from Adamawa State, the North East geopolitical zone. The people of the North East geopolitical zone have come to realise that at least the administration of the APC has liberated them from the insurgency that has been holding their territory for over the past one year. Secondly, we have discovered that the PDP we tried to rebuild had been reduced to an individual partnership instead of group or community ownership. The PDP as you know after they had lost the election had a scuffle over the leadership of the party. It was me who single-handedly took the matter to the court and the court gave me judgment that either they give me the chairmanship or they bring someone from the North East geo-political zone. That was why and when the governors of the PDP came up with Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the chairman. They thought they could manipulate Ali Modu Sheriff but he became a hard nut for them to crack. And they started having plans to remove him. I and my supporters tried to pick up the pieces and rebuild PDP until it fell apart. The second reason is that some governors and officials of the PDP came out clearly to vehemently oppose the approval of $1bn to fight insurgency in the North East. That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and I had to leave. Because they were so insensitive to the war going on in my zone and to the plight of my people. That is not a party that my people will belong to. That is why I left. And the APC at the highest and local level received me warmly, gave me accolades and honour and all the warm welcome that they could. I and my retinue of supporters have discovered that APC both at the local level of the North East and my state Adamawa State, and my local government is best suited for my people because of the realities of our time. All politics are local. It is not when you stay in Abuja, you begin to call and give orders, move from one hotel or office to the other. Everybody as a politician should have grassroots support. Follow your people and their yearnings as they move as a community, not your people to follow you. I believe very strongly that APC is best suited for my people in my unit, ward, state and my geo-political zone.
Does it mean that if the APC does not give you what you want, you will move to another party?
Not what I want but what my people desire and yearn for. Every political association is a vehicle for social engineering and any party that does not give that, and is insensitive to the plight and yearnings of the people is not worthy of followership. It is not about me as an individual but about my people, community, geo-political zone and Nigeria.
Your defection to APC and Modu Sheriff’s planned defection seems to reinforce the suspicion that Sheriff was indeed a mole sent by the APC to scuttle the opposition party and now that you have achieved that aim, you are leaving. How do you react to that?
Well, I don’t want to talk for or on behalf of Sheriff. Sheriff met me in PDP while I was struggling to put the party back on track. He came into the party when I was there, deeply rooted, sacrificing all I could for the development of the party. And I have told you that I have seen and come to the inevitable conclusion that this party that was a national party has been reduced to just one state and one individual’s ownership. And anyone who wants anything in that party must go to Port Harcourt and the government house. That is why I left. I don’t believe Sherrif was a mole. I believe the governors brought him in order to take the carpet from under my feet because the court had already given me judgment that I should either be the chairman or anybody from the North East. At that time, if the party was discerning enough, they would have obeyed the order of the court and allow me to exhaust the tenure of Adamu Mu’azu who resigned. But they refused, went ahead and dragged Sheriff literally into the leadership. If there was any mole, it was the governors who went and dragged Sherrif to be the chairman.
It’s been alleged that some PDP members abandoned President Jonathan and worked for the opposition ahead of 2015. For example, Adamu Mu’azu’. Now that you have joined the APC, have you not proved such people right?
Let me tell you something, I was a presidential adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan from November 2011 to April 22, 2014 when I was removed as the presidential adviser. Those that articulated or planned my removal through blackmail included Mu’azu because right from day one, I told Goodluck Jonathan that Mu’azu was not to be trusted. I told him that Adamu Mu’azu was not the best candidate for the chairmanship of the party. I told Jonathan that removing Bamanga Tukur and bringing Mu’azu to be the chairman of the party was a political suicide. And in every meeting, I didn’t hide my feeling. And that was how and why some of them, immediately Mu’azu became the chairman, plotted my removal, literally blackmailing President Jonathan that if I was not removed as presidential adviser, they were going to massively leave the party. That was a subtle political blackmail. I was removed in April, one year before the general election in 2015 and my prediction came to pass. Most of us that were the foot soldiers of President Goodluck Jonathan right from day one were removed. Bamanga was removed, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, the chief of staff was removed, everyone was removed from the cabinet. A vehicle cannot move without tyres. We were the tyres that the vehicle of Goodluck Jonathan was running on. We were all removed and the vehicle was grounded.
But it was alleged that you were removed on the allegation of silent betrayal and working for the opposition.
That was wrong. Check your records. Do your check on me. Right from my political outing in the nineties when I became the speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly through April 2014, I don’t betray. If you give me a job, I do it conscientiously to the best of my ability and knowledge. If I don’t want to do the job, I’ll tell you I won’t do it. There is no man on earth that I will not tell him the truth. The truth is bitter but at the end of the day, you’ll be vindicated. Betrayal is not part of me. I’m always constant, straightforward and loyal. You can even ask President Goodluck Jonathan himself. When the election was postponed for six weeks, he invited me to come and assist in the campaign. I told him point blank that it was almost too late because the people had betrayed him. There was a national and international gang up against him. But you have to do your best. Don’t take the party into confidence. That was how President Jonathan started bombarding the South West in order to take the campaign to the people by himself and you could see the result. The tally was reduced significantly. With the national and international gang up, some people couldn’t believe that Goodluck Jonathan was only defeated with over two million votes. If he had listened to some of us that were advising him that he should go into Plateau State and stop interest and political gangsterism by the governor. Let him not force his nephew on the people, let him leave it open, we wouldn’t have lost Plateau State. I told him go to Benue, resolve this issue. If he had done that correctly in accordance with our advice, Benue wouldn’t have fallen. We told him go to Adamawa State, don’t force candidate on the people because the people will revolt. It was done. Adamawa did not give the votes as expected. I told him both verbally and in writing, go to Cross River State, the problem between the then governor Liyel Imoke and the then senate leader, Senator Ndoma Egba. He did not work. He did not solve that problem. Cross River did not give him votes as expected. That was how PDP was hijacked by betrayal, by those that were not committed, by those that were not loyal, by those that plotted the fall of Goodluck Jonathan. And that was how PDP hit the rock and came to the end of the road.
Some people feel you defected to a party that is fast losing integrity and largely thrives on propaganda. Are you proud of where you are now?
I have told you before and will repeat again even tomorrow, politics is local. APC is best suited for my people, my community, my region and by and large Nigeria. I don’t believe in propaganda. Yes, propaganda is part of the machinery and weapon of politics. If you know how to do it properly, you sway the people, you attract their sympathy; it is not sin to use propaganda. The propaganda that will destroy the country is what we always reject. But the propaganda that will enable the people to know that you are a better option is allowed in politics.
Do you agree with those who say this administration has underperformed?
Performance can be determined by individuals, communities, the country and by other political interests. As far as I’m concerned, President Buhari said that he was going to fight corruption, plunge headlong into the ocean of insurgency and see what he can do to reduce it to the barest minimum. He was going to grow the economy. Within three years, we hope, although we have not got there yet, but at least the insurgency in the North East has abated and our people have started returning to their communities and villages. Although there are still attacks on soft targets by suicide bombers and that is as you know the history of insurgency throughout the world. These soft attacks by the suicide bombers are always there. The intelligence unit of the military must be up and doing to fish out the perpetrators of this suicide bombing. I believe the APC government led by President Buhari has done enough, well and excellent in that direction. Like I said, it is not yet uhuru; we have not got to the destination yet but we are on the right path. On the war against corruption, he is working, the agencies are also working. People are being investigated and arraigned before the court of law. Some of the big names we hear now, maybe if it were to be in the past, we wouldn’t have heard about investigations on them or that they will be arraigned before the court of law. Maybe if it was in the past, we would have swept these issues under the carpet. Nobody would have had the courage to investigate and expose them. But be that as it may, I will still maintain that we are not yet there. More effort must be put into the fight against corruption. On the economic front, yes we are not yet there. There is hunger in the land but there is hope. Hope is what keeps people going. We have seen that our external reserves have grown from about something over $2bn to almost $60bn. That is a good result. We have to encourage the government to do more. All hands must be on deck to support which government is in place because the failure of this government is the failure of this nation and once God has bestowed on anyone the leadership of this nation, the citizens must rise up and pray for the success of whoever is the leader. That is the way to go.
PDP recently offered apology for the wrong it has done this country for about 16 years and you were part of that party. Even though you have left the party, how do you feel about the apology?
I know the apology came a bit late but it is better late than never. It is a good thing the party through the national chairman Uche Secondus apologised to Nigerians. He knows what the PDP has done as a party to the nation. He knows better than I do because he is the national chairman of the party. It is left for Nigerians to accept the apology and forgive them. Apology to achieve what, the return to power? That is for Nigerians to judge. If the apology is just to get back to power, then Nigerians will know. If it is genuine and sincere, Nigerians will also know.
Like many Nigerians, are you also embarrassed by the incessant killings in the country and the APC’s failure to tackle the problem?
Security should not be left in the hands of the government alone. It is everybody’s business. We are all involved and affected. A state in the northern region that is affected should be of concern to someone in Rivers or Ekiti State. All hands must be on deck to support the military to defeat insurgency. It is very sad that some people have reduced these killings to religious differences. That propaganda is just to destroy this country. No leader or president will like to unleash mayhem on his people. Talking of Benue, people are bringing religious coloration into it. The international propaganda has gone too far and too wide. International communities are beginning to believe that it is a religious crisis. You can see the statement by President Trump that the killings of Christians will not be allowed. That is a very wrong perception. Muslims, Christians are being killed.
Mosques are burnt, worshippers are being killed. So it is wrong for any Nigerian to assume that insecurity and incessant killings is a religious war. It is insecurity perpetrated by mischief makers in order to play on the psyche of Nigerians. This issue should not be reduced to religious differences but a national catastrophe and all hands must be on deck to solve this problem.
But some people say the President is not helping matters, that sometimes he is biased with his statements and pitches one religion against the other.
That is your own opinion. It is wrong for you as a journalist to say that the President has been biased or has been issuing statements as if he is supporting one religion. It is wrong and dangerous. There is nowhere in President Buhari’s speech anywhere in the world that he condemned Christianity and promoted Islam. Check his cabinet. It is almost 50/50. The most powerful cabinet ministers are even Christians. Check it out; the Secretary to the government of the Federation, he is a Christian. It is a pathetic and unfortunate situation for any Nigerian especially a journalist to accuse President Buhari of being a religious bigot.
President Buhari and the APC appear to be very unpopular now. Why do you feel they will stand a chance in the next election?
Where did you collect the result of the popularity contest from? I am not aware. Popularity contest is when compare yourself with people, and the people assess you So what we are saying is that wait when we get to the bridge, we will cross it. Don’t start jumping before you get to the bridge. You can break your leg.
The statistics that was recently released on unemployment suggest it is about 40%. Is that acceptable?
Of course, I agree there is unemployment in Nigeria but it is not limited to Nigeria alone. If you see the migration to Europe through the Sahara desert to Libya, it is not only Nigeria. All other Africans are involved. We can see how they were maltreated because they were leaving the shores of their various countries because their economy cannot support the living. It is about the economy. It is about the economy that must be grown to support the citizen.
We are almost at the end of the first tenure of this government, why is the presidency always blaming the previous administration for this government’s failure
You see, when a particular political party ruled a country for 16 years, and you just came in and took over, you will not know the extent of damage that has gone in until you come in. I am not in a position to condemn President Buhari or not for condemning the past administration. He has seen it by himself. But what we heard he said on the Hausa service of the BBC is that he asked the Central Bank governor, these are the receipts from our sale of crude oil, where is the money? It was a colossal amount, no money, no work. So if you find yourself in such a situation, you cannot resist the temptation of blaming the past administration. He is stating the realities and he is doing his best to take the country to the next level. No man is an angel, no man is God. We are all human beings.
Your kinsman, former vice president Atiku Abubakar is doing everything possible to become the president of Nigeria. Why are you not supporting him?
We have our individual differences. He has ambition to be president, fine and good, I wish him the best. But to me, I think it would have been best to remain in his party to support the government. He should not allow his ambition to obliterate his vision, that is my opinion.
So if he had remained in APC, you would have supported his ambition?
But he contested the primaries with President Buhari in 2014 and he was defeated. Look at Ahmed Tinubu, see how he has nurtured his people and today, they are all in high positions: the vice president, Fashola, Fowler, Fayemi, a whole lot of them are from his political dynasty, that is how a political leader should groom.
Recently, former President Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida came out to advise that President Buhari should not seek reelection, do you share their view?
They are leaders in their respective capacities. I am not against what they have said, it is their personal opinion. As far as I am concerned, there is no leader in this country today that Obasanjo has not criticised out of government. There is no leader, living or dead, that had been at the seat of power that Obasanjo had not criticised out of power; he criticised Shagari. I remember that he wrote a letter. Obasanjo criticised Abacha, he criticised Yar’Adua, he criticised Jonathan, he is criticising Buhari. The only person Obasanjo has not criticised is Obasanjo. It is only President Obasanjo that Obasanjo did not criticise by writing a letter. If you are not Obasanjo, you can not do it, if you are not Obasanjo, you are not fit, if you are not Obasanjo, you are not intelligent. If you are not Obasanjo, you are not acceptable.
Are you saying Obasanjo’s points in the letter are not valid?
Well, when that letter hit the streets, I did not even bother to read it because I had seen similar letters he had written in the past. As a statesman, as someone that had been in that position before, nobody is perfect. If we begin to reel out the calamities Obasanjo brought on this country, you would be amazed. But we would not do that; he is our leader and he should try to restrain himself because he too was not a perfect president when he was in power.
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