in this interview with Punch Newspaper, insists that
President Goodluck Jonathan's defeat in the presidential
election was as a result of a conspiracy against the minority
South South region
Since the presidential election, we have not heard or
read from you, what have you been doing?
Since the presidential election, I have been doing what I
have always been doing. I have been preaching the gospel
and writing articles in newspapers as usual.
Some people said you're mourning the defeat of your
preferred candidate (President Goodluck Jonathan) at
the polls and that you need to reconcile yourself with
the development before coming out. Is that true?
My preferred candidate did not die, so why should I mourn
him? Are the 12.8 million Nigerians said to have voted for
Jonathan now supposed to be in mourning? Is Jonathan the
first person to lose an election? (Gen. Muhammadu) Buhari
lost three times; has he been mourning for the last 12 years?
Nigerians have elected Buhari in the Nigerian way; now we
have to live with their choice. Since the election, I have
written an analysis about how the 2015 presidential election
was manipulated by the Independent National Electoral
Commission. However, some newspapers have refused to
publish my views. It shows you that we may be on our way
back to the days of censorship of the Buhari of old. You just
wait; in no time at all, people will start longing for the
freedoms we enjoyed under Goodluck Jonathan.
Do you also believe that the President should be
commended for conceding defeat, or was there nothing
spectacular in what he did?
Nigeria is very fortunate to have a president like Goodluck
Jonathan. He is truly a man of peace. The president fulfilled
his pledge not to allow his ambition to lead to the death of
any Nigerian. For that, he deserves our commendation and
gratitude.
The last time Buhari lost the presidential election, he
provoked a riot. Compare that to what has happened now
with Jonathan. That is yet another reason why people like
me prefer President Jonathan to Buhari any day; any time.
Why do you think President Jonathan lost the election?
Buhari prevailed as a result of INEC's policy of voter
suppression through the instrumentality of the Permanent
Voter Cards. There was a deliberate disenfranchisement of
the Igbo especially by the manipulation of PVC distribution
and allocation to the South-East. There was also endemic
failure of the card reader in the South-East and the South-
South, which discouraged voters known to be Jonathan's
supporters.
INEC ensured that, far more disproportionately relative to
other geopolitical zones, millions of South-East voters
disappeared from the register between 2011 and 2015, in
order to provide a smooth passage for a Northern
presidential candidate; which turned out to be Buhari.
Between 2011 and 2015, the votes of the South-West
remained virtually constant. 4.6 million people of the South-
West voted in 2011: 4.2 million in 2015. But compare this
with what happened in the South-East. Five million people
voted in 2011: only 2.6 million in 2015. That is a drastic and
contrived drop of 2.4 million.
Everybody knows the South-East voted en masse for
Jonathan. Even now, the Oba of Lagos is threatening the
Igbo with death in the lagoon if they vote against the All
Progressives Congress in the governorship elections. Many
of them were not even given their PVCs.
While Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Bauchi were
posting humongous figures; Imo, Anambra and Abia were
posting relatively disappointing figures. Jigawa used to be a
part of Kano. In the 2015 election, the votes of Jigawa and
Kano combined was 3.1 million; double that of Lagos which
was only 1.4 million. Cell-phone video recordings show that
there was widespread under-aged voting in the North.
You didn't seem to expect that the President would lose
and that General Buhari would win. How did you receive
the news?
As I said, I don't believe the president lost the election and I
don't believe General Buhari won. What I know is that the
General was declared the winner, and President Jonathan
graciously agreed to accept the verdict in the interest of
peace. I received the news with great amusement. I don't
have any personal stake in the president's victory. I don't
work for him and he does not pay my salary. I copied down
all the figures released and analysed them. So doing, I
reached the conclusion that the result of the election was
bogus. Buhari had won the election long before the election.
He had been programmed by INEC to win it.
What do you think would have happened if the
President had won and Buhari lost?
Buhari would have declared that the election was rigged and
would never have conceded defeat. His supporters would
have embarked on riots and killings and there would have
been mayhem all over the country. Elections are only free
and fair when the APC is declared the winner.
Maybe you would have been offered a ministerial or
juicy appointment if President Jonathan had won,
because some people said all you were doing then was
to attract attention?
Maybe your newspaper will be offered a juicy government
contract now that Buhari has been declared the winner.
Maybe your newspaper will now get all Federal Government
adverts for the next four years. It is easy to cast aspersions
on anybody who supports Jonathan. If so, what shall we say
of PUNCH's support for Buhari? Is it ever possible in Nigeria
to support a candidate on principle?
Cynical Nigerians believe anyone who supports Jonathan
must either be in his pay or be looking for a job. Neither
allegation holds water with me. Jonathan ostensibly received
12.8 million votes; surely all these people were neither in his
pay nor were they Aso Rock job-seekers.
My faith requires me to support the weak. Therefore, I will
always support the minority against the tyranny of the
majority. We cannot be reliant on South-South oil in Nigeria
and then treat one of their sons as if he is an impostor for
being president of the country. This presidential election was
a vicious and malicious gang up of the majority ethnic
groups against the minorities. I cannot be party to that.
In the run-up to the election, you were very critical of
Gen. Buhari based on his antecedents. Now that he is
the President-elect, how do you feel?
Election results don't change history. Neither do they
convert the propaganda of the campaign into truths. My
criticisms of Buhari were based on what I know about him. I
challenge anyone to show me anything I said about Buhari
that was false. On the question of how I feel, I am saddened
that many Nigerians voted the way they are said to have
done. I am waiting to see how General Buhari will make the
naira equal to the dollar. We will see how he will unilaterally
increase the international price of oil, as he said. We are
waiting to see these miracles happen.
In the election that was adjudged as free and fair, don't
you think the people rejected President Jonathan?
Truth is not determined by popular opinion. There was
nothing free and fair about this election. I said this even
before the election. I wrote an article in Vanguard exactly a
year ago saying: "The Presidential Election Will Not Be
Televised." That is another way of saying the election will not
be free and fair. Elections in Nigeria are rigged procedurally
by the major parties. The best riggers win. Don't be fooled
into thinking the 2015 presidential election is any different.
It is interesting that the APC spent the campaign season
telling Nigerians the election would be rigged. Now it has
been declared the winner, we are meant to believe the
election was free and fair where it polled massive figures.
We are on the way; but we certainly have not yet reached
the destination of free and fair elections in Nigeria. We will
not get there until we are able to get a true population
census. This business of 17 million people registering to vote
in the North-West alone, more than the South-South and the
South-East combined, will not produce free and fair election
results.
With all you have said and written about Buhari, do you
have fears that he might come after you?
That is a very interesting question. In all that you people
have said and wrote about Jonathan, were you afraid he
would come after you? How come nobody asked this
question in the time of Jonathan, but you are already asking
it even before Buhari is sworn in?
Buhari has no power of arrest over me. Those were the days
when he arrested people for telling the truth he did not want
to hear. Those days are gone. I am protected from any
recurrence of his tyranny by the Nigerian Constitution. Make
no mistake about it; we are not going to give Buhari an easy
pass. If he could criticise every government in the last 16
years, he must expect to be criticised in turn.
The President-elect needs to fasten his seat-belts. He should
enjoy his honeymoon now while it lasts. I even have an egg-
timer to determine how long it will take for President
Olusegun Obasanjo to start attacking him. As you probably
know, according to Obasanjo, the only good government in
Nigeria is the one he heads.
You said you were one of those that were victimised
during Buhari's regime as a military Head of State.
Some other people that received the same treatment
have forgiven him. Are you thinking of forgiving him?
General Buhari sent people to arrest me because I wrote an
article against his dubious policy entitled: "Counter-trading
Nigeria's Future." They came for me on a Friday but could
not find me. They left a note that I should report to their
Gulag Archipelago at 33 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
However, he was overthrown on Sunday. So God saved me
from his hands.
In the end, I was no more victimised than any other Nigerian
who had to endure the ordeal of his tyranny. General Buhari
has refused to apologise. He has refused to ask Nigerians to
forgive him for his atrocities. He merely said he accepts
responsibility for them. You cannot forgive a man who
refuses to repent.
What if you were offered a position in this new
government?
If I maintained I would never accept a government position
under Goodluck Jonathan; why would I now accept one
under Buhari? I will never ever serve under any
government. My kingdom is not of this world.
Some people have said that the President-elect is
surrounded by some people that may not mean well for
his intentions, do you agree?
You must have a better view of his intentions than I have. As
far as I know, birds of a feather flock together. General
Buhari is neither better nor worse than the people who now
congregate under APC. That is why he agreed to be their
leader. Stop making excuses for him already. His intentions
are the same as those of the people around him.
The President-elect is reportedly known for his anti-
corruption stand and integrity, don't you share this
view?
I disagree completely. The President-elect is very good at
making anti-corruption noises, but his actions contradict
him. The last time he was Nigeria's Head of State, he tried to
fight corruption with corruption. Imposing retroactive
decrees and killing Nigerians under them is corruption.
Putting an Igbo vice-president in Kirikiri, while placing the
Fulani president under palatial house arrest, is corruption.
Detaining people like Michael Ajasin in jail, even after they
were discharged and acquitted by kangaroo courts, is
corruption. Jailing journalists for telling the truth is
corruption. Putting pressure on a judge in order to jail Fela
Anikulapo Kuti is corruption. Shepherding 53 suitcases of
contraband unchecked through customs during a currency
change exercise is corruption. Presiding over the theft of
N25bn of Petroleum Trust Fund money is corruption.
Swearing an affidavit that your school-leaving certificate is
with the military when it is not is corruption.
With all you have said and written about Buhari, does it
mean you don't expect anything meaningful from his
government in the next four years?
I live in Nigeria. I wish Nigeria well. Therefore I hope I am
wrong about General Buhari. I hope he will surprise me. But
I doubt it. General Buhari did not provide any meaningful
public policy programme throughout the campaign. All we
got were rhetoric and platitudes. Nothing meaningful came
out of his last stint in power. I doubt anything meaningful
will come in the next four years. But I pray that I am wrong.
You called for his disqualification after his result/
certificate controversy; do you think people shouldn't
have voted for him based on that premise?
I think he should have been disqualified based on that
premise. If you fail to fulfil the requirements of an election,
your name should not even be on the ballot.
There are reports now that the military said it had found
Buhari's certificate, do you agree with some people who
believe that it was all Peoples Democratic Party propaganda
and dirty machinery at work?
How very convenient! They suddenly found the certificate
now that the election is over.
So where is it? You ask the most biased questions. A man
says his certificate is with the military. The military says it
does not have it. In any case, the military does not keep the
certificates of its officers. So how can this be merely PDP
propaganda? Why could General Buhari not retrieve his
certificate from Cambridge when he went on his junket to
Chatham House in London?
If the certificate is found eventually, will you retract
some of your statements, especially the ones that
border on his certificate?
If the certificate is eventually found, it would make no
difference. He was required to provide the certificate before
a particular date and he did not. He should have been
disqualified. You need to make up your mind about what is
true and what is false. On the one hand, you say the
certificate has been found. Now you ask "if it is eventually
found." Make up your mind. Has it been found or not? Was it
lost in the first place?
You also described the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, as a
traitor, meanwhile he gave his reasons for defecting;
don't you think the court should be left to decide if he
erred?
The court does not decide if Tambuwal was a traitor. There
is no court case to that effect. I don't need a court case to
determine if Tambuwal was a traitor. I can make up my own
mind on that. Tambuwal was elected as a PDP member of
the House. He betrayed the electorate by defecting to the
APC. He betrayed the PDP by becoming an APC Speaker in
PDP clothing. You cannot re-write the history of his actions;
neither can you bend the truth concerning his treachery.
Some people have accused you of being sponsored by
the PDP to write against APC members. They say you
have only been critical of APC members, making PDP
members seem like saints. Is this true?
Some people have accused your newspaper of being
sponsored by the APC to write against Jonathan. They say
you have only been critical of PDP members, making APC
members seem like saints. Is this true? I don't lose any sleep
over what people say. People can say what they like, that
does not change the truth about me.
Are you saying you don't agree with the majority of
Nigerians who say President Jonathan under-
performed?
Obviously, I don't agree that President Jonathan has not
performed. I have stated in my write-ups that the president
performed, and I gave my reasons. What makes you think
the outcome of a flawed election will now suddenly change
my views? When the air clears, the true history of the
Jonathan administration will be written.
Then how would you assess the President in the area of
security and corruption?
What is the point of that now? Let us now see how General
Buhari will destroy Boko Haram in a matter of days like he
did Maitasine. Let us see how many days it will take him to
bring back our girls. Let us see how he will end corruption
when he has a legislature full of corrupt politicians who used
all kinds of means to get elected. General Buhari's vain
promises will begin to haunt him in the coming weeks and
months.
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