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GIVEN the regular expression of anger and disgust with the Nigerian system, the Governor of Jigawa State and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. Sule Lamido, is worried how a Gen. Mohhamadu Buhari presidency would be, if not a vindictive regime without care for justice and equity.
Few months after accusing the Nigerian Police, Judiciary and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of fusing into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the harsh words are coming the way of the former Head of State and leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, (CPC), Buhari, given his repeated outbursts against the nation at every opportunity.
Lamido, simply told Buhari in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Compass in Dutse two Saturdays ago: “God won’t even allowyou rule Nigeria.”
Lamido, who accused Buhari of lacking tact in his public comments and not realising his leadership position as a statesman, also concluded that the merger process between the CPC, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), will end up in disarray.
He stated that God would not even allow the opposition to rule Nigeria because they don’t understand what Nigeria was all about.
Lamido, while reacting to the crisis in the PDP, said that it was the opposition that was fueling the noise, hitting the PDP and going beyond the limits of statesmanship in their bid to score cheap political points.
He said, One of them said that PDP has connived and is now in alliance with the Police, the Judiciary and INEC. Now, this is somebody who this country dignified, who was a symbol of this country in his administration. This is somebody who is supposed to show the Nigerianess in him because at one time, he was my Head of State. Whether I like it or not, whether we are in the same political party or not, first of all, he was my leader.
And therefore, there are certain things which I can claim from him. And therefore, he has no right to speak anyhow as that rbol. And for him to look at entire institution of the Nigerian Judiciary, the Nigerian police, the very thing that gave him legitimacy to remain what he was and say they are now part of a party, it is not fair.
It is not fair to speak like that as a statesman. Are you saying that if you win election, because they are in PDP, therefore you are going to shut them out? They should leave Nigeria? Because if you say the Police, the Judiciary and INEC are PDP, what happens if you win election? What it means is that everybody will run away.
But they are all Nigerians. People who are leaders, who are symbols, who care about the symbols, who care about our history, must be more circumspect when they speak. I feel very disappointed that personal pain, personal anger and disappointment will remove from us that simple courtesy of whom we are and statesmanship. That is my worry because we are statesmen; we are symbols.”
He added, “There is no way God will even give these people victory because they don t know what is called justice, because there is so much anger in them. There is so much pain. There is so much personal failure and personal disappointment in them”
Not done, Lamido said of the opposition, “The other parties are populated by people who fell out of the PDP.
When they are making noise, remember that if they had their way in the PDP, they would not have fallen out. When they could not have their own way in the PDP or with the Nigerian electorate, they abuse everybody. You understand? These are parties whose main engine, whose main motive and whose main objective are being propelled by anger, by pain, by personal disappointment and there is so much malice and their own personal vision of Nigeria is viewed from the prism of their personal ambitions.
“When the lose, then Nigeria must lose. When they are hurt, then, Nigeria is hurt. When they are in pain, then, Nigeria is in pain. That is the problem. So, should we collapse the interest of Nigeria to our own narrow interest and our ambitions? We should be statesmen.
We should be leaders. So, why should I after losing election, I go and form another formation? What is wrong with the old formation? If you are in ANPP or CPC and lose election, why should you go and form something else? Will changing the nomenclatures give you the type of support you need? Have you changed your own character? Because Nigerians know them: They know their own history, they know their orientation, antecedents and their motivation. They know what they stand for. They are the same characters who lost in one political party and went to another one and lost. They keep changing the names and say they are presenting Nigeria with something different. But are the characters different?
Of the merger, Lamido said it was unworkable because at the end of the day, it will only end up in a turf-dragging between the various political parties.
According to him, “There is no way the ACN is going to concede to the CPC in an election conducted in Lagos. They will not do that because they will not like to lose out. There is no way too that the ANPP in Yobe will concede to the ACN or CPC because they are ANPP. They would not want to lose out. You understand? There is also no way CPC in Nassarawa State will concede to the ACN or ANPP in that state. So, when you look at it, it all depends on the arena of the contest.
The councillorship is going to be for the local forces. In terms of state or local government, it’s going to be for the local forces. For the member of the House of Reps and House of Assembly, they are going to be for the same local forces. For the governorship, it is going to be the same local forces. There is no way the ACN in Lagos State is going to concede the governorship seat of the state to the CPC because they are in a merger.
They won’t do it. And there is no way the ANPP which has held Yobe State in the past 12 or 13 years is going to concede the state to an invention called CPC simply because they are making noise. So, everything will play out in their various locations.” He said that when it gets to the presidency, the interest of Nigeria will prevail.
According to him, what determines the president of Nigeria is not the individual candidate but the collective interest of the country and who, among the candidates symbolises the Nigerian dream.
He said, “Now. whenyou come to the national level, if the fight for all the positions are settled at the local level, and therefore, we have fought each other, it will then be very, very clear what we have at the centre. What will emerge will be why should those who could not win election in the PDP now be in the CPC. Why should ANPP that could not win election in the last election now want to be in the presidency? These people are human beings.
They will ask why should the CPC want to come and make wayo and take away the glory of the ACN in Lagos and that of the ANPP in the North. On the other hand, why should the ANPP come and take over the victory, contributions, sacrifices and efforts of other parties? So, by the time you get there, the same thing will play out. First, it is about Nigeria. In Nigeria, when it gets to the presidency, it doesn’t go to the personality.
It goes to the arrangement or consensus of what will capture the Nigerian aggregate interest. It is not party. When it is the presidency, there are factors which come into play from the ward level to the local government to the state level where the consensus is worked out. By the time it is worked out, it means Mr A is the symbol of the consensus people are holding.
What I mean by the best is the best in the larger Nigerian interest of stability and security. The best man is the man that will ensure the stability of the country, make it more stable, secure and more so, somebody who will be able to work to support the centre of the nation.
Where you talk of an individual, it is not in Nigeria. It will take us time to get there but we talk of taking the collective interest of the country into consideration and reaching a consensus of how do we get it out? It has to be that arrangement where we say, who is the symbol of this consensus? Nigeria is more than mere emotions.
There is the real Nigeria on the ground which is more than emotions for God’s sake.”
