From: TAIWO AMODU, Abuja
Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the ongoing alliance talks among some parties as a mere flash in the pan, which any discerning gladiator of the PDP should not be bothered about. In an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, Alkali submits that Nigerians are used to alliance discourse among opposition parties, which he claims have no fresh initiative on governance. Excerpts:
You are the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the PDP. Since you left office, Nigerians have not been hearing from you despite various issues that have arisen on the political turf. Why this long silence?
First and foremost, I want to thank you all for taking your time to come and see me. As you are aware, the national convention of PDP took place in March this year and following the convention, new set of National Working Committee members emerged under the leadership of Dr. Bamanga Tukur and subsequently we handed over to the new NWC. So, it is logical that having served out our time of four years, the best thing to do was to step back and step aside, if you like, to give the new leadership of our party time to settle down to do the serious business of managing our great party. With that, I thought, the best thing to do is to continue praying for them and assist them in whatever way possible through any advice, where necessary, to enable them to also succeed. As you are aware, managing party politics worldwide is a serious business, more so in an emerging democracy like Nigeria. The leadership of the party requires all the support, cooperation and prayers of every member of the party and also for them to build on what we left behind. I have been reluctant to talk. I needed time to settle down but now that you have taken the pains to come and insisted we talk, you want to ask one or two questions, as a party man and a man who has dedicated himself a long time to fighting for our people at every level, it will be impudent to discourage you.
Some opposition parties like the Action Congress of Nigeria and Congress for Progressive Change are already having alliance talks ahead of the 2015 general election and already saying they are going to displace PDP. How do you see this development?
As you are aware, one of the fundamentals of popular democracy is that there should be more than one political party in the political terrain, to provide options or alternatives to the ruling party. Nigeria, as I have said repeatedly, in normal condition, believes in multi-party even though there was a time people tried to put a tag on PDP that we are opposed to other political parties surviving. The truth has triumphed. PDP has always believed in multi-party system and that is what has been provided for in our constitution and that has always been the bases for our interaction and relations with other groups. But no political party would also like to consign itself to the back bench. Each political party wants to struggle and fight hard to make its mark. PDP has been in the centre in this country since 1999 and despite the imperfections of popular democracy, it has made its own contributions. Sometimes it is difficult to appreciate things, particularly when we have them. I know the leadership of this country under PDP has made giant strides at so many levels but that does not mean that the other political parties will not try to upstage PDP. They have been trying to do that. The blessing is that they think merely being anti-PDP or fighting PDP is enough for Nigerians to accept them. It is not enough. They have failed to come up with something that is different, something that is fresh, something to show to the country that they can do better if they are given the chance. So far what we have seen, because of court rulings and thanks to the dogged commitment of the government both under the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and under our current President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, is the believe in the rule of law. The judiciary has been giving window of opportunities to political parties, especially the opposition, to take over power in so many states of our country. But in those states that the opposition was able to get judgment like Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun, Edo and the rest, you find that so far, apart from the populism that they bandy around, they have not done anything close to what PDP has done. So, in that case, they cannot pretend to be better than PDP. In fact, what they are doing in some of the states, like Ogun where they held local government election, it was terrible. In Lagos, the last local government election held about one and half years ago was a fiasco. It was one of the most scandalous elections that was ever held in this country. But because they can make a lot of noise from the Lagos side, the rest of the country kept quiet. So, in that case people are not fooled. They can continue making alliances and counter alliances but because they are not united to provide any alternative to this country, to PDP, they are not likely to make any substantial progress. But that should not make members of PDP to be complacent or to take things for granted because one of the greatest mistakes anybody can make is to overestimate his own ability or underestimate the capability of his enemy or his opponent. So far we have been having these incremental damages through these court decisions. For example, Edo has gone, now he (Governor Oshiomhole) has been dancing around that he won election but we know what happened in Edo. Now we are moving to Ondo and I am very happy to note that the people of Ondo have come out very solidly behind our own friend and brother, former National Legal Adviser of PDP, Chief Olusola Oke. If the kind of spirit that the people of Ondo State demonstrated in choosing the candidate is sustained, if they continue along that line, I cannot see how a third rate political party can come and overload themselves on PDP in Ondo State. But PDP must put its house in order. That is the reality. We must unite. In all the states in this country where there is no unity among PDP members, PDP has lost out.
President Goodluck Jonathan recently had parley with stakeholders from Plateau over the Jos crisis. What is your take on this initiative to resolve the Jos crisis?
First and foremost, we are known to be cosmopolitan people. Nigerians are historically mobile, they move from one place to another to establish businesses, to establish all kinds of relationships with other communities. Therefore, it is very difficult to take a knife and cut a community and say this community is completely distinct from the other community. In the case of Plateau, it is one of the darlings in northern Nigeria because by its own climate, by its own historical evolution, everything about it makes it a cosmopolitan place for everybody to be there. May be you call it a melting pot just like Kaduna, Lagos, or Abuja. These are cities with people from all walks of life. The moment people begin to see themselves or see others or treat others or be treated as different, then the basis for peace are undermined. We thought the foundation for these entire problems is this indigene/settler thing, which is unknown to the Nigerian constitution. The rest of the country does not know this issue and if this issue can be detached from the lexicon of the people in Plateau State, I believe that over 50 per cent of the problem has been sorted out. When I read some of the stories, some of them are completely out of contest. To talk about the Jihad that some people are trying to wage in Plateau. I don’t know where people get some of these ideas. I feel there is need for co-habitation and collaboration. Everybody need each other. What the Federal Government has done in recent past is very good, especially the parley that has been started, inviting stakeholders, talk to them dispassionately, listen to their views, listen to their opinions, understand their position, understand their views, understand their fears and then listen to the other side, understand their problems and plight and subsequently bring them together as they are trying to do. Beyond that, those who have been coming and talking to the President and the government must also be very frank and very honest because it is one thing to come and tell the President a position and when the government takes a final decision everything again is jettisoned and we are again back to square one. So, there must be signs of willingness on the part of everybody to come together because ultimately it is the peace that is most important. In the past, Plateau was like a home for everyone, it was the centre of trade and centre of industries. Today, Plateau is on its knees and then for how long? I feel that the step that the government has taken now, bringing people step by step first and subsequently bringing them together is one of the best things to do. It has now gone beyond the stage of blame game. Now the question is what must be done to stop the crisis. So long as we are still at the stage of blame game it is not going to stop the problem. If you know you are on wrong side you must be willing to accept, that is the quality of leadership. If you know you are wrong you must know there is nothing wrong for you to say yes,’ you have made some errors based on quality of information available to you at a particular time but with fresh information you can take new decisions. All the leaders of the groups must carry everybody along, see everybody as your own and I think that will make a lot difference.
What is your take on the purported impeachment move against President Jonathan by members of the House of Representatives over alleged poor implementation of the budget?
My take on this is that Nigerians always cherish democracy in that they believe it is the system that gives them opportunity to debate issues, to argue issues and then to take decisions but sometimes we tend to be carried away. Democracy also means that we must also go by the rules, we must also be bound by the constitution and we must also be bound by issue of law and order. Often, you find that our people have ambivalent attitude to the National Assembly. When the National Assembly is working amicably with the Executive, they begin to abuse te National Assembly as lame duck, rubber stamp and chamber of yes men. On the other hand, when the National Assembly begins to define issues concerning the country, some people will say the National Assembly wants to bring down the roof. So, I think the main thing is that the three arms of government, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, historically have been created to serve purposes that are mutually cooperative, sometimes competitive but most of the time cooperative. Under a popular democracy, the Executive executes the laws, the Legislature makes the laws and of course you know the Judiciary interprets the laws. But in between, you also have a thin line where there is always cooperation, especially between the executive and the legislature, because the legislature will be happy to see that when they make laws they are implemented. But the executive will also insist that whatever laws they are going to make, it should be implementable. That is why sometimes in making legislation, laws can be initiated from the executive or from the legislature or even from private member outside. Ultimately, I think the goal is to serve the people of this country. This is part of the creative tension you find in an evolving democracy and I believe the National Assembly will act maturely and I believe ultimately they will work very closely with the President so that our people will have the benefits of popular democracy. I will not be surprised that there are people who want to see more problems between the presidency and the legislature and they will be happy to see that because that will now put the executive on the spot. But what purpose will it serve? Ultimately our objective is that an elected government is to serve the people and since Mr. President has committed himself to transforming this country in varieties of ways, the cooperation between the executive and the legislature is the surest way to achieve this objective. So, I do not see it as beneficial for people to continue to beat drums of war between the executive and the legislature. They are going to cooperate and I am sure they are going to find lasting solution to this issue before us. One good thing also is that we have the party and the party leadership. We have elders, we have leaders in the party and I am sure that even where there appears to be some tension between the executive and the legislature, the party is always there to provide the role of intermediary and will bring all those issues to quick resolution. So far, I see the National Assembly, whatever they are doing they have the interest of the country at heart and also I am sure they (National Assembly) also know Mr. President has very deep commitment to make a difference in this country, which will translate towards achieving reasons they were elected. All put together, I don’t think the issue we are talking about has reached a point where there will be too much trouble.
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