Saddled with the responsibility of shoring up the image of the President, Dr. Reuben Abati has maintained that President Goodluck Jonathan is a blessing to Nigeria. Abati, who is the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said that many sectors in the economy have positively felt the touch of the president. He spoke with Augustine Ehikioya, insisting that the Chibok girls, who have been in the terrorists’ den in the past two months, will be rescued. He also spoke on the war against terror as a whole and many other issues. Excerpt:
THE abduction of the Chibok girls is already over two months now and some Nigerians believe the issue was not handled properly by the President.
That will be a most unfair assessment and I think one point we have tried to make clear very early in this matter, is that partisan comments by people who are trying to play politics with human lives should not be taken as the truthful depiction of the situation. The abduction of the Chibok girls as the President has repeatedly pointed out is sad and unfortunate. As a parent, he himself is deeply concerned and as a leader what he has been doing is to take every step to ensure that the girls are rescued. And not only to rescue these girls, to go beyond that and make sure situations like this are prevented, that our schools and communities are safe, and that the war against terror is won. One of the major misconceptions that is being bandied around under the umbrella of this question you have asked is that the President didn’t respond on time, which is absolutely untrue.
You will recall that the incident occurred on the same day we had the Nyanya bombing. The Nyanya bombing was in the early hours of April 14th, the incident in Chibok was the same day around 11p.m. By the following day, one of the first things the President did was to summon an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. He held, in addition to that, that same week two expanded security meetings and gave clear directives to the security agencies. Now, terrorism in Nigeria did not just begin when the girls were kidnapped, the government had an ongoing programme of counter terrorism, counter insurgency action.
So, all that the President needed to do was just to activate existing structures to try to address the problem that arose and he did precisely that. When people complain that the President didn’t respond on time, they make it seem as if the Chibok incident is an isolated incident. Rather, it is part of the fallout of the challenge of terrorism that the country has been facing. It was just the nature of it, the tragically shocking nature of it that has made it so emotional. And that is understandable because we are dealing with human lives; we are dealing with the right of young girls to education, their right to life, and other human freedoms.
The federal government has also been working together with the states and the local governments in the affected areas. People tend to forget that the responsibility to put an end to the nightmare of terrorism is not just that of the federal government alone; it is a shared responsibility: the state governments, local governments, the communities and various stakeholders- we all have a role to play, even as individuals.
There is a growing fear that it may be impossible for the government to rescue these girls as it may not be too comfortable to exchange the girls for the criminals in detention.
Government will continue to explore every possible option to get the girls rescued, without compromising their security and safety and their dignity as human beings. We are also working hard to prevent a similar situation in other parts of the country and in the future. What need to be underlined is the seriousness and the sincerity of the efforts being made and the determination of government, the commitment of government, at both federal and state levels. And I think this is one area in which the media can be of help. It is important that we resist the temptation to keep emphasizing either the cynicism of misguided persons or the partisanship of congenitally opportunistic partisan interests, because what we are dealing with should be beyond politics, and beyond our differences. I want to assure you that government is optimistic that at the end of the day, no matter what it takes, the forces of evil will be defeated, the girls will be rescued, and Nigeria will prevail.
Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, said he would rather die than accept support from international community to rescue the abducted girls.
Well, I also read that statement. President Museveni was speaking at a political rally, so you must start by placing his comment in context. However, the Nigerian government has not chosen to join issues publicly with the President of Uganda, so in a sense I am not authorized to do that. All I can do is to provide some information and it is as follows. I recall that at a recent meeting in Pretoria, on the threat of terrorism in Africa which President Jonathan attended on the sidelines of the inauguration of South African President Jacob Zuma for a second term, the President of Uganda was also at that meeting and one of the outcomes was the need for the African Union to mobilize concerted continental and international efforts to combat terrorism wherever it may rear its head on the continent. Their Heads of States and Governments agreed to come together and jointly fight terrorism anywhere in Africa. Is that not international action?
Uganda has also had its own experience of terrorism under President Museveni’s watch and at the height of it, there was international intervention which President Museveni accepted. When Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) man kidnapped thousands of Ugandan children and took them into the forests as slave-soldiers, the international community, including the United States, came to the aid of Uganda and that support was received. President Museveni had no problems with that.
The AU also set up a small team of soldiers contributed by African countries to check the terrorism of Joseph Kony and his allies. President Museveni was happy to welcome African solidarity. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has been crisis, conflict and violence and the international community is contributing troops to address the challenge. Uganda has also contributed troops. President Museveni has not condemned that international intervention in the DRC or the international effort to stop Joseph Kony and his bandits. These are the facts and I don’t want to say more, since all I am doing is just to provide information. But let me say this: the lesson of all of this is that we all live in a global village, no country can boast that it stands alone or that it can stand alone. It is a much more interconnected world than had ever been the case. And there is a clear difference between mere rhetoric and the reality of the world.
It is believed that the government has been finding it difficult to win the war against terror because of the alleged presence of fifth columnists in the Armed Forces. Is the President not bothered with this?
My response to this question is quite simple: I say to you that if you know any fifth columnists in the Armed Forces, please, be bold to come forward and identify such persons. It will be perfectly within the province of your civic duty to do so. The Nigeria Police Force has since announced a reward of N50 million for anybody who has useful information. So, what I will say to such people who are insisting that there are saboteurs within is to do the needful and provide necessary information to the police or the other security agencies. We are all in this together and we all have a responsibility to stop evil forces from overwhelming our country.
Again, I can assure you that the government will not tolerate the presence of saboteurs anywhere among its ranks because what is at stake is the integrity of Nigeria as a country and President Jonathan is committed to defending both the integrity and the sovereignty of this country. I have no doubts also that the Armed Forces are fully committed to protecting the professionalism of the Armed Forces and the integrity of Nigeria’s sovereignty. In every human situation, there may be Judases in hidden corners, but when such Judases are found, the only place for them is hell-fire. Our conviction is that the government will win this war and it will and it is winning it already.
Another issue that is seen to be working against the war against terror is the claim that the huge allocation to defence and security is not getting to the foot-soldiers. What is the government doing to boost the morale of these soldiers?
The Defence Headquarters has already addressed this issue in various publications saying that there is no truth to that allegation. We have found ourselves in a situation whereby when a group is trying to build, another group is trying to pull the building down. So you find all kinds of allegations coming up. I think the various security agencies deserve nothing but praise. They are faced with a difficult assignment. In the last three years, they have shown capacity and readiness to take on this unusual challenge. The only thing they deserve is encouragement because this is how some people went and wrote that some military Generals had been court martialled and the Defence Headquarters came out immediately and said there was no such thing.
So, it is important to pay attention to the details because many of these allegations are made without any proof at all. There are people out there who are determined to demoralize the security agencies. It may even be a strategy of the terrorists, and some people are buying into it. It is unfortunate that what a section of the media chooses to remember really is pure falsehood. But we have probably reached a point where we all must take a position and decide where we stand in this matter: are you for Nigeria or you are on the side of the terrorists?
I get the impression that many of our people don’t realize that their actions and inactions end up empowering the terrorists. We all need a reality check, urgently too. I think the security agencies deserve commendation. When they succeeded in arresting about fifty Boko Haram elements recently and seized their arms and ammunitions, nobody drew attention to that to say this is the same security agencies that we are condemning who have done this.
Since the appointment of the new service chiefs early this year, there appears to be increase in the attacks and bombing carried out by Boko Haram and sometimes the Defence Headquarters is quick to go to the public with information they didn’t cross-check. Will you not agree that the president erred in this set of appointments?
Again this is the disinformation I talk about. There has been only one occasion when there was an issue about the correctness of the information offered by the military with regard to the Chibok operation. The Defence Headquarters said a certain number of girls had been rescued and the same Defence Headquarters later said no, we are sorry that is not true, we were misinformed, but that was the original information that we got from the field. And they promptly corrected themselves. What I see in that is honesty, sincerity and accountability.
I don’t see how that incident should now become a basis for assessing the entire operation or the institution, or the service chiefs. The Service Chiefs are appointees of the President. They have been given an assignment to do and they have been doing their best to tackle the challenges that have arisen. I don’t think blackmailing them or running them down is helpful in any way. What we are witnessing is a resurgence of terrorism and in the same manner in which the various security agencies managed before now, to overwhelm the terrorists, and contain them, I have no doubt that they will do it again particularly with the concerted effort by governments at all levels, our neighbours, other stakeholders in Africa and the entire world.
At the beginning of this administration’s eight-point transformation agenda, some Nigerians felt the government will be better remembered at the end if it can concentrate on a few, such as sustainable 24-hour daily electricity supply and bringing good health facilities to the door step of the man on the street. It is now about eleven months to the end of this administration, where are we today?
We are in very good stead. Nigerian has been transformed and is being transformed for good. Significant progress has been made on all fronts. I think it is important to acknowledge what has been done and in many interviews we have tried to point this out and we will continue to do so. Our first point is that President Jonathan assumed office and immediately adopted an innovative approach to governance.
He is the first President in the history of this country that will prepare a detailed blueprint of what his government wanted to do in four years, of course, thus placing emphasis on transparency and accountability. He is also the first president that will insist that every minister’s effort should be benchmarked and all Ministers should on a regular basis give account to Nigerians. You will recall the fact that there were ministerial presentations in cabinet where there were specified performance indicators on the basis of which the ministers made their presentations. You will also recall that this administration has consistently organized ministerial platforms and on May 29th, that is every Democracy Day, the government uses the opportunity to give account. So when you talk about when the President came in and where we are today, I think it will be better to look at it in terms of where we were when President Jonathan assumed office and where we are today in many areas.
If you go back to The Transformation Agenda, a published document by the way and that shows confidence, the President talks about job creation. He has shown commitment to that electoral promise and he has delivered. Take our airports, at a time; people were very unhappy about the state of our airports, both in terms of facilities and the infrastructure. The Jonathan administration has given virtually all the airports in the country a facelift, not just a facelift, but clear evidence of transformation. The ones that have not been rebuilt are in the process of being rebuilt and they have all been re-equipped to guarantee better safety.
In May, we hosted the World Economic Forum inspite of security challenges. The outcome of it was the attraction of $68 billion worth of investment and all that will come into this economy within the next three years. So whichever way you look at it, the transformation agenda, which President Jonathan promised in terms of creating jobs, creating wealth, strengthening the economy, strengthening the real sector, all of these have been achieved. This economy has grown consistently at the rate of about 7% per annum. The World Bank has predicted that the Nigerian economy has the capacity to do even better. We are not talking about statistics, we are not talking of paper growth, we are talking of inclusive growth, which is measurable in terms of improvement in the lives of the people and opportunities within the system. So, I can go on and on. These things are quite obvious but we have to keep emphasizing them because you doubting Thomases keep asking the same question all the time.
Some people see the President to be too slow and incompetent. As someone who has worked with him closely for some years, how do you see your boss?
I think that slow and incompetent will be an irresponsible thing to say about a leader who in less than four years has been able to achieve all these things that I have listed, and even much more. President Jonathan is not slow; he is committed, focused, deliberate, productive, result-oriented, and purposeful. He is on top of his game. I think the issue is that many people do not understand his style. President Jonathan is not a bully and he has made it very clear that he is not a bully. He is not your aggressive bull in a China shop. He doesn’t believe that he has to be a dictator to get results. But you see many Nigerians still have this military hangover that it is the right of a President to ride roughshod over other people.
We have had Presidents in Africa and in this country who in discharging their responsibilities will flog the people openly and Nigerians will hail such a president. We have had Presidents who threatened to slap people or asked them to shut up in public. This President has never done all of that. I think that Nigerians should just get used to the fact that their leader can be a gentleman, that you can have a true democrat leading Nigeria. A comical leader, who tramples over everything and everybody, may provide classical amusement, and attract constant attention, but Nigerians must begin to get used to the fact that the hallmark of democracy is the rule of law, which this President has always emphasized.
When the PDP loses an election in a particular state, either a bye election or a regular election, and President Jonathan is the first to congratulate the opposition, I have heard people say what kind of President is this congratulating the opposition when all he needed to was to have rigged the election. When the President says no, he is not a bully, he is not a dictator, he can move this country forward, without shedding blood, I have heard people ask: what is he saying?
Nigerians must just realise that this is a democracy and President Jonathan is President at a time when our democracy and institutions require consolidation and what he has been doing is to consolidate our democracy and that is why he continues to insist on due process and the transparency and integrity of elections. And what those who are honest have said about President Jonathan is that he is honest, humble, focused, and disciplined and that he is a perfect embodiment and representation of the Nigerian dream and hope. More importantly, he has remained faithful to his contract with Nigerians and he is keeping the promises he made under the Transformation Agenda.
Even as a simple man, some people believe that his major problem is the people around him.
President Jonathan is fully aware that the buck stops at his desk. It is a responsibility that he takes very seriously.
You have been on this seat for a while, how hot or cold is it?
Well, whatever seat anybody occupies in government or in life, there will be times when the seat will appear to be very hot and there will be times when the seat will appear to be very cold. That is just the fact of life. What is important is that whatever situation you occupy, and you have a job to do, you must give it your best shot. So, I don’t complain and I don’t have any regrets at all.
