Senator Joseph Waku is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State. He is also a leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). In this interview with TONY AKOWE in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), he speaks on the controversy sorrounding the party’s governorship primaries in Benue, the North’s quest for power-shift and the chances of the APC at the polls.
What is your assessment of the campaigns by the President and his challenger, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari?
I spent about one hour listening to my President soliciting for votes from Nigerians. All I could deduce is that the man is out of ideas, out of touch and he will soon be out of power. I found a frustrating President, rather than a confident man. I saw a lot of frustration in him. I saw how visibly angry he was with himself. Above all, I discovered that he himself is a thug rather than saying Obasanjo looks like one, behaves or acts like a thug. He did not speak the way a President should speak. As a normal human being, you will realise that even our tradition does not allow you to talk about a father in the manner he did. No matter how angry you are against Obasanjo, you cannot call him a thug because he fought to keep this country united before becoming President. He risked his life at the war front to liberate Jonathan. Otherwise, he would have been enslaved by the Igbos. If not for the civil war, which Obasanjo fought to keep Nigeria together, he would been enslaved and his identity would have been totally lost. For you to get up and address that man in such a way is uncivilized. No wonder that Nigeria need a President who is civilized, cultured, learned and has tradition to respect. I believe that he should slow down, convince Nigerians about what he need to do, rather than abuse leaders that have made this country survive for you to come and benefit from.
Dr. Jonathan said that Buhari, who did not buy any weapon for the military, is not talking about tackling insurgency. What is your reaction?
That is to show you clearly that the man is not intelligent. Buhari spent 18 months in office and Jonathan has spent six years. What Buhari achieved, even as a GOC, Jonathan has not achieved as the President. When Chad invaded Nigerian territory during the Shagari administration, Buhari moved in and recaptured the villages and even went ahead to seize some Cameroonian villages. He just not informed. As President, you don’t rule the country by emotions. You rule with fact and articulate position. Do you compare somebody who rule for 18 months with that who rule for six years? Even the budget preparation, how long does it take? Even Buhari had bought weapons for the military then, how useful would they have been now when he was in power over 30 years ago? What has he done with the new innovations in place now. If Buhari had bought vehicles for the military 30 years ago, would they have been useful in the current dispensation? So, you can clearly see Nigeria’s misfortune, by bringing somebody who has no idea of governance into a training school. Nigeria is no longer about training people to rule. We have gotten to the position where we need people with lots of experience, especially in a situation like this when the nation is about collapsing under a novice.
The insurgency seems to have defiled solutions. What is the best way to handle it?
If you remember, some years ago when the insurgency started, I said that Jonathan was benefiting from it. In fact, I went further to say that he created this insurgency. He told Nigerians that he knows those who are sponsoring Boko Haram and went further to say the areas where they exist. He said they were in his government, in the legislature and in the judiciary, as well as the police. We expected him to arrest them. A commander-in-chief and chief security officer of the federation telling you that he know those involved in the insurgency; what stopped him from arresting them? I think he is benefiting from it. As I keep saying, he knows that he is losing this election very fast and so, he created this insurgency to cut away part of the country, so that the voting population there might be reduced. But, what he does not know is that the people are determined to vote where ever they are.
Why is the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which has been agitating for power shift, is divided over the candidature of Buhari?
There is no division in the ACF regarding who becomes the candidate of any political party, not even Buhari. We are non-partisan and so, our job is like that of an umpire. We moderate and for all our children who wants to get into politics, we advise them not to get into crisis. So, we are non partisan. I am sure you are referring to a dissident group called Northern Elders Council headed by an outdated northerner who has never in his life won an election, even as a councillor, Tanko Yakassai. I am sure that he is the person you are referring to. Otherwise, the north is united about who become President of this country, particularly a northerner. They always believe that based on the PDP zoning system, a northerner should be a candidate. The APC, which does not subscribe to zoning, has decided on a credible Nigerian, who happens to be a northerner. There is no division in the north. There is division and hatred for those who are either criminally-minded and are afraid of going back to jail or who intends to take to crime. These are the people against Buhari in the north and in Nigeria generally. No Nigerian who wants this country to progress is against Buhari. It is only people whose hands are not clean that are afraid. But, we keep telling them that Buhari will not run a vengeance government. He will not witch-hunt anybody. We are all Nigerians and together, we shall build a united Nigeria. But, that is not to say that law and order will not be allowed to take its course. Some of those who mismanaged the responsibility may be called to question. It may not even be Buhari. Assuming that I am the governor of Benue State today and I decided to look into the multitude of loans that has been accumulated over the years and how they will benefit the people of Benue, would you say I am witch-hunting? Of course not, because I just want to articulate the position and prioritize some areas of governance to move forward. That is bound to happen in any organisation for there to be sanity.
How can violence be averted at the general elections?
You can clearly see evidence of violence in the PDP and its presidential candidate. Look at the way he spoke as if he were a garage boy who is ready to release the hunting dogs. On his part, Buhari tells you exactly what he wants to do. But, Jonathan is short of mentioning the names of those he wants to attack for fears of the electoral laws. He really has nothing to offer. They are banking on the security. How can the Directorate of State Security become the mouthpiece of a political party, like Merilyn Oga has been doing and she has not been checked or called to order by the authorities. This is most unfortunate. What is the duty of the PDP publicity secretary? If you say my party is inflating membership, what has that got to do with INEC or the electoral processes. It is not every party member that has voting card and so, what has that got to do with hacking into INEC website? You can see the provocation and yet, the government is not saying anything. So, we are not preparing ourselves for violence and we will not. We know the consequences of violence because it can lead to loss of life. When we form government, are we going to preside over corpses? We want to provide services to Nigerians. Therefore, we are not interested in violence and we cannot encourage violence from any quarters.
There are those who believe that INEC will not be able to deliver a free, fair and credible election and those who hold this view have consistently pointed at the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards…
Look at what the President said, that he has ordered INEC that is supposed to be an independent body. The President could not even tell that the nation that he has advised INEC, but that he has ordered. What that means is that he was holding them before for reasons best known to government. Why do you now want to order them when we have less than 40 days to elections. At the same time, INEC came out to say that whoever has his name on the register will be allowed to vote. But if such people are not allowed to vote, that is where problem will arise because we will not support any Nigerian being disenfranchised. Here again, the President has gifted. The last election was held in 2011 and four years is enough time for INEC to have concluded all these things. It is only now that he is saying that he has ordered INEC, an independent body. He is only telling Nigerians that he with held this before and maybe now, he has seen that it will not be in his advantage or he has worked out the mechanism to make it work in his favour. We are too intelligent in this country and we are monitoring the activities of everybody, no matter how highly placed.
What actually happened during the APC governorship primaries in Benue?
You heard correctly that there was no primary to elect or select a governorship candidate. Samuel Ortom’s name was forwarded. I thought that was April fool.
Don’t you think that this will affect the chances of the party in the state?
That is what we are trying to avert, otherwise, we will have no candidate from the point of view of the law.
