Some presidential candidates just want their names in newspapers – Defence minister

Posted by admin Presidency Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

he Minister of Defence, Mr. Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), in this interview with journalists in Akure, insists that President Goodluck Jonathan is the candidate to beat in the forthcoming presidential poll among other issues. SUNDAY ABORISADE was there. Excerpts: What are the chances of President Goodluck Jonathan in the forthcoming election in the South-West especially with the Action Congress of Nigeria making significant incursion into the zone?

Let us put the presidential election coming up in April in perspective. It is going to be based on personality not on party politics as such. From our study and understanding, it is individuals that would be the key factors in the election. For instance, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), would be assessed and judged by the electorate as Buhari, not based on his party. The success or failure of the contestants will be based on the people’s assessment of them, their antecedents and what they had achieved in public office.

Are you saying that party politics will have little or no impact in the forthcoming presidential election?

Party politics will be a vehicle to deliver the candidates but don’t forget that the vehicle is not the same thing as the destination. You use the vehicle to move to your destination. So ultimately, Goodluck is the destination for this country and I have no doubt in my mind that the presidential election will be based on the basis of President Jonathan versus other candidates. He has been recognised and promoted. It is obvious that South-West will vote en-masse for Jonathan and they would hope for a good government from him and I have no doubt in my mind that he will deliver for the South-West. He knows what the South-West wants. He knows our pedigree in education, industry, and leadership and this is what we need to focus on. There are many things that need to be done in the South-West. New roads that would open up the zone to other areas in the country are being planned by the Jonathan government while the existing ones are now being rehabilitated. The rail system that will pass through the South-West is also being carried out. The rail from Lagos en-route Ibadan to Osogbo towards Jebba is being rehabilitated. On power, just about two weeks ago, the Olorunsogo Power Plant was handed over to the operators, the phase II of the Omotoso Power Plant is being completed. Recently, a federal university was established in Ekiti State and five other states. If the people of Ekiti and Ondo states don’t vote for Jonathan, who will they vote for? Will they vote for Buhari? What has Buhari done for them? Will they vote for Nuhu Ribadu? They don’t even know him. Though Ribadu is our friend, the truth is that he is completely out of his league in this election. Talk of Ibrahim Shekarau, we know him as a good governor but he is also out of his league. These people are like fish out of water in this very ocean that we are now. The real voyage, the king of the ocean right now is Jonathan.

Jonathan was a Vice President, Acting President and he has been President of this country for some time now, do you think he has achieved much to qualify him for the election?

Who will you pick as the alternative? Is it Buhari who has not done anything in the last 20 years? Or is it Nuhu Ribadu, who we know, has no experience in public service and we can tell him to his face what he has done at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission? Or is it Shekarau that nobody even knows around here? Or who else? There are only three candidates contesting this election with Jonathan. Others just wanted their names mentioned in the newspapers. Jonathan as Vice-President, Acting President and even as President, can boast of ensuring that the constitution of Nigeria is working. He did that. The circumstances that moved him from the Vice-President to Acting President and then, President, followed the constitutional means. He did not hijack power. We need to understand the depth of the constitutional challenges that we had last year when our late president (Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua) was ill and he did not hand over power to Jonathan. But then he, as the Vice-President, did not rush to hijack power. This would have caused a big constitutional crisis but he took it calmly. He made sure that the law was followed and there was a smooth transition when the late president eventually died. That was the first and most critical test of the validity and efficacy of our constitution. He did what he had to do to keep the country together to ensure stability of the polity because every developmental strategy of any government is hinged on the stability in the country. That is a monumental achievement. Look at what is happening in Egypt today, Look at Libya, and Tunisia now. If there is no political stability, you cannot start talking about roads, foods, and electricity because there would be chaos and everybody will be looking for a way of escape to safer areas. On education, he discovered that some states had two federal institutions, some had one while others don’t even have at all.

Is it true that the PDP has voted N2.9bn to ‘capture’ the South-West in the forthcoming election?

That is absolute lie. It is a mere campaign of calumny against the President. The Action Congress of Nigeria leaders have been launching verbal attacks on the President at various fora, making unfounded insinuations. the PDP did not vote any amount for the purpose of capturing any section of the country. The PDP will defeat every party fair and square. The issue of ‘capture’ does not arise. The idea of insulting the President by the leaders of the ACN is alien to the Yoruba tradition and it is totally uncalled for. It has nothing to do with age. This is the number one person in the country; he deserves all the respect even from the oldest person in the country. It is a matter of the position he is occupying. I am looking forward to the ACN leaders, especially Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to withdraw the abusive words credited to him in the media against the President and apologise on behalf of his party. I know the President will not take issues with him. The President spoke in Ibadan at one of his rallies and extolled the qualities of the Yoruba sons and daughters in the areas of education, industry, agriculture among others and commended them for keeping alive the dreams and visions of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo alive. He appealed to them to get the states back from the opposition to the mainstream politics so that they could consolidate their leadership position from the centre. The plan of Awolowo was to make the Yoruba nation great within Nigeria by providing leadership. He never wanted Yoruba to be in the opposition. If he had wanted that, why did he go to the federal parliament? His political framework was to make Yoruba great within Nigeria. That was what the President was saying. He never described our leaders in Yoruba as ‘rascals.’

The figures announced by the INEC showed that more voters registered in the North-West and South-West, where the opposition seemed to be having an upper hand, is this not a threat to Jonathan’s presidential bid?

-Punchwp_posts